Build 11 - "Slydebyrd"

[slowlearner]

This is guitar I was mentioning in this thread...

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7442

I've been playing a lot of resonator slide guitar for some time. The resonator in question is setup with a Wendler preamp using a Lace dobro PU and a K&K biscuit bridge piezo. It's ok, but for playing at high vols it had two issues; the mag PU is too weak for OD; the guitar feeds back pretty horrendously. My bro threw me this awful LP junior knockoff a while back. It's got some decentish hardware, but the neck is VERY flexy and the fingerboard radius makes slide frustrating. The body is also made of plywood... seriously.



Some neighbors gave me a westone with a broken neck a while back that I was unable to fix. So I salvaged the parts and they'll make up what I need. It's all top spec Jap stuff from the 70's so it should be really nice. I hate gold hardware ordinarily, but this has plenty of patina.



I'm gonna build a 'bird shaped guitar specifically for slide work. I pulled my templates out the other day and came up with this.



I went digging around in my woodpile yesterday looking for some stuff to build the guitar with. I came up with the following...


The first discovery was this piece of pine that used to be part of an old desk.


Threw the template on top and found this... I love it when a plan comes off.

The idea is to build the body super thin... and chamber the heck out of it too. I may even try for a fitted neck joint. Soooo... Then I went looking for a top. I had a few things to choose from, including a piece of spalted maple. In the end, I decided I wanted something that was local. I pulled this, but it was just too busy and not enough contrast. :thumbdown



I could have used a piece of Cooktown Ironwood for the fingerboard, but werl. Who wants to cut fretslots in the hardest hardwood in Australia? Ummm, no thanks.

So I came up with this...


Jarrah fingerboard and a bookmatched top Eucalypt that was cut down outside my house a few years back. It's not amazing, but I think it'll do.

Then it was time for a neck. Liquidambar neck blank. I pulled it out and ran it over the jointer first.



All was going well enough, accept there were some gnarly tear outs and a few knots too.




I'm still sorting out exactly what to do about this, but I think it will glue up ok... some how or another. I may yet cut it into strips, flip a few bits round and glue it up as a 3 piece laminate. I've got some more Liquidambar for a headstock veneer and some tassie oak I can use for a headstock.

Anyhow, there's some timber. There's some parts. I've ordered a truss rod and some fret wire today. So I guess we're ready to go.

....

Some more work this evening after a solid day at work. A couple of clarifications; I'm going with a 25.5" scale ala tele/strat. This will work better with DGDGBD tuning. I also started working on the template for guitar use...



There'll be a lot of real estate behind the bridge, but that's ok. I should be able to access the top fret. I'm also starting to figure out where to begin chambering.



I could have just started just hogging stuff out, but I figured it was better to come up with a template first so I held off. I know no one will see it, but I'd rather do it properly.

I started working on the headstock too. I thinned out a bit of laminated tassie oak on the jointer. It scares the heck out of me, but it's really good for dressing timber. Better than the thicknesser I think.



I've got a piece of liquidambar that is an offcut from the last build. I was keen to use it for a headstock laminate but it need to be thinner... and flatter. Again, I put it on the thicknesser. The first pass went well. Turning it around the other way... not so much. It ripped chunks out all over the place. Thankfully I was able to rescue it.



I also had a crack at the hole in the neck. I drilled it out a bit first.



Then I carved some tassie oak and glued it in.



That's it for now. Hopefully I'll get to do a little more tomorrow.

....

Some more work this evening after a solid day at work. A couple of clarifications; I'm going with a 25.5" scale ala tele/strat. This will work better with DGDGBD tuning. I also started working on the template for guitar use...



There'll be a lot of real estate behind the bridge, but that's ok. I should be able to access the top fret. I'm also starting to figure out where to begin chambering.



I could have just started just hogging stuff out, but I figured it was better to come up with a template first so I held off. I know no one will see it, but I'd rather do it properly.

I started working on the headstock too. I thinned out a bit of laminated tassie oak on the jointer. It scares the heck out of me, but it's really good for dressing timber. Better than the thicknesser I think.



I've got a piece of liquidambar that is an offcut from the last build. I was keen to use it for a headstock laminate but it need to be thinner... and flatter. Again, I put it on the thicknesser. The first pass went well. Turning it around the other way... not so much. It ripped chunks out all over the place. Thankfully I was able to rescue it.



I also had a crack at the hole in the neck. I drilled it out a bit first.



Then I carved some tassie oak and glued it in.



That's it for now. Hopefully I'll get to do a little more tomorrow.

....


These turned up in the mail yesterday. Took everything to pry them out of my daughter's hands. She thought it was something much more interesting.



In fact they were so well wrapped you'd have thought it was pass the parcel. In any case, I can make some proper progress with the neck now I guess.

I spent the morning doing a different sort of wood work for a camp I'm running on the weekend. Let's hope they all come home with all their fingers.



After dinner tonight, I hit the shed for a few moments and got the top ready for book matching. I'll tell you for free, book matching is the bit I hate the most. It's very easy to glue up, but hard to plane the edges straight enough to avoid gaps and a dirty great line. This is how I do it. Once the two edges are as straight as I can them (without whittling all the timber away).

You lay the two halves on a piece of dowel and trace out lines along the edges.



With the lines, you then put in a number of nails along the edge. The outside edges of the two panels will sit along them.



Then it's time for some glue along the edges. I put baking paper underneath to stop the squeeze out from sticking to the MDF board underneath. The edges go together lined up and then you just push down. The nails push them together hard enough to get a good joint and plenty of squeeze out.



On top of the edge, I like to put on a straight edge to hold the edges straight. It's not necessary on every joint. However, in the case of so much native hardwood. It moves all over the place and otherwise you'd have weird uneven edges that would require sanding later. No thanks. In this case I used the neck blank. It's straight, extremely stiff and was right on hand.

I put a couple of extra clamps on one side to make sure it glued straight and didn't move. I'll know if it all worked later.

....

Day off today so between mowing lawns and the like, I got the following done...



Side edges on.



Control cavity painted before top goes on.... Hang on. Where's the rout for the PU wire? :red face



That's better, now for some shielding paint.



The inside of the top also needed a coat of shielding paint before being glued on. I traced the shape with the routing template and channeled my inner Van Gogh.



Time for a clamp monsta!



If you look closely, you can see a screw in the middle of the top there. That clamps down the middle of the body and is MUCH easier than trying to get a clamp on it. The screw hole will be under the bridge later on. I'll probably fill it at some stage, so it won't be seen or effect anything else. If I can just make another comment about the joys of chambering. Chambering means you need much less glue to glue the body together. You're also less like to get a hump the middle of the body, because there's less glue and the squeeze out can go into the chambers a little.

....

And the cake is out of the oven...



A little shellite to make the grain pop.



Mmm, tasty.

....

I've been thinking over the situation with the knot hole in the neck. Even though it's doweled and stable, I'm still not super happy with it. So I think I'm going to rip the neck blank in 2 on the table saw and reglue it into a laminate with some of the fingerboard as a centre stripe. This should prevent warping and make it all a bit more stable... I hope.

[slowlearner]

ripped the neck blank into the strips today and started measuring up...



I was planning for a Jarrah centre strip, but in the end, it was the wrong dimensions. So we ended up with all liquidambar.



Then I managed to cut the angle back for the headstock blank and glue it off. Yes, I know it's angled. I did that on purpose.



While the glue was drying, I got the router onto the edges.





I also fixed up these dowel holes left from the back being a desk.



In the process of all this, I realized I had enough jarrah left over for a headstock face. So what does everyone think? Jarrah or Eucalypt (same as the body cap) for the headstock face?

[seeaxe]

Hooray - a build thread!

I would go for the eucalypt headstock to match the top personally.

And perhaps time for some new/sharper blades in your thicknesser???

Good luck, its looking good already.

Cheers

[slowlearner]

Ears glued on the headstock blank.



Headstock face glued up.



I ended up using the Eucalypt after asking my better half. She conceeded both would have looked pretty amazing though.

[slowlearner]

After trimming it with the bandsaw and hand planing a lot of timber off the top, I was able to finish it off on the jointer this morning.



The jointer stills scares me half to death, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. And yes Seeaxe, the blades could probably do with sharpening now.

On a related note, I'm surprise by how flexy the neck blank is. It's not weak but it is quite flexible. Much more so than the tas oak I'm used to. I guess I thought with it being so hard, Liquidambar would be ideal. Still I suppose the trussrod will help with that, and I have a Jarrah fingerboard to go on, so that will help too.

[blackalex1952]

If the neck is too floppy, even with a truss rod,route some carbon fibre into the neck under the fingerboard and epoxy it in. I find that it increases sustain. I believe that less energy is lost in the neck and more goes into the body. Not so sure about electrics, but I think it's true for acoustic soundboxes.

[slowlearner]

Hey Alex, I'll keep that in mind. I've got a bit to do before I glue the fingerboard on.

Had a spare few minutes today. Was able to get the trussrod slot routed out.



The trussrod fit ended up nice and tight, which is great. I used my regular template to do the majority of it and then hand routed the wider section round the allenhead.

P.s. routing Liquidambar smells like raisin toast. YUM! :drool:

[slowlearner]

I pulled out my spirit level, steel rule, angle finder, bridge, fretwire and fingerboard to do some rough geometry on the neck angle. I came up with 2degs. The last time I did this I over did it and ended up with a LOT more neck angle than I should have had. Hopefully I can get it right this time. My insurance is the bridge was wound ALL the way down... at which settings it was a little ridiculous. And if I screw up the other way, I can always recess the bridge into the body like the guitar it came off.

[old_picker]

nice to see an electric build -
might be worth while reading this http://www.wood-database.com/sweetgum/ before you get too much further with the neck.

[slowlearner]

Thanks for that. Those numbers don't mean a lot to me. Do you think it's a mistake to use the Liquidambar?

I've used it before for a bass drop top. It turned out really well. It's quite hard timber.





As I said before, it's got a Jarrah board to go on it, so I'm not really worried.

[slowlearner]

My day off yesterday. Spent most of the day in the shed. Here's what I got done...



I've used a 36x100mm tenon for the neck joint. This gives me 10mm of timber either side for strength in the body and the neck.



You can see the 2deg back angle setup for the joint against the body. Once trimmed it was time for the real hard work...



Having done the majority of that, I made up a router template for the body. First I used a thin piece of MDF and then screwed that to a thicker bit so I could prop it up to get the neck angle. The template was held down on the body by one screw in the neck PU position.





All was going well until I started routing. I noticed the template was shifting a bit so I stopped and added another screw. Turns out even 2 screws were not enough to prevent the whole thing shifting around.





I usually use double sided tape, but I needed to get the neck angle right so I'd left that off. What a mistake right? Anyhow, it's only timber. So I glued some strips of tassie oak in.





With the glue dried, I planed and trimmed them down and we were ready to have another go. This time I put double sided tape on the neck joint end and on the sliver of wood I was using as a prop.







Got my 2degs right and the pocket is neat. It's not perfect, but you won't even see it once the neck and fingerboard go on.



Having trimmed the headstock down, it was time to add a laminate on the back for a little extra strength.



Spread out some glue and cut the lam to size. Let the glue dry out mostly.



Get out the iron and heat it up the hottest.



Then lay the laminate on and put the baking paper between the iron and the laminate. Iron it on until it's all even and done. Now, confession time. This has worked better for me in the past. I think I needed to apply some glue to the laminate as well. In the end, the edges weren't perfect, so I wicked in some superglue to get them right. We'll see what this is like once I trim the laminate off. I will say though, I got the laminate flatter and more even this time than other times.

My piezo PUs turned up the mail yesterday too. They are pretty tiny. 12mm across.



The plan is to jam a few of them under the bridge. Although with an electric, they don't have to be put there. As long as they're close to the bridge I could install them in the back some where. I'll have to sorted out what will work best. I am a little concerned that they won't produce much signal.

[slowlearner]

Been a while since I built a fitted neck, so I was wondering what the next step was exactly. I figured slotting the board was a good move forward. So, stewmac fret calculator first. My first version was in inches... but then I realised I'd done all the same calcs for 624" so converting to mm gave me the same numbers, but just with a different unit. Disaster averted.

Prior to starting I needed to plane the side of the board flat to you with a square. Then it was lots of close work with the eyes.





That done, I planed the side of the some scrap straight. That was clamped on the board next to the line and it was saw time.



It would be easier with a jig and template, but it got done. To be honest, the most frustrating part was the saw grabbing on the off stroke.



I've put 22 fret slots in the board, but I can't remember exactly how many I was planning. I figure I can trim the board off where ever I want. The slot right near the end of the board is for a zero fret. I'll use a taller bass style fret wire for that. There's no radius going on the board, coz I want to use it for slide work.

BTW, to all those thinking about doing a fret job, this is pretty straight forward. All you need is a decent ruler, fine pencil, a square and a straight edge on the board. Stewmac has fretsaws with a perspex guide for depth, but that's the only specialized tool I use.

[kiwigeo]

Pete, to fix the saw grab during the fret slot cutting run the saw blade through a piece of candle...the wax will lube up the blade and the cut will go alot more smoothly.

[slowlearner]

Wow, cool trick. Thanks man!

Hit the shed again after dinner. Time to shave the tenon down for the neck joint. To be honest, this whole process terrifies me a little. If you get it slightly wrong, you can have the neck pointing weird directions. That said, it's not the end of the world.



After about 20 mins shaving with the chisel, filing and measuring I got one end in...



A bit more shaving and the whole thing went inmostly.



Then it was time to get the the joints around the start of the tenon right. A mate of mine showed me how to do this. You jam some sandpaper in there, hold it together and pull the sand paper out over and over.



I ended up with this result. I'm not entirely happy with it. I might work my way down in grades of paper til it's a bit closer fit.





The back of the joint looks like that at this point.



The good news is all the neck is actually straight. I initially thought I'd screwed it up but a straight edge doesn't lie. Time to shape the neck.

[seeaxe]

Hey Pete looking good.

"I'm not entirely happy with it but...." pretty much sums up my life in luthiery - so I can relate to that.

One thing I thought was that you went to a lot of trouble to set up a jig to rout out your neck pocket - why not do the same for the neck? I do mortise and tenon joints on all mine and have a jig for both the pocket and the neck - you can check the fit before ever touching the guitar - then you can just rout away. (after making sure the jigs are secured first of course! )

Cheers
Richard

[slowlearner]

Back in the shed this afternoon...

trim-routing the headstock.



Got a little carried away and ended up with some tearout, but nothing I can't finesse later on. Just a shame.

Then is was time to put the board on. I've got some more sanding to do on the joint, but it should fine even with the board on. I need to shape the neck before I do any more so glue time!



I spent a bit of time making sure the board was properly centred. As I mentioned higher up, crooked things are harder to fix on the fitted neck. This should be right. Toothpicks to line it up.



Lecky tape over the rod, apply the glue then take the tap off.



Clamp monster! I should also mention, I spent had to fiddle with clamps to get the board not to float out of line, even with the toothpics on. The squeeze clamps are pretty great, but they have a propensity to make things shift around.

[slowlearner]

Hit the shed again this evening and started working on the neck a bit more properly.

I got the neck trimmed down to size and the sides planed and ready to carve. I also did some work on the transition from the headstock to the nut.







Then it was time to start carving. I got a fair bit of it roughed out tonight, but it will need more work.



One of the discoveries I made was the veneer did not glue on as well as I'd hoped. So, it was time for more... and more CA glue to help it stay where it should be.



There are the odds cracks and the like I've also been treating. Dunno what I'd do without the stuff. I'm hoping to put a D-tuner on the E string post. It hasn't turned up yet. Hopefully there's enough headstock real estate for it.

[slowlearner]

Today is exactly a month from when the guitar needs to be finished and ready for an outdoor blues gig we're doing with my church. Time to hurry up. Expect LOTS of updates!

[slowlearner]

It's my day off today. In between school presentation assemblies I hit the shed. I wisely decided to come down with a cold 3 days before the biggest week of the year at work. So picture me carving with a tissue shoved up my nose. Literally.



I've been carving the neck on and off for the past few days. It's coming along well except for two complications. The two knotted pieces of timber I decided to laminate into the sides of the neck are a little confounding. Almost every tool I use on them leaves weird marks where the grain swirls around the knot hole. In the end, the best tool was a bastard file. After that I cleaned up with sandpaper. The rest of the neck was often done with my homemade scraper (above). It's my fave tool really for this sort of stuff. I made it from one of my grandfather's old handsaws. Not only does it carve well but it leaves an excellent machined finish. I'm still working on the volute and transitions round the heal.

I discovered this the other day... Seems I got a bit carried away on the bass side of the neck when trimming the body down.



So I cleaned up the area and found some matching wood. This was a bit of a miracle with the back slab. I used the rest of it to prop up an old motor.



Glued up a patch and shaped it to fit. Now it's clamped up and should be ready to machine later on this afternoon.



I won't pretend it's the best patch ever, but oh well. Onwards and upwards.

[slowlearner]

I spent all of last week in bed, just dragging myself out from time to time to deal with some work commitments. I can't believe how sick I was. I won't go into details but lets just say I lost 5kg in 5 days and it wasn't even a tummy bug. Still back on deck.

Today I started working on the body. I sanded the back of the body and worked on the curves for an hours. All this was in aid of getting good roundovers on the edges.



Initially I hit the whole body with a 5mm roundover like this. The pine is pretty awful with mini tearouts, but the eucalypt is so hard and stable, it machined like aluminium. Just beautiful.



Later in the afternoon I came in and glanced at FB for a minute coming across one of Jen's guitars and thought, "I could do a lot better than just a small roundover". So back out to the router and I installed this bit.



Once again the Eucalypt was gorgeous to machine. There was one close shave but it came up really nice. I'm not leaving a sharp 45 deg angle on it though. That's just to rid of a lot of timber so I can get a more organic angle on the edge with carving tools and sandpaper. BTW, it's worth saying that any machining done on a guitar/bass can be expected to be followed up by as much time sanding and detailing. So even CNC-ed bodies still need hand crafting.



I was seriously considering gluing the neck in, but I knew my mate/mentor was coming round for a play later on, so I held off. He had a good look at the joint told me it was as near perfect as he might expect for himself. He then gave me a few tips to get it looking spot on, so that will happen once it's glued in.



He also had a quick look at the volute and gave me some help on that too. So I can move forward and get it closer and closer to done.

[slowlearner]

Day off today and I hit the shed in between other adventures. I spent a fair bit of time trying to get the volute right. It's not 100% yet, but it's probably pretty close. Just a little more shaving and sanding.



Initially I used my Stanley (carpet) knife, but I gave up on that went to a 1/2" chisel. I found I could get a lot more control and I ended up with a pretty sharp line... to my eyes.

With that done, I figured it was time to glue the neck on.



Before I glued the neck in, I rounded all edges on the tenon. I did this because experience tells me glue can do weird things if you don't give it adequate space to squeeze out. The last fitted neck I did popped up a lot more because of this and I got a neck angle that was painful to fit the bridge to. This time it all seems to have gone well. I've got a couple of options here. I could leave the edges of the fingerboard open, or glue in wedges to support them. I've not decided what I want to do yet. It's all plenty strong enough, it's just about looks really.

Next up it was time to shave the sides of the body down to line up with the neck. On the bass side of the neck, I did it all by hand with files, sandpaper and a sanding drum on my dremel to get to teh corner radius. I didn't use the router because I know from experience that the pine will ALWAYS rip out when you're routing this direction.



Now it was time for the other side. With my heart in my hands, I set the router up with a template bit. I used the edge of the fingerboard as the reference.



I took a bunch of small passes and it worked well. I did half the thickness of the body first, then used that part of the body as a reference for the rest.



Then I turned the body over and hit the neck mount sides with the roundover bit.



I sanded the front edge into a radius but then rethought it all. There was way too much timber there and the heal was just plain uncomfortable. So the chisels, files and sandpaper came out and off came a chunk of timber. What I've ended up with is much more comfy and plenty strong enough. I took my cues from the heals on some gibsons I've seen in the past.



I would have drilled the tuner holes before fitting the neck, but I'm waiting for a D-tuner to turn up from bestbassgear. I know I'll have to fiddle the location of one of the holes. Once that's done, I can locate the bridge and start mucking around with PU locations as well. 2 Weeks now till I'd like to play the guitar at an outdoor gig. Wonder if I can make it?!

[slowlearner]

Last thing last night, I dug these out of my draw and got them installed...





For something different, I stack the 12th fret dots on top of eachother instead of side by side. I'm still filling the curve of the neck with superglue.

This arrived this afternoon. Props to bestbassgear for adding it to their catalog for me (with a killer price) and shipping it all the way to down here for FREE!



I'm hoping there's a sneaky way of getting this installed without having to make too many mods to the back the headstock. Fingers crossed.

I actually ordered another one at the same time to fix a pesky plastic tuner washer issue on Fundabird #007. Coz, "Repairs = Upgrades"



In other news, the razorblades have returned to my throat. Hopefully this doesn't lead to another week and half in bed.

[kiwigeo]

You're getting there Pete.....

Looking forward to seeing the finished beast...

[slowlearner]

As I update this, I'm lying in bed. I'm back on the drugs and hoping my throat returns to the land of the living sooner rather than later. Still, I manage to do a little more before dragging myself off to the doctor this evening.

No rest for the wicked.

The d-tuner/x-tender (or whatever you want to call it) has been for me a source of anxiety. I've fitted them to a few instruments before and they take up a fair amount of real estate. I remember being broken hearted years ago when I couldn't fit one onto the headstock of an Ibanez ATK I dearly loved. But I digress, I could foresee a few issues fitting one on the back of this headstock. There were a few reasons for this. Firstly, I'd really started the headstock proper, too close to the nut. Secondly, doing the funny left tilt I'd done had worsened the issue on the bass side. Thirdly I had the laminated volute with the 15deg back angle to deal with. You can see the curve in the volute in this pic...



It doesn't look like much, but I had a sizable problem with my last 5 string that involved machining a recess into the back the of the headstock to get it to sit flat. You can sort of see the issue in this pic....



I managed to sort it out with some careful routing and carving... and some black ink (read sharpie) afterwards. What I was dreading was the same issue but involving a large chunk of d-tuner baseplate and a lever. Hence the stress. Really I should have bought the d-tuner before even starting the project, but that would involved strategy. I prefer, "stragedy" (a cross between strategy and tragedy). So one of the first things I did was trace the baseplate on the cardboard the tuner came on and cut it out as a template.



This proved to be (as close as I get) to a masterstroke. Coz, I could muck around with the baseplate without the post in the way. Lined up with the previous pilot holes I got this.



Not bad, but a little too close to the curve of the volute for safety. After measuring the shaft (9.5mm) I knew I had plenty of room to shuffle things round a bit. So I tried this...


It looked so good that I did some proper measuring and marking.



It was then just a matter of transferring measurements to the front face of the headstock (where I nearly put it on the wrong side, seriously). I did this because you ALWAYS drill the front face. And you ALWAYS use a BRAD point. Don't ask me how I know this.

Ok, I'll tell you. Coz drills can tear out the back surface of the timber as they exit. That's ok on the back coz you can patch and cover it up with a tuner. The front face is a LOT harder to fix. Stacking some scrap behind it and drilling through into the scrap also helps. Also, a Brad point gives you a much cleaner sharper hole... unless you're using my nasty, mild steel, 10mm brad point. Poor thing scorched it's way through the super hard Eucalypt on the headstock face. I thought it actually might catch fire a few times (yes, you can laugh at me). Time to buy a new one. But it went alright and here we go...





BTW, I also moved the A string tuner up a smidge to get the aesthetics better-er-a
(as if I know what I'm doing, lol). Having done all that I installed the tuners for a look. And I kinda felt excited!





How awesome does that lever look there, hey?! Love it. Loving the whole slightly wonky feel of the headstock too. It looks wrong and right at the same time. Of course, in the normal scheme of things, I like to add some "stragedy" to the project and here's the latest complication...



Yep, all that awesome 'lever-ness' and the like on the back, means the post is significantly lower than it would normally be. I went to work with my verniers measuring everything with guitar tuners and found headstocks to be 15mm thick. Course mine is 16mm isn't it. That's pretty much the difference between a win and a lose here and I lost.

So, while my throat keeps me up I need to sort out how to fix that. Obviously, I could recess the back of the headstock, but that would remove a lot of timber and be pretty hard work. It would also be very easy to stuff up. I measured the washer under the tuner barrel nut and it's 15mm in dia. I reckon if I can recess that a few mm, that should do it. Course the thought of putting a screaming router near that almost perfect headstock is scaring me witless but that's the way forward. I'm thinking some sort of 17mm hole in some scrap as a template and then run the template bit down that. Can't be that hard... can it? Hmm.

On the upside, the E string will have shed-loads of break angle.

[slowlearner]

Didn't have a great sleep last night, but drugs seem to be kicking in and I'm starting to feel almost human again. So I dragged myself out of bed this arvo and had a quick look at the tuner issue.

I messed around with a few different drill and router bits on some scrap. In the end I came up with this...



I did it with this router bit in my cordless drill.



Yes, this looks a might dodgy. Thing is, there are some issues with using the router on the headstock as is. Holding the headstock still is one issue. Securing a template and/or spacer is another issue. The router is heavy and it's very easy to muck it up as I mentioned in the last post. The other problem being, I find it really hard to see what the router is doing through the baseplate gap. Having experimented with the router bit + drill I found I could see what I was doing. I also found the variable speed trigger made it easy to control the amount of cutting. I had to have 2 goes, but this is the headstock with the tuner fitted. So I ended up with this...



It's not perfect. The profile of the bit is rounded, so the recess is too. That's not a major drama though. I may add some sort of small washer under the main one to make up for the curve in the recess. Would I do it again like this? Hmm, maybe, maybe not. The point is, there are lots of ways of using tools effectively.



I'll call it a win for today.