Maple Thinline Telecaster

[Mark Crenshaw]

Awesome post Mark. I can't wait to see the final product.

Thanks Craig! I hope to get alot more done this weekend.

Peace,
Mark

[Mark Crenshaw]

Nothing out of the ordinary here. Various steps in the neck carve. Using a half round rasp, I set a depth and contour reference point at either end of the neck. Detailed the heel and headstock.







After taking down the center to thickness with a small Ibex plane and digital calipers, I made a quick pass with a file.



And then 100 grit. I still have a few low spots to block out and some more detail to add but it's close.



Peace,
Mark

[Mark Crenshaw]

I bent a new side this evening. I found that using a wet towel on the iron keeps more steam in play and eliminates scorching all together.

I have it cooling in a make shift press. Should be able to complete the bend around the heel and do the other side tomorrow.







Peace,
Mark

[Brett Baldwin]

Creative use of a socket there, and nice job on the design change. This is looking like it will be one sweet guitar.

[Michael Peet]

That design change took guts so far into the project. I'm glad you did it though because I wanted to see you use the edging.

Keep it up!

Mike

[Doug Shepard]

...I haven't drilled the neck yet, so I can go with mounting ferrules instead of a plate. ...

What about making your own plate? I've made some brass hardware plates out of 1/8" thick and it's not all that hard to get cut, shaped, and polished up to a nice shine. You've got all O/S curves which makes things easier. A template taped to the brass and a disc sander would make fairly quick work of cleaning up sawn edges.

[John Keeton]

"Designing on the Run" - 101

Great save, there Mark. You have a lot of interested followers on this thread. Thanks for putting forth the effort to document the trip.

[Mark Crenshaw]

Creative use of a socket there, and nice job on the design change. This is looking like it will be one sweet guitar.

Hey Brett. Thanks! I've used the socket before in gluing up binding. The better part of that setup is the block I screwed to the template...I found out during clamping that my clamps aren't long enough...gotta fix that soon.

Peace,
Mark

[Mark Crenshaw]

That design change took guts so far into the project. I'm glad you did it though because I wanted to see you use the edging.

Keep it up!

Mike

Thanks Mike!

Peace,
Mark

[Mark Crenshaw]

What about making your own plate? I've made some brass hardware plates out of 1/8" thick and it's not all that hard to get cut, shaped, and polished up to a nice shine. You've got all O/S curves which makes things easier. A template taped to the brass and a disc sander would make fairly quick work of cleaning up sawn edges.

Hey Doug,
That's a geat idea! I would love to start making my own hardware. For this buiild I'm going with the ferrules because I already have them in a parts box and all the other hardware is chrome...the brass might look a bit odd on this one. But, I'll certainly try this down the road!

Where does one buy brass plate?

Peace,
Mark

[Mark Crenshaw]

"Designing on the Run" - 101

Great save, there Mark. You have a lot of interested followers on this thread. Thanks for putting forth the effort to document the trip.

Hi John. It felt more like 301 class at the time. As I set the router down for the first pass, I was thinking better of it but no guts, no glory.

I'm glad you're all watching. I've needed the encouragement on this one.

Peace,
Mark

[Mark Crenshaw]

I bent the second side this morning. The first one came out of the press and looks great! Something I learned in this process is that the wood stays in it's flexible state for seveal hours until it cools and drys. The other sides I bent previously were left lying on the bench to dry...they sprang bank significantly. I've even noticed that when I pull the side away from the iron, if I hold the bend in my hands until it stops producing steam, it "fixes" the bend a bit better than just heading for the mold to check the bend. I have a portable heat pump in the garage and just waving the piece in front of the warm air cools it enough that the bend holds better.







Peace,
Mark

[Doug Shepard]

...
Where does one buy brass plate?
...

I've gotten a couple pieces thru these folks http://www.onlinemetals.com/index.cfm and had good service. I've also picked some up on eBay for good prices. If you can get your target width out of brass bar though, sometimes the bar is cheaper than the plate so do some comparisons. I've also bought steel thru onlinemetals with good results.

[Brian William]

jeez you guys amaze me at the the quality of the work you do. Awesome job. Killer post on this guitar to.

[Mark Crenshaw]

I drilled the string thru and ferrule holes today. This step always brings much anxiety. The holes in my template didn't look right to me, so I used the bridge as a guide and drill 1" into the body.





Flipped it over and used the shank of an 1/8" bit, thru a hole in a temp table. to line up the holes with the bit.

When I registered the pin, I just clamped a piece of maple in place and ran the 1/8" drill bit straight thru...instant alignment.



I didn't want to accidently land in a bridge mounting hole so I placed tape over them.