Lazarus

[jak3af3r]

There's been some recent talk of guitar construction. With that came warnings and tales of destruction and disaster with some pictures of a T build I started and had drill bits break. Removing the broken bits resulted in a cracked top and back.

Here's the progress on the resurrection.

First the damage...

My plan was to plane the top and back off. Fortunately, the damage wasn't deep enough to necessitate either.

First we'll run it through the planer.

Here we can see behind the bridge why I HIGHLY discourage not using figured wood of any kind on a first build. This has torn out but not too deeply and the planer I have I can slow the feed rate for finishing passes.

After we get through the stain and tear-out, I see I'll be able to hide the original crack under the bridge.

I've determined I can get away with a 1/2" plug and this should go through all the holes. So here are my endpoints which will serve as a cushion while routing.

I'll use this end of a long neck blank for my plug. This is hard maple.

Now I'll set up a fence to route straight between the pre-drilled ends.

 

[jak3af3r]

Now this is done, we'll route until we're close to the top. Then flip the body and use a top-bearing bit to follow the hole already routed in the back.

Here's our plug test fit. It's good. So good, it'll just press-fit without glue. After much hammering and pressing, it's in.

I've left enough material to not dent the top or back during installation. This will also be a good time to use the hand planer to get the plug level.

Now the plug is mostly level, it's back to the big planer to level the top and back again. I'll stop here before I do anything silly again.

Next is filling the small gaps and redrilling the holes.