Getting ready to sink into wood!

So, I've already started this project, and I'll briefly bring up the timeline.First I got for Christmas a big block of mahogany and some 1959 Les Paul plans from my loving wife, courtesy of www.stewmac.com !!

So I set out with some tracing paper to make a plywood template of the Les Paul shape.

Next, I created a plywood template and traced this onto the block of mahogany below

I also used the plans to calculate where the control cavity is located, and where I was going to put possible chambers for weight relief.

I used the drill press with a 1" forstner bit to hog out the control cavity wood. 

I found that my cheap $9.99 forstner bits set are not really that great quality (my impression), as you can see the results here.  I think if your forstner bit is not super sharp, it is more difficult to drill partial holes.    Lesson learned about how to hog out material efficiently.