Now originally I had intended to base the entire design off of the National New Yorker lapsteel (see here). But early on it became clear that I was heading more for an automotive look for this than a true art deco look (this coming from the guy who never got beyond the renaissance in art history – so take my definitions with a grain of salt).
This presented a bit of a problem with regards to the headstock. Now that the rest of the guitar looks like it was a reject from a 1930’s Flash Gordon serial – what should I do with the head? This presented two problems really. In order to install the tuning keys there needs to be enough space on the headstock for six of them. But the shafts of the tuning keys (the bit that the guitar strings wrap around) are only 1 inch long. They need to stick out of the guitar about ½ inch so that means the headstock can only be about a half inch (give or take a 16th of an inch). Here’s my issue – the wood is about 1 ¾ inches thick. Also the headstock has to be about six inches long and about 2 ½ to 3 inches wide.
What I'm getting at with all these numbers is this: I have no saw that will make this cut well.
Add to the mixture that I don’t want my lapsteel to have a right angle cut where the fretboard meets the headstock and we’ve got some wood extermination issues. How’s that? First time too much wood was a real problem?
What to do…?
Well lads and ladies – here’s what I did.
I’m sure if my girlfriend or mother saw this while I was doing it they would have had a heart attack but I assure you it was very stable. For the little tykes at home – don’t do this without parental supervision.
So, I used the built in vice grip on my chop saw and a clamp to squeeze the piece on the table itself. I then used my handy table (or whatever it’s called) and leveled the piece with a two by four in the jaws of the handy table. I then clamped the piece to the 2x4 sticking out of the handy bench (not pictured). It was pretty solid. The piece just barely fit under the blade in the blade’s resting position (I did have to move the plastic guard out of the way to make it all work out).
For real – please be careful if you are going to do this yourself. This is not how a chop saw is meant to be used. You could end up with a chunk of wood embedded in your ribs – or worse. Be safe.
As I knew it wouldn’t – the saw did not cut all the way through. It’s a circular saw there are bound to be some curves when you are cutting outside of the supported sizes. I was loath to flip the piece and cut from the other side. I’m not the most precise wood worker in the world and had visions of cutting too much. In addition the reverse side of the piece had an uneven edge – making the balancing act carried out on the first cut dubious at best. So, I switched to hand tools. I knew I had a lot of shaping in my future so I wasn’t all that concerned with a rough first draft.
I will now digress…
I am starting to become proud of my tool collection. It’s a nice collection. Not enough to build a house – but enough to repair any holes big Aunt Sally makes should she start a hootenanny in the living room. I have a chop saw, a radial saw, a jig saw, a miter saw, two (count ‘em two!) hack saws, a drywall saw, and even a small thin “flush” saw to make things all, “nice-nice.”
Yeah, none of them would touch this thing except the jig saw.
Digression over...
You can see my previous posts here and here regarding my fear and loathing of jig saws. I did everything in my power to avoid using it but in the end had to acquiesce. The problem was the size of the cut and the precision necessary. All of the string tension is going to sit at this one location – the thinnest part of the guitar (I didn’t come up with this paradigm – it’s just how these things are built – note to self – maybe time for new paradigm). So, I needed this to be the best cut on the guitar – especially since from here on in – I’m going to be cutting, drilling, and sanding more wood away from this area of the guitar. Better to start big and work my way down, no?
No, none of the other saws worked (miter saw would only cut 3 inches deep, hack saw couldn’t cut straight (and is meant for metal), flush saw just bent in place and cringed at the amount of wood needed to be removed. The radial saw? That would be like swatting a fly with a meshershnmit (and would probably ruin the piece). The drywall saw? Well, maybe that would have worked but it was on loan at the time.
No. No, it was going to be me and the jig saw – again. I’m happy to say with a little patience and three different blades – it all worked out.
Issue 1 solved. Remember issue 2? It has been a rather long post – so maybe not. The shape!
Yeah… I kind of winged it a bit.
I have some shaping to do in the near future. Nothing is symmetrical yet – but the shape is there and how I’m going to fashion it into something that gels with the rest of the guitar is in my head. One thing at a time.
Next thing – that darn right angle. This is a lapsteel people. There are no sharp corners for laps! Okay, there aren’t for this project. Your mileage may vary. So here’s what I did.
Instead of trying to find a saw that would make the drastic cut I had in mind - I said to hell with common sense and cried, “Pass me the rasp!”
Even as I said this I knew I was in for a long slog. It was probably because at this point in the afternoon I felt that a cold frosty beverage was in order. I don’t mix power tools and beer (I want to some day play this thing with all 10 digits) that the switch to hand tools made more sense to me in some weird way. But there I was, scraping a ½ inch of wood from the back of my baby – by hand. To completely paint the picture for you – I was sitting –straddled - on the guitar so I could apply all my weight and leaning into the thing just enough to rack off wood but not enough to upset the applecart.
(and every now and then sipping a bit of brew)
To be honest – I’m really starting to like the hand tool part of this build. It’s long and tedious and somewhat exhaustive but the wood literally shapes itself (comes alive) in your hands. I’m pretty sure at some point I’m going to attempt to build a guitar with nothing but hand tools sometime in the future.
As you can see – It was a rousing success! The rasp worked like a hungry redneck at a free chicken and biscuit night. The neck is starting to take shape like I originally imagined it.
A few hits with the router and then the sander on all sides at 60 and 100 grit left me with this.
Yeah, that’s right. I play a rocket ship. What do you play?
No comments:
Post a Comment