Flat Top Tele - Dust In The Wind

I close my eyes only for a moment, and the moment's gone

All my dreams pass before my eyes, a curiosity

In addition to this being a prototype build, I have been developing forms and learning new ways of doing things.  With so much of this project expanding my skills, there is an underlying angst with this project. One bad slip-up, and all of my work would be worth no more than sawdust in the wind. I've already had some bad results that have led to doing things other ways, and I've had some good results that have confirmed my intuition.  So, I have decided to make use of some of my practice work on the Flat Top Tele that went well, by using it to build an thin-body electric semi-solid version of the Flat Top Tele.

Yes, this project scope just got doubled in many ways, and hopefully is getting at least twice as better for it.  This will give me a chance to work through some of the body assembly issues on cheaper laminate woods before performing them on more expensive solid tone woods.  This guitar will be part Les Paul's "The Log" and part Fender Broadcaster, and built with Fender-type hardware, bolt-on neck and pre-wired electronics.

The success I had with bending the laminate sides inspired me to try making the sharp curves at the cutaway, using my steam box and a four-part bending jig.  I'll also try using my bending iron and some joinery to produce the distinct upper bout curves at the neck-to-body joint.  These also seem a lot more doable with a narrow 2-inch thin-body design.  Here is a sketch and partial parts layout of the jig for forming the sharp cutaway curves from steamed side wood.

If all goes as planned, I'll use a small interior block to splice the cutaway potion to a section that makes up the rest of the waist and the treble-side lower bout.  That's enough for now, on this warm summer evening, with This Old Guitar.

Flat Top Tele - Thick as a Brick

So you ride yourselves over the fields
and you make all your animal deals
and your wise men don't know how it feels
to be thick as a brick.

As an art student at SUNY Binghamton during the early 1980s, I had the privilege of studying sculpture with Prof. Ed Wilson.  Wilson was well versed in many materials, including wood.  One lesson in particular I learned in that class may as well have been taught in an engineering or architectural design curriculum.  Part of the creative process of art is figuring out how to execute the piece.  So, a working knowledge of the medium is something an artist needs in order to be able to execute a vision.  In this way, this neck block is as much about how to construct and attach the layers of wood, and then attach the rest of the body and the neck to the neck block, as it is about how the assembled functions when the body is attached to the neck.  Time will if it was wise to make such a large neck block for this build.  With the top and bottom panels, this Flat Top Tele build certainly will be as thick as a brick.

Adding some temporary struts to the template made a big difference.  Cutting closer to the template outline with a jigsaw before using the router on each layer also made a big difference.  I also made sure to pay extra attention while making the cross grain cuts, being sure to hold the wood firmly against the saw table while cutting with the router.  Another change I made was to use the neck plate  pattern for the wood screws when attaching the template to each layer.  This proved to also be helpful in aligning the layers during glue-up.  The thick part of the cutaway proved to be the weakest point in this process, and I suspect this was a combination of cross grain cutting direction and the small radii.  Although I broke two of the layers during fabrication, the breaks were clean enough that I was able to repair and use them. As a result, the 1/2-inch thick top layer and one of the 3/4-inch layers have a few extra small screw holes from how I attached them to boards while making the repairs.

Before gluing the five layers to each other, I roughed out the neck pocket cutout in the top layer, and bored out the holes in the other layers for the neck bolts.  Since the body is so thick, I'm using 3-1/2-inches long, #10-32 machine bolts.  A set of #10-32 threaded brass inserts in the neck heel will receive the bolts.

When I first thought about how to glue-up the neck block,I figured I'd glue them all at the same time.  When it came time, I realized it would be easier to control the alignment of the layers and removal of squeeze-out glue by attaching just two layers at a time.  To help keep the layers aligned, I made a clamping jig from some scrap wood.  Since I had already made the rough neck pocket cutout from the top layer, it did not have neck bolt holes to help with the alignment.  So, I clamped directly against the outer surfaces of the layers to align them against the jig, and added bar quick-clamps to hold the layers flat against each other and the jig.

After the glue had dried and clearing off some excess glue, I moved on to adding the third layer.  Since I could now use the neck bolts for alignment, I trimmed the size of the jig, making it possible to use more clamps to hold the layers flat against each other and the jig.  Here's a picture of one of the layers with glue on it just before clamping.

The rest of the layers glued up without any surprises.

All ready for some work with some files and sand paper, I stopped work on the neck block assembly a few days ago, taking a break from an early summer 2014 heatwave that was gripping the east coast. This was the perfect time to get caught up on some things in air-conditioned comfort, such as accounting at These Old Guitars, and creating a company website with my long-time guitar-playing friend and website designer.  It was also a good time to put a little more thought into some of the processes I would use for the bent wood portions of this old hollow Tele body, as well as final design of her internal bracing and some forms for assembling her body.  There was also some more electrical control design work to be done with the help of long-time guitar-playing friend and electrical engineer on that LeSpork Bass project...

Flat Top Tele - Under Pressure

It's the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming, "Let me out!"

When I first contemplated bending the sides, I thought a steam box would be the way to go.  By adding enough steam, wood becomes very pliable.  It was clear that I would not be able to make those tight bends at the neck joint with just a bending iron.  So, I built a steam box.

Filling up a box with enough steam to make wood bendable also creates a lot of heat and pressure.  Despite careful monitoring of temperature, a pressure vessel failure remains a concern.  In the event of such a failure, a wooden box can be designed to give some warning signs before its weakest point fails, while a PVC pipe is more likely to send random pieces flying.  So, instead of  using a PVC pipe, I decided to make a 4-foot long wood box from treated 2x's.

The first step was cutting the top and bottom from a 2x10 and the sides from a 2x6.  Next, I drilled a set of holes in the sides for some oak dowels.  The dowels are to support the wood to be bent, allowing the steam to make its way into the wood evenly from all sides.  I attached both side panels to the bottom panel with some wood screws, and started installing the dowels.

I drilled the holes snug enough that it took a hammer to drive the dowels through the holes, to ensure good seals.

With all of the dowels installed, it was time to attach the top with some more wood screws and trim the dowels flush.

With the four panels assembled, I could see some daylight getting through the joints.  To fill in the gaps, I added some foam weather seal.

Moving on the end panels, I made a hole in the fixed end to accept a brass fitting.  The fitting attaches to my steam source, a Wagner Power Steamer.

The other end panel is the weak point by design, attached with a pair of hinges and adjustable with a pair of hook and eye sets.  The hooks can be bent to fine-tune the seal.  Since water vapor under pressure can exceed the boiling point of water, I needed a thermometer with a range higher than 212 degrees Fahrenheit.  Fortunately for my wife, that meant buying a new meat thermometer with a top reading of 220 degrees Fahrenheit for this project.

With steam comes condensate.  To let the condensed water drip out, I drilled three drain holes at the end furthest from the steam inlet, and attached some flat pieces to the bottom panel.  The piece at the drain end is shorter than the other end, to make sure the water makes it to the drain.

Next came some testing.  I put in a 3-foot long piece of 1-1/2-inch wide by 1/4-inch thick pine furring strip, plugged in the steam machine, and waited.  I did not expect to be able to bend this piece much.  What I wanted was to get an idea of how much heat, steam and pressure would be generated in the box, how well it was sealed, and how it would be to remove the wood when opening the box.

After 45 minutes, the thermometer reading was 185.  At 55 minutes, condensate was dripping from the bottom panel screw holes and the box was getting somewhat warm.  After an hour and 10 minutes, the temperature had leveled out at 210.  I pulled the plug at an hour and 15 minutes, and waited 5 minutes before opening the door.  Upon opening the door, there was no noticeable blast of heat or pressure.  The sample piece of furring was warm and somewhat damp, but not overly wet.  The good news was that the wood was somewhat more pliable than a dry piece of furring strip.

So, at the end of the day, I declared this test a good learning experience and a partial success.  I made some notes about sealing up the screws holding the bottom and side panels together, so I could hopefully get the box to heat up quicker and reach a high temperature of 220 degrees Fahrenheit.  Next time, I'll be giving it a try with a piece of that 1/8-inch laminated oak kick board and a bending form.