The body has been sanded, primed, and given two coats of glossy black. Wile the paint dries, I can go back to work on the neck.
Well, the last neck
was a bust. I forgot to glue in the fret markers before gluing on the frets. I pulled the frets back off to glue in the fret markers and sand them flush, but in doing so, I had to sand a little more than I wanted to in order to remove the old glue. Now it's going to be almost impossible to glue the frets back on. I think it's a do-over.
I decided to redesign the fret board with lines etched into the board that are wide and deep enough so that I can press-fit the wires into the slots without having to use glue. I did a bunch of test cuts until I was happy with the fit. It looks like this is going to work.
I then cut another fret board with the new settings.
I then printed another neck.
It was a lot of work going from a rough print to one that is as smooth as glass. I'm not looking forward to doing it again.
I glued in the fret markers, glued the fretboard to the neck, and clamped it overnight.
The 1/8" inch white acrylic that I have is way too thick for the pick guard. I tried to sand it down to about 1/16" of an inch, but I don't like the way it looks. I looked around the house for something that I could use instead. I found a white 5-Star notebook that was perfect. The plastic is super thin. It cut perfectly.
I then cut three knobs out of 1/8" acrylic.
I drilled holes in the back and secured them with some tiny screws.
I'm going to chrome the neck plate, so it doesn't matter what color it is. I had some 1/16" black acrylic, so it seemed like the one to use.
Pretty cool. US quarter for scale.
Next up was the plate for the back. Strangely enough, there wasn't one in the 3D model. I had to make my own. I dropped an image of a Fender into SketchUp and replicated the plate as well as I could.
Looks pretty good.
I thought about making it out of the same 1/16" acrylic as the neck plate, but then I realized it's supposed to be white. I cut it out of the same material as the pick guard.
For the pickups, I cut two layers out of 1/8" acrylic and one out of the 5-Star notebook. Gluing them together made them the perfect height. I then pushed tiny little pins through the holes.
I tried to 3D print the output jack, but it just wouldn't come out right. It's just too small. I'm going to have to make one out of wood. I laser cut the basic shape and then took a metal file to shape it the rest of the way.
It's not perfect, but I think it does a convincing job of looking like an output jack. It just needs a little cleanup work and some chrome paint. At minimum, it's a proof of concept. I might make another one and try and improve it.
These are all the small parts so far. I just need to figure out how to make the bridge and the tuning pegs. Those will probably be the hardest.
And yes, I just realized now that I didn't make the toggle switch. Dang it!
See this project from start to finish:
Footlong Fender - Part I Footlong Fender - Part II
Footlong Fender - Part III Footlong Fender - Part IV Footlong Fender - Part V Footlong Fender - Part VI
