First Build: Korina DC Les Paul Special (inspired)

[Tugboat]

Thanks guys! Good point on that 70's fender bullit truss rod! Freddy said the same thing. I'm going to square up that area, add shims to either side of the brass block, and sand flat so I have a nice square gluing surface.

I'm definitely taking the "slow and steady wins the race" approach! And I wouldn't exactly call my work clean; it's certainly not as clean as that of Barnaby, Freddy, BCRGreg, and others on the forum. Clean for a newbie on his first build maybe. I'm making my mistakes but so far they've all been correctable. Hope that trend continues or improves! I've been using a lot of hand tools which has been a lot of fun.

I did get a few hours this weekend to work on it. I got a #60 Stanley low angle block plane, sanded the sole flush, and sharpened and honed the blade. Then I finished the tenon, installed the fretboard markers, and polished the fretboard. I took it up to #2000 grit (dry sanded) with a 12" radius sanding block. Most of it is nice and reflective and smooth save a few areas. Not sure why a few areas refused to cooperated they're smooth but the grain must be goofy, preventing it from being reflective like the rest of it. I'm assuming it's OK. Ready for side dots and frets next!

 

[Novatone]

Looks great!
Reminds me of the piece of korina I have in the shed.... somewhere...

 

[Tugboat]

Been a while since I've updated this thread but I've made some good progress actually so time to update! I wasn't able to work on it for a while due to transitioning to a new job (and a lot of overtime) and wedding planning but I got back to it a couple months ago. Been fixing goofs, taking my time, and was stuck in the not making much visible progress doldrums.

I started off working on the headstock and I wasn't paying attention and took too much off and in the wrong spot:

After some helpful advice I decided not to do anything too rash so I ordered a rear veneer to go with the top headstock veneer to make a "stinger".

I first added some ears:

I then flush trimmed the ears with a router and tried my hand at wood bending. I first made a caul, took a clothes iron and a damp towel, headed and pressed the veneer to shape it, re-moistening the towel as required, and bent it roughly to shape. I then clamped the heck out of it with a round block at the contoured area and got this:

After rough cutting and shaping the headstock to shape:

I then shimmed the nut area (where the truss rod nut isn't even with the neck) with some leftover rosewood, glued the front headstock veneer, trimmed it to shape with the spindle sander, a low angle block plane, and a round sanding block to get this:

The top (I wanted my own headstock design since I made it, not Gibson):

The back (I'll finish this area when I carve the neck profile):

Look Ma! Barely visible wood joint seam!

The fretboard's sanded to #2000 already, the headsock to #220 which explains the color difference:

I worked on the neck thickness a bit more too. At the first fret it's about 0.91" I think I'm going to leave it there. Just need to drill the tuner holes, do the headstock logo, fret it, make a truss rod cover, and carve the profile! It's finally starting to come together!!

 

[Tugboat]

Looking at the pictures again I should've used the back plate on the front and vis-versa. Oh well. Too late now!

 

[Tugboat]

FRETS! I have frets installed!

I followed Freddy's instructions on fretting and refretting and his instructions were spot on. Even pulling the frets that were too high went smoothly. I still need to level and dress them but they're installed and glued in now.

After cleaning the fretwire and making sure all the gunk is out of the fret slots with an exacto knife I took a small rat tail file and filed a bevel in the fret slots to compensate for any inconsistencies in the bottom of the fret wire.

Then I cut a piece of fretwire and pounded one end in with a deadblow hammer.

Not having any sort of press I used a radius block and my deadblow hammer to hammer in the frets. One solid whack on the opposite side and one solid whack in the middle is all it took most of the time.

I then wicked thin CA glue into the bottom of the fret slots to seat them, filed the fret ends flush with the fretboard, and added a 35 degree bevel to the ends of the frets. I ended up with a couple frets that were too high

One of the high frets close up:

So, following Freddy's regretting instructions I heated the fret up with a soldering iron until the frets just popped right out. The heat breaks the bond of the glue and loosens up the fretwire so after about 30 seconds or more of heat the fret comes right up (they were solid in the slot without heat). Then I repeated the fretting instructions for the 5 frets I pulled.

This is the result! They just need to be leveled and dressed!

The neck is almost finished!

 

[emoney]

GReat work. You're on fire now so keep it up.

 

[Spotcheck Billy]

Great job persevering.

 

[Tugboat]

Thanks! I think I might be able to have it ready for paint by Thanksgiving. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[Tugboat]

More progress! Last weekend I started off by roughing out the neck profile. I first marked up the profile by drawing center lines on the back and both sides of the neck. Then I added center lines to those center lines like so:

I then used a Shinto rasp to carve angles between the first two (innermost) sets of lines on the outside of the neck.

Then I added center lines to my carved edges and carved to the lines on either side of my first 2 carves, eventually creating 6 angled edges.

All that rasping left me with this:

Then I spent some quality time with a file and sandpaper to get the neck profile to my liking.

Then it was time for side dots and tuner holes. The side dots were a bit tricky to get perfectly in line (which I didn't get but it's hard to notice) but I learned and applied that to drilling out the tuner holes (no picture of side dot installation). I measured out and punched a divot in the headstock to help me center my drill bit better. Then the trick was to drill without getting tearout. I stepped up drill size (small pilot holes, then a medium sized bit, then the full size 13/32 bit) and used a "bushing" (a piece of pine with a 13/32" hole in it) to help center the drill bit and to have something solid against the headstock face to minimize tearout. I got a bit of tearout despite my best efforts but most of it will be hidden by the tuner washers. I'll end up filling those chipouts with rosewood dust and CA glue for good measure.

My jury rigged tuner hole driller thingamajig.

Then I did some minor cosmetic touch ups from some "battle scars" on the body. I sanded some out, steamed out a few more, then patched up the last few with CA glue and Korina dust for seamless repairs. It's almost ready for paint!!

 

[lookslikemeband]

Impressive work so far!

 

[Tugboat]

Thank you! I just hope I can glue the neck on straight now!!

 

[jkes01]

I'm sure you'll do just fine. Great job!

 

[J-Dizzle]

looks cool.

 

[djrussell]

Very nice work. Looking forward to seeing more.

 

[KnightroExpress]

Looking great!

 

[Tugboat]

Thanks everyone! Hope to have a good update this weekend!

 

[Tugboat]

Update! Started on the neck pocket but I half-a#$ed the clamping job and the template slipped.

So after sufficiently cursing at myself I trimmed the goof back and added a filler strip. Squared up the area and clamped it in.

Then I revised my routing method. I found some wedge shaped shims at Lowe's that were just about 2 degrees. So I trimmed them to 2.2 degrees to route in the neck pocket angle and double stick taped the heck out of everything. That thing wasn't moving.

Success! And the obligatory "Look! No glue and it stays!" shot.

A trippy photo making sure everything was still in line:

And now it's glued up! I thought I would get squeeze-out everywhere (I covered both sides and the bottom of the neck pocket with glue) but I didn't. Since you push in the neck and clamp it down I only got squeeze out on the bottom (I had to use clamps to get it to seat down a the way; that glue made it so tight that I couldn't my push it all the way down by hand). At east that's what I hope is supposed to happen! I didn't get squeeze-out on the top and sides.

I just need to finish the neck pickup route, edge radius, and the electronics and bridge holes and I'm ready to paint!

 

[fortwinnie]

Excellent pocket save.

 

[Tugboat]

Thanks fortwinnie! I was nervous about the repair after I boogered it up. I matched the grain as best I could. A pickguard and two tone sunburst will take care of hiding it completely!

 

[Tugboat]

Neck pickup route carved back out, bridge holes drilled, and electronics holes drilled! I did get a bit of chipout but it's fixable. I should've used a forstner bit to drill those holes but I forgot that I had a 1/2" forstner bit until afterwards. I marked it, then punched a spot for the drill bit to start, but I stupidly didn't drill a pilot hole so my drill bit walked on me. Thanks to the wandering drill bit the holes ended up being placed somewhere in-between the hole placement of a TOM and a 50's wraparound (the bass bushing is about 1/16 too high towards the headstock). I've seen quite a few different bridge placements and different measurements to locate the bridge so I'm not sure exactly how worried I should be. The holes ended up a lot closer to the bridge pickup than I though it would be too. I measured countless times so I'm satisfied that I marked it out correctly. The pickup routes fit the pickguard perfectly. I'll string up the E strings next weekend and see if they intonate correctly.

I also started filing the edge radius.