Shaping the top

Started shaping the top on Saturday. I am using the Wagner Safe-T planer, which in my opinion is one of the most useful items to have for your shop if you don't have a planer. I think they cost about $45 at www.stewmac.com or www.lmii.com.

Chucked into the drill press, the safety planer allows to thickness freehand by moving the piece. I run the Safe-T planer about 1600 rpm. The tool comes with an oxide wheel that you can chuck into your drill press to sharpen the cutters underneath.

First I went and marked the top in pencil with some rough contouring landmarks and sketching for 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", and then I used the Safe-T planer to start cutting the contours.




A few other folks use methods such as hand-carving the whole top, grinder, sanders, chisels and gouges, or jigs with routers.
This is actually my first time carving the top of a guitar, using hard maple as well as the safe-T planer in this manner.

One thing that helps for the neck angle is that I can tilt the table to 4 degrees and plane down at a specific angle. You can't feed the material from higher side to lower side, you have to take a full sideways cut. In this picture, you have to have the body go from front to back to get the full profile of the angle.




Here is a front pic after some passes at 4 degree angle.
I didn't take it all the way down to spec of 1/4" at the front. I decided to work the rest of the top first.



Here are a few passes using the Safe-T planer for the plateaus.