Starting a new build... Danelectro style

TwoNotesSolo

Student Of The Blues
You wouldn't believe how long this stuff takes.
This where I am at and likely to remain for a while: rough neck blank in good shape and ready for routing the truss rod channel and final sizing. It took an hour and half to get my design drawing into a file printable life size at Kinko's but it makes preparing templates so much easier. I think I'm getting good enough at this that I didn't need a template for the headstock. Oh well, it doesn't hurt.

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I also got the body rough shaped. I decided that I will not make a template, I'll work straight on the plywood to get it to final shape and use that as the reference edge to route the hardboard back and top.

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You learn a little more with each project. I should have cut the inside out from each piece of plywood before gluing them together, as I think I killed my jigsaw going through 1.5" of plywood. It literally had smoke come out of the motor vents when I was done. Good thing a new jigsaw was already on my Christmas list.
I was worried about how to clamp the pieces of plywood together for a good bond though. By bonding then before cutting the inside, I was able to use many screws in the disposable area (and a few in the bridge area which you can see here)
 
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TwoNotesSolo

Student Of The Blues
I am as far away from my bench as can be (business trip in China) and I saw a pile of discarded wood that looked awesome (but turned out to be too rotten for me to consider bringing home) but I've got a hankering for making sawdust again. This project has been stalled for way too long (almost a year!!!!), I think I need to restart it when I get home.
 

TwoNotesSolo

Student Of The Blues
I asked one of my Chinese colleagues what kind of wood that pile of wood that attracted my attention was, and he told me it was Red Wood, the Chinese call it "hongmu". After a quick Wikipedia search, it turns out hongmu is Chinese for what we call "rosewood" which itself covers a variety of species.
So it turns out I have a great eye for wood, but could have gotten myself in a heap of trouble if I had packed a few slabs in my suitcase as was my original intent, as import in the US is highly regulated. I can't believe they let a lot of rosewood rot among other trash in an empty lot. My Chinese coworker said it used to be a furniture factory but the government relocated as they will build some high rise office buildings in that spot.
 

TwoNotesSolo

Student Of The Blues
Yuk, I ended looking into more details the rules about importing any kind of wood into the US and it's complicated. I've read forums where people bring stuff from abroad for their own projects, but looks like they just got away with not getting caught not declaring they were importing wood.
 

JestMe

Student Of The Blues
Glad to hear you made it back home and looking forward to watching your build come to life... with US wood!
 

Slofinger

Blues Junior
Making sawdust! So much fun. When I saw this thread I didn’t realize it started so far back. That’s a long time to put a project on the shelf. You have inspired me to do something similar, but as a Flying V. I have posted several of my Flying V builds and have been looking for new concepts.
 

TwoNotesSolo

Student Of The Blues
Glad to hear you made it back home and looking forward to watching your build come to life... with US wood!
Not home yet still in China, with crushed dream of being cheap exoctic wood back into the country.

Slofinger I couldn't believe it's been on hold so long either, it has been a super busy year for me.
I mean, I'm still waiting for @paparaptor to send me the Dano nut he said he would, yeah, that's it, he's the one stalling the project :)
 
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