Thursday 20 June 2013

Telecaster Two - 24 - Neck Pocket Disaster

After completing the neck pocket template a couple of days ago I added a layer of sander sealer or two just to add a little strength to the working surface.  Then last night after work I set up my workbench outside and patiently positioned the template according to the centre line on both the body and the template.  With the template and body securely clamped the the workbench I set up my router with a cutting bit which uses a bearing to run round the inside of the template. 


I measured the depth  I wanted to route by positioning the neck and a scratch guard next to the body and marked a line.  This would have the overhang just clearing the scratch guard.  So I have measured everything with the greatest precision I can manage, checked and double checked the template to ensure a snug fit and i thought I had accounted for everything... How wrong was I... The template was no where near as robust as I thought and the bearing started to dig into the template giving me an oversized neck pocket!  


I haven't got any post route pictures as yes, the above picture is from just before I routed the pocket.  I had just added another coat of Tru-Oil to the Telecaster style neck.
Tonight I have had a think about how I am going to fix this.  I could scrap the neck for this project and build another, or scrap the body and build another, making a new neck or body to match the scrapped parts.  In the end though I decided to glue in a couple of small fillets of pine into the gaps and then re-route the pocket after constructing another template out of more robust material.  For now the glue is drying and I will leave it to set overnight.

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