As you might have been able to see from my "plans" in the last post - this lap-steel is going to have wings. To make the wings I first needed to cut out the shape of the neck/fretboard from the raw wood. The bits I cut off are going to be sliced, diced, and glued to the main body and turned into wings. As you can see in the above picture the first wing segments have been glued to the body.
I'm really not a fan of circular saws. I just want to come out and say that. I don't like things that can remove digits with ease. I like my fingers. I like them where they are. This dislike of circular saws extends to table saws and even colors my opinion of chop/miter saws and routers. I am not however, timid around jig-saws. Sadly (as I learned on my last project) a jigsaw isn't very useful when you want to remove large swaths of wood at a go and get it done with a finished edge. This time I thought I had it licked though. I made a guide for the Jig-saw to follow. I thought I had it all figured out. Yeah, not so much...
It seems that Jig-saw blades bend. So even though the body of the saw was going in a straight line the blade was cutting something in another part of town. Yeah, Jig-saws bite. So, I had to use a circular saw.
My main goal with regards to the design of this Lap-Steel is to create something with movement and a vaguely Art Deco feel too. Something in-between a 60's era corvette and the Empire State building. This has informed my choice of hardware, wood, and the finish I'm going to attempt. If you're gonna dream - dream big!
So, the process for this build has been this:
1) Sand the wood to remove the imperfections and get a look at the grain underneith.
2) Choose the side for the tuning pegs and measure 6 inches of space for the tuning peg area
3) Measure 23 inches from the "end" of the tuning pegs area to where the bridge will go. The scale length of this lap-steel will be 22.5 or 22.75 (I have to do the math to see which one is right) and I gave myself some extra room.
4) Measure where the fret board will sit. I'm still on the fence about having the fretboard wood sit on top of the body or routing out the neck a little so the fretboard will be flush with the neck. Since the neck is going to have beveled edges on top this could be tricky but flush seems like it will look better.
5) Remove aprox 2 inches of wood from either side of the neck. This will provide me with the wood needed to craft the wings.
6) Cut, sand, and generally shape the wings material in preperation for gluing to the body
7) Gluey glue-ing and clampy clamping. Presure and time are your friends.
And here we are. A very rough shape and one set of wings attached - ready for further shaping.
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