Body binding channel cut

I started out by cutting with the jig I showed a few threads earlier, and that worked relatively OK, however I could not get into the waist or cutaway with the router.

I also ended up with some uneven spots since the body (which the guide was running against) was not perfectly sanded down.

I used the jig conservatively, afraid to cut the full 1/4 inch and full width of cut. It was good that I did that because it didn't come out as clean as using a router table with special bit.

I switched over to my 1/4" Marples chisel which was razor sharp to clean up the cut down to the mahogany.



The most useful tool for doing the binding was my scraper. Also sharp. If you use the corner, you can get the binding channel pretty clean. I've got a little more fine picking with the chisel to clean this up, but its mostly ready to go.



Here is a pic of the cutaway, which I did entirely by hand. I used a small palm gouge, my 1/4" straight chisel, and my Old Timer pocket knife to get started down to the line, then cleaned up with the scraper again. Only took about a half hour for this part.

Inlays are cut

Hi all,

I thought cutting out the inlays was going to be a pain but it went relatively fast. Last post I had on my blog, I explained how I opted for the 1oz pearl pack from StewMac instead of the precut inlays. Turned out well because now I have 2 whole pieces left over, plus a bunch of smaller scraps for cutting some sort of headstock inlay. Now to get creative and come up with that design...

Here's a pic of the inlays on top of the plan. I used the tracing paper to get the shapes of the plan and transfer the lines to the pearl.
I used a jeweler's saw, I think it took about an hour or so.
The white dust was all over the place though, and I used 3 blades to cut these. I broke all 3.





This was actually a pretty fun job though. Turn on the tunes, and just cut... no power tools.

Do I have enough pearl inlay?

I decided to get my mother of pearl from Stewart-MacDonald
Instead of buying the premade Les Paul inlays that they sell ($40 in white pearl), I bought instead the 1 oz pack of white pearl and a jeweler's saw which looks like a miniature coping saw. I had expected that I would be able to salvage some leftover pearl for some sort of headstock inlay which I would have to custom cut anyway.

So here is the white pearl inlay 1 oz overlaid on the Les Paul plan. I should have enough with one piece left over.
Now to try my hand at cutting pearl.

Figuring out how to route the binding

Some folks over at My Les Paul Forums - Custom Shop asked me how I was going to route the binding now that the top is carved. Good point!!

Anyway, I didn't route the binding first because I bought the wrong height binding, so I didn't want to get started on it, but went ahead with carving anyway.

Well, this jig is what I came up with. Its my router table plexiglass insert clamped to some boards. I'll clamp another standoff underneath the router to control the width of cut of the binding. Hope to get to this in a few days.

Starting the neck

Decided to start working on the neck today.
After the maple top carving, I've gotten over my obsession to make the "perfect Les Paul". I'd been thinking I was going to make a jig to cut the scarf joint neck angle using my table saw, but decided that it wasn't necessary and I'll see if I can freehand it or make a simpler jig for the bandsaw and cut the angle.

Here, I'm using my Indian made Anant jointer plane to square up one of the edges for the neck.




Shavings from the jointer plane... ahhh that's sharp!




I made a practice cut for the neck scarf joint on a wider piece of oak, freehanded on the band saw (no fence). That turned out pretty good. I think it was a 16 or 17 degree angle, so if I wanted to cut it with the mitre slot, I'd have to make a special jig for it.
I decided it was good enough to go ahead and cut the scarf joint for the neck mahogany freehand as well. The cut on the red oak was perfectly reasonable to be cleaned up with a plane, scraper, or sandpaper.




Verifying the cut on the band saw was square.




Here is the neck clamped on the workbench. I did do a practice clamp, but as soon as I put the glue on, I found the scarf wanted to slide under the pressure of the clamps. Need to clamp the neck lengthwise (I used the attachment plywood for my vise to anchor one end, and clamped the neck on the other end too). THEN... clamp the two pieces together so they don't slide.

The top carve

Here is the top after going through several passes with the safe-T planer.

Since this is my first top, I made a few mistakes here, but overall, it feels pretty nice.
The top is not as tall as a Gibson I believe.
This was due to me to ledge and contour with the safe-T planer, so in order to have it flow nicely, the top ended up a little shallower. I also don't have another Les Paul to compare with.

I did have the plans to compare with, but I think that it is pretty difficult to get the contours based on the plan, so a person could go crazy. I ditched the plan and just went by the "art" of it after I was frustrated.

The differences I can tell is that my top is not as tall, and the edges are in further from the edge with deeper dishes.

I wanted some deeper dishes around edge, because I think that is a really cool feature of a Les Paul