bent wood lamination electric guitar - instructables

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Bent Wood Lamination Electric Guitar

by XYZ Create

This entire project was an experiment to see if I couldget smooth consistent bends without building anentire outer form. Traditionally you would use an innerand outer form when bending wood. The outer formwould compress the layers of wood onto the innerform to create a smooth consistent bend for gluing. Iwanted to see if I could get away with not having anouter form, and I'm happy to report that it workedperfectly!

Although this project may look complex it can bemade with basic tools found in most small garagewoodshops.

Supplies:

1/4 inch Masonite

3/4 inch MDF

African Mahogany (1 3/4 in thick x 5.5 in wide x 19 in

long)

Maple Skateboard Veneers

1/8 inch Clear Acrylic

Guitar Neck

Guitar Hardware + Electronics

Titebond Wood Glue

5 Minute Epoxy

1 inch Nails

Blue Painter's Tape

Masking Tape

https://youtu.be/KJZsC1hS5A4

Bent Wood Lamination Electric Guitar:

http://www.instructables.com

http://www.instructables.com/id/Bent-Wood-Lamination-Electric-Guitar/

http://www.instructables.com/member/XYZ+Create/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0XpZJLKjhvXGOhDj...

Step 1: Disassembly

I am basing the design off of one of my all time favorite guitars, the Jackson Kelly. I started by disassembling andstripping the entire guitar down. I'll be using the guitar body to create the templates. The neck and all of thehardware/electronics will be used in the final build.

Note: If you already have guitar building templates you can skip Steps 1-5.


Step 2: Trace and Cut Outline Template

Step 3: Route Shape and Sand Smooth

Using a white colored pencil I traced the outline of the guitar body onto a piece of 1/4 inch masonite. I cut on theoutside of the line using my jigsaw.

**Pro Tip**

Using a white colored pencil helps the lines stand out against a dark colored object like the masonite.

With a few strips of double sided tape I attached the roughly cut masonite to the guitar body. Using a flush trim


router bit I routed out the shape of the body onto the masonite. This left me with an exact copy of the guitar bodyoutline.

I avoided the area where the output jack hole was located on the guitar body as the router bit wouldn't be able toride along that edge. I sanded that part down on my belt sander.


Step 4: Drilling/Routing the Cavities Template

Using the router with a flush trim bit I copied the neckpocket and pickup route onto the template. I flippedthe body around and used my drill press to drill thestring thru holes from the backside.

Locating the bridge post holes was a little tricky

because the holes don't go all the way through thebody. In order to get their placement just right on thecavity template, I used a transparency sheet to markout their placement in relation to the other cavitiesand lined it up on the template and drilled the holes.


Step 5: Finding Center

After all of the cavities were cut, I needed to find thecenter of the templates so that I could reference to forthe rest of the build. Using a pair of digital calipers, Imeasured the width of the neck pocket and string thruholes, divided the measurement in half, and marked it

on the template. I could then connect the linestogether to form the center line of the template. I thentransferred the center line from the cavity templateonto the outline template.


Step 6: Trace and Cut Form

I traced the shape of the outline template onto three sheets of 3/4 inch mdf and cut them out using my bandsaw.The mdf will be used as a form to bend the skateboard veneers to shape later on.


Step 7: Attach Outline Template and Route

After rough cutting the outline on the mdf, I drilled holes and attached the outline template to the rough cut mdftemporarily using screws. These holes will also help to align the pieces together when gluing. I then routed theexact shape of the template onto the mdf. I repeated this to all three pieces of mdf.


Step 8: Glue Bending Form Together

With the mdf cut, it was time to glue them together to form the bending form. Using Titebond Original wood glue Iglued the pieces together. The screw holes drilled earlier to attach the outline template were used to line the


pieces up as well as to clamp the pieces together while the glue dried. I cleaned up all of the glue squeeze out andlet it dry overnight.


Step 9: Sand and Tape

With the glue dry, I removed the screws that clamped the pieces together and sanded the form smooth. I alsocovered the entire form in packaging tape. This will prevent glue from sticking to the form in later steps.


Step 10: Drill Holes in Bending Form

Step 11: Route Body Core Outline

Using a 1 inch forstner bit in my drill press I drilled several holes all along the perimeter of the form. These holesare what the clamps will grab onto when gluing the veneers in a later step.


For the body core I am using a piece of AfricanMahogany. It measures 1 3/4 in thick x 5.5 in wide x19 in long.

I lined the center line of the outline template to thecenter line of the body core and traced the shape. Icut the mahogany to rough shape using my bandsaw.I attached the outline template to the body core usingdouble sided tape and used a router with a pattern bitto cut the shape of the outline perfectly onto the bodycore. I took several shallow passes with the router,

raising the bit up about 1/4 inch at a time. The patternbit wasn't long enough to route the full depth so Iflipped the piece over and finished the shaping with aflush trim bit.

**Pro TIp**

I attached two scrap pieces of MDF to the edges ofthe mahogany to prevent blowout from the router.


Step 12: Drilling/Routing Cavities Into the Body Core

Using a pair of calipers I measured and marked the depth that the cavities needed to be on the body core, Usingthe drill press and a forstner bit I cleared out most of the material in the cavities. I finished the cavities with a routerand a pattern bit. I also drilled the string through holes as well as the bridge posts.


Step 13: Cut Strips to Rough Width and Length


The outer shell or rim of the body is constructed usingmaple skateboard veneers.

I lined one edge all of the layers up as straight aspossible. I temporarily attached mini spring clamps tohold the layers in place until I could apply bluepainters tape. The spring clamps would interfere withthe bandsaw fence so they are removed and thelayers are held together with only the tape. The tape

with allow me to run the layers through the bandsawwithout interfering with the fence.

I am aiming for a final thickness of 1 3/4 inches forthe completed body, but I cut the layers to 2 inchesthick. This gives me some wiggle room in case thelayers don't line up perfectly. I cut them to roughlength at the miter saw.


Step 14: Glue and Clamp Strips Into Shape

I applied Titebond Original wood glue to the stripsand clamped them to the form. I used small pieces ofsoft pine so that the clamps didn't mar the surface ofthe maple veneers. I couldn't get clamps onto thevery ends of the strips so I used masking tape tocompress the layers together and conform to theshape of the form.

I clamped up one section of the form at a time and let

the glue dry for a full 24 hours before removing thepieces from the form.

It was amazing to see how far the veneers could bebent without breaking.To my surprise there wasvirtually no springback once the pieces were removedfrom the form.


Step 15: Boil Strips for Tough to Bend Areas

For some areas the veneers wouldn't conform to theshape of the form. In order for them to be bent intothe proper shape I cut the layers to rough length,bundled them up with rubber bands and soaked themin boiling water for 15 minutes. I used a hydroflask tosoak the pieces, but this was probably overkill and asmall metal pot would probably work just as well.Once the pieces were removed they could bend a lotmore and could match the tight radius of the upperhorn no problem.

I left the pieces to dry overnight. I came back the nextday and the pieces retained the bend from the formand I clamped them again, this time using glue.

**Pro Tip**

Some of the bends are hard to get clamps to attachto, so I used masking tape as well as twine to get theveneers to match the curves of the form


Step 16: Smooth Bottom Edge and Cut to Final Length

As expect, the veneers didn't quite line up flush with one another.


Once all of the pieces of the rim were bent to shape and glued up I leveled out the bottom edge using my beltsander. I then cut the pieces to their final length.


Step 17: Glue Rim Together and Reinforce With Nails

Using more Titebond Original wood glue, I glued all of the pieces together to form the rim of the guitar. I felt thatthe butt joints where the rim pieces were glued together would be a weak point down the line so I reinforced theconnections by driilling an 1/8 inch hole in all of the spots where the rim pieces met and inserted a nail with it'shead cut off and epoxied them in place. This provided a ton of extra strength to the rim.


Step 18: Sand to Final Thickness

With the rim glued up I could trim it to it's final thickness. To do this I marked out the desired thickness all along therim and sanded to the line using my belt sander. I originally wanted to use my bandsaw, but I was afraid that therim might collapse in on itself with the pressure on the bandsaw.


Step 19: Glue Rim to Body Core and Reinforce Connection Points

With the rim and the body core at the same thickness I could glue the two together using Titebond Original woodglue. I couldn't attach clamps to the curved surfaces, so I used masking tape to hold everything together until the


glue dried

I also reinforced the connections where the rim and the body core met with the nail and epoxy method from before.Once the epoxy was cured I trimmed the excess flush to the surface.


Step 20: Making a Pickguard

With the sides of the guitar being hollow I neededsomeplace to mount the electronics and to do this Imade a pickguard out of some clear acrylic. I coveredit in paper transfer tape so that I could write on it anddrew out a shape I thought complemented the bodyand cut it out on my bandsaw. The bandsaw tends to

leave a jagged edge on the acrylic so I made sure tostay proud of the line and used my spindle sander tosand right to the line. I also used my drill press to drillholes to mount the pickguard to the body as well as ahole for the volume potentionmeter.


Step 21: Final Assembly

With all of the woodworking done the only thing left to do was to assemble all of the hardware and electronics ontothe guitar. I used all of the same hardware and electronics from the donor body, but I did swap out the original


pickup for a Seymour Duncan Dimebucker (One of my all time favorite pickups!)


Step 22: Rock Out

The only thing left to do is rock out!

If you found this instructable useful I would love foryou to vote for me in the Instrument Contest.

If you want to see more DIY content, check me out on

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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0XpZJLKjhvXGOhD...

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bent wood lamination electric guitar - instructables

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