As previously mentioned, the weight of the DLP Les Paul prototype is just too heavy so I decided to route two cavities into the back of the guitar to make everything lighter. I made a template and even though it is not precise it should give me a good idea of the type of weight reduction I will get and how easy it is to accomplish a nice finish thinking about how I am going to cover the space once the to cavities are routed.
I put the two templates on the Les Paul body, the outline will protect the front while I route out the back.
After some marking out I accurately mounted the routing template to the back of the body. MDF is nasty stuff and it generates a lot of dust. So this is defiantly an outside job!
Firstly I will use a forstner bit to take out as much as I can before routing. This is to save ware on the router bit and also cut down on the dust a little. The forstner bit tends to make more 'shavings' that dust and is a lot easier to resharpen that the router bit.
It's a slow process even with a powerful drill although I used the largest bit I had and maybe I should have drilled more holes with a smaller one. I also stopped after every hole to vacuum the waste up which also added to the time it took to complete.
I will carry on with this tomorrow, I also want to lower a section in the middle and round the edge of the cavities to accommodate one plate to cover all the rear. I'm still undecided weather or not to make the panel see through or not...
No comments:
Post a Comment