Woltz's semi-scratch strat build

[fender3x]

I totally agree. No other tool will do what a good plunge router will. And no other tool I own scares me as much.

You're holding in your hands a motor with the power of a lawn mower, but with more torque and spinning at 9000-25,000 rpm.

I try to have a good template for everything, secure everything as well as I can, test all cuts first on wood I don't love. I won't say I have always done all those things. I will say when I didn't I have often regretted it.

I've never been hurt by my router, which may be because I treat it with the same respect that I show to alligators her in Florida ;-)

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

[FrankenWashie]

I totally agree. No other tool will do what a good plunge router will. And no other tool I own scares me as much.

You're holding in your hands a motor with the power of a lawn mower, but with more torque and spinning at 9000-25,000 rpm.

I try to have a good template for everything, secure everything as well as I can, test all cuts first on wood I don't love. I won't say I have always done all those things. I will say when I didn't I have often regretted it.

I've never been hurt by my router, which may be because I treat it with the same respect that I show to alligators her in Florida ;-)

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

Yes sir, fantastic tools when all is going well, but terrifying when it all goes wrong. Them gators is ‘ornery as our crocs...not to mention our drop bears....

[Woltz]

Yes sir, fantastic tools when all is going well, but terrifying when it all goes wrong. Them gators is ‘ornery as our crocs...not to mention our drop bears....

Oh bloody drop bears, more vicious than a router haha

Remember this ad Franken?

https://youtu.be/0qHQHYmsUJc

[G-Axe]

The bear is more convincing than the accents.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

[Woltz]

I totally agree. No other tool will do what a good plunge router will. And no other tool I own scares me as much.

You're holding in your hands a motor with the power of a lawn mower, but with more torque and spinning at 9000-25,000 rpm.

I try to have a good template for everything, secure everything as well as I can, test all cuts first on wood I don't love. I won't say I have always done all those things. I will say when I didn't I have often regretted it.

I've never been hurt by my router, which may be because I treat it with the same respect that I show to alligators her in Florida ;-)

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

The only other tool I can think of immediately that demands the same level of respect as the plunge router would be a chainsaw. And a wise move to respect Alligators haha.

The bear is more convincing than the accents.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

Yeh they aren't the greatest but the ad was still amusing, particularly compared to most of the adverts we get on tv now which are rubbish. Everything has been swallowed by political correctness.

[Woltz]

I'm continuing to push ahead with the build. Routed the remainder of the outside of the body. Unfortunately I got another tear out on that same corner despite doing a climb cut. I'm now suspecting there must've been some defect that I couldn't see with the naked eye on that area because all of the rest of the body came out ok. Next weekend I'll make up an epoxy sawdust mix to fill those spots and then clean up the corner. I also routed the access for the electronics. Getting closer to gluing the top on.



I also finished the truss rod routing jig. Just need to get some longer bolts as the ones I got are too short.



I'll also need to locate another bridge because the cheap one off eBay had the pickup hole cut at the wrong angle which threw everything out of alignment. I could've modified the body for it to fit but I didn't want to cut a weird shaped bridge pickup cavity just so this bridge would work and risk not being able to swap components in the future.

[Woltz]

Well I haven't got a lot done lately. But here is a small update.

I got some longer bolts for the jig and cut out a small section to accommodate angled headstocks.



I routed my working neck template off my thin template that I made.



Tearouts now filled with an epoxy sawdust mix. Just need to clean them up with the router.



And I noticed that supercheap has 50% off Blackridge spray guns so...



I figured that I should use the opportunity to start using a gun instead of aerosol cans as this is also a good opportunity for me to practice so hopefully I can spray my car restorations myself when they are ready for paint.

[Woltz]

So earlier this week I got the tear out repairs all cleaned up.

And today was a good day. Picked up a decent second hand drill press and got the top on the body finally.

Here it is after getting it all lined up and some locating screws to help me align the top where I want it once I've spread the glue on the body.



And all glued and clamped.

[McCreed]

Mate... do you work at a clamp factory????


Nice to see this one moving forward again.

[Woltz]

Mate... do you work at a clamp factory????


Nice to see this one moving forward again.

Haha I'm not sure if guitar makers ever have enough clamps. Even with all those clamps on it I had one small area where the joint wasn't as tight as I would've liked.