TL-1HA first build

[Rossco381]

Was thinking and playing drills and timber after a couple beers (read as no responsibility taken) and it is getting late here on the east coast of Australia. What if u countersink the holes first from the bottom all lined up (giving the desired straight line aesthetic???) and then drill smaller string holes from top and bottom - at base of countersink - that "meet" in the middle?

[FrankenWashie]

Was thinking and playing drills and timber after a couple beers (read as no responsibility taken) and it is getting late here on the east coast of Australia. What if u countersink the holes first from the bottom all lined up (giving the desired straight line aesthetic???) and then drill smaller string holes from top and bottom - at base of countersink - that "meet" in the middle?

The trick with that would be to punch each of your start holes first and make sure they are lined up, then do your counter sinks. You’d then drill from the bottom of those through to the top, clamped against a suitable backing board.
The issue is, you would need repeatability of your straightness of drilling, so again a solid guide or drill press is needed. A fractional wander and you’re off line again. Potentially manufacturing a hardwood drilling template to mark out the holes and start them would be an idea, then come through with the guide to get the holes through, again any offset angle in the drilling is going to give you skewed holes at the exit.

[Groovyman32]

Oh man... I must have drilled a thousand holes today!!

The advice on how to drill the string and ferrules holes has been super useful. After thinking it through I realised that my main priority was to make the ferrules as evenly spaced and straight as possible. If the holes under the bridge are a bit wonky donkey it was less of a problem as it will be covered by the bridge.

So, the main problem was to translate the location of the bridge from the top to the back of the body - once I'd done that accurately I could start drilling the ferrule holes first - as some of you had suggested.

My approach was to drill an E hole from the top side using the drill block to make sure it was as vertical as possible. Then use that hole and combi square from bottom of the body to locate the position. I could then use the bridge to mark the position of the other holes.

I found that best way to do this was to use a 3mm brad bit to mark the hole locations (not actually drill anything). Each time I drilled through the bridge on my practise piece, the holes did not end up in a straight line (which I couldn't quite understand). So instead, I joined all the dots with a pencil line and cross haired the pencil line to get the centres of hole.

Next, I drew a cross hair on an 3mm piece of scrap ply and drilled the centre with an 8mm bit – this would be guide. I placed the hole in the ply over the cross hair on the body and clamped before drilling. I found the best way was to drill only about a mm deep each time, then remove the drill and clean out the hole - repeating this until the hole was deep enough.



I now have six straight and evenly spaced (pretty much) ferrule holes - whoop!



I haven't push the ferrules all the way in so they appear a little wonky - but once they're pressed in I think it will be neat enough.



I flipped the body over and used the first E hole and combi square to relocate the bridge and mark the holes on the top side. I could now drill through the body with my drill block from the top side and hope that I hit the ferrule holes.

But it worked!



The holes on the top side don't appear to be super straight, but I think that's because I drilled straight through the bridge rather then using the pencil line+crosshair technique. But the holes in the bridge are smaller the drilled holes so there is plenty of wiggle room. The mess between the D and G holes is where I'd patched up the factory drilled ground wire hole with matchsticks and super glue.

I practised this process four or five times on scrap before letting loose on the body. Again, all I had was pine, so I had to accept some tear out. But once I started working on the ash it was much easier to keep it clean and neat.

Thanks for all the help and advice on this – it’s been super useful!

Should I predrill all the holes into the body before sanding? E.g. for strap buttons and the pick guard?

[FrankenWashie]

Nice job! Ferrules and string through are painful if you aren’t careful, you’ve done really well here.

[McCreed]

Success!!!
If you find you're not completely satisfied with the spacing once the ferrules are in (I suggest not gluing them, at least not straight away) there are little tricks you can do with a rotary tool and some strategic shimming (I've had to do this before). You've got them pretty close though so it may not be an issue for you.

Should I predrill all the holes into the body before sanding? E.g. for strap buttons and the pick guard?

This is a topic of debate (albeit friendly) here. It's actually about pre or post finish drilling more than the initial sanding steps though.
There are reasonable arguments on both sides, so at the end of the day it is a personal choice.

The concern is about the final steps of wet sanding the finish and water getting into the timber causing swelling.
If you look around the forum, I'm sure you'll find threads discussing this.

[Groovyman32]

Thanks guys

Right, hadn't thought about the wet sanding. I'll do some digging around but - yeah I think I'll leave it until final assembly.

[Groovyman32]

The last couple of days I’ve been shaping the head stock. My original plan was to make a template from the scrap ply then use that to shape the headstock with a router (after a rough cut with a jig saw).

Yesterday I made the template:



But then I was dissuaded from using the router approach by you good people. After all it was easy to shape the template, only taking 30mins or so I might as well just repeat the process on the real thing. So that’s what I did this evening:

Rough cut:


Shaped:


I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. I might refine it a bit more during the neck sand.

Then I did a final mock up to check everything before the sanding starts.



The low E looks a little wonky as the string tension is not high enough to pull out all the kinks.

My plan is to sand to 320 before staining? Is that too far?

It seems to be the million dollar question - how far to sand your body?


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[McCreed]

Headstock came up nicely!

[dozymuppet]

Headstock is looking great. Nice work.

Regarding sanding, you shouldn't really go finer than 240 grit, as you want to keep the grain open and receptive enough for the stain. 320 grit may make the wood too smooth, with the risk of some spots not taking the stain evenly.

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[Groovyman32]

Thanks DM, 240 it is!