The Lean Hen TL-1TH

[Wayne.Mumford]

Lovely work on the binding, and that neck heel is sweet. I can’t wait to see the final finish.

[ozzbike]

What an amazing effort. Tough kit...and binding. Looking great.

[neverwas]

Thanks Wayne and ozz
Here is a pic of the rear of the neck pocket cleaned up a little

Also reshaped the neck to blend into the body, may revisit this. Feels good but may be improved upon.

Trying to make the curly maple binding bend to a tight curve for the f-hole has not gone well so far using my hap-hazard methods.

Even after thinning the binding pieces from around 2mm to about 1mm thickness, it still wants to break on the figuring. Will have one more attempt and if that doesn't work, then no bound f-hole on this one.

Grant

[McCreed]

More great work there!

I like the recessed neck plate too. A nice alternative to using individual (recessed) bushings.

[neverwas]

Hi all, long overdue update. Did have another attempt to bind the f-hole, got the binding to curve a little better.
With that OK, glued and clamped the support piece underneath , thanks again to Weirdy for the clamp design.

Glueing in the pre-shaped pieces

Cleaned up and scraped flat, filled the gaps with maple sawdust and glue

And if this build wasn't taking long enough, decided to change the fret markers. First thought was for an ebony headplate to cut up, but none were locally available at the time. Had a look around and AusMOPsupplies have a timber section now, went with a piece of figured Gidgee, a local hardwood endemic to upper NSW and QLD apparently.

Cut a slightly over 3mm slice off the top of the Gidgee block with the bandsaw, once the blade marks were sanded flat it was still a little over 3mm thick.



cont.....

[neverwas]

Copied hump block shapes from an Electromatic, they're not exact but close enough.

Patient is on the slab. Basic router sled using DAR pine double stick taped to a melamine shelf piece, scrap wood cut to make an interference fit between the neck and side pieces.

Made a larger base for the trim router from some 6mm clear acrylic

The factory dots at the twelfth were a little off

Used a spiral bit in the router to do most of the excavation and finished the shaping with chisels.
The new inlays ready to go in.


cont..

[neverwas]

Clamping in new inlays

Not all went to plan, I went outside the lines a little on some but this at the 9th marker is the worst

Filled with maple sawdust and titebond and when wiped over with gum turps the fill is more noticeable than I would like.

And an overall view of the fretboard


Grant

[McCreed]

You gots skillz bro!

(and patience!)

[Trevor Davies]

You gots skillz bro!

(and patience!)

+1. Great stuff.

[Andyxlh]

Wow! That’s really awesome