Deegatron's 2019 Summer Build Challenge: Winner!!!

Here we go!!!!!
Welcome to my 2019 summer build challenge thread.

Build specs are going to remain a bit of a secret for a time while I finish drawings and complete the design. Should be a doozie... I'm looking forward to the challenge

Here is my work bench as of 6:30 this morning

 

I'm going a little off the beaten trail here (at least vs my usual builds / skills) for some items so it've got a few things that require Plan A / Plan B / Plan C, etc.

 

No meme's today, I have actual progress to report... but I promise there will be more memes.... oh yes... there will be more....
Off we go with actual progress....
Long story short, my brother built a couple of Cedar planters in his back yard last year or the year before. had a small board left over that he wasn't sure what to do with.
actual dimensions on the board is 1-1/2" x 5-1/2" x 49". Seemed like a perfect fit for the build challenge.
I cut up the board and jointed the edges.

The cedar is all warped all to hell so It's going to be a bit difficult to glue everything together and retain thickness.... I'm also already below my target thickness of 1-5/8" so I'm going to add some plain maple to the top to help with the thickness....
No problem, I had some extra from another in progress project and decided to steal some....

Now here's where things start to get interesting / experimental for me.
Cedar is hella soft. it's about the equivalent of Basswood... perhaps a hair softer.... soft enough that I'm not sure I trust it enough to do a good job of holding a tight neck pocket let alone doing a good job of holding neck ferrules on a bolt on neck with threaded inserts (like I plan to do).... aiet, so that got me thinking about musicman guitars and their "Tone Block" that they add into certain models. I could add in a reinforcement block to support the neck area... so... off I go on a experimental tangent.....
Layed out my body woods to get a feel for everything....


in the above photo, the skinny piece of cedar goes in the middle... my bad....
anyways, off to the table saw I go again.....

Mark it out and make a good straight cut with my crosscut jig....
then make 10000 more cuts to remove most of the material....
little bit of work on the router thicknesser jig and here we are....
Add some glue and SHAZAM..... a built in tone / reinforcement block for the neck heel....
I left both pieces a little wider than required so I can effectively joint the sides after the glue dries....
Decided to call it quits on day 2 after I got to this point.....

Now for the boring budgetary portion of the build.
1 pcs 2' x 6' x 49" cedar plank ($10.01 at home depot for an 8' board) - used 51% of board = $5.11. reclaimed/reused part 50% reduction = $2.56 CAD
1 pcs 6-1/2" x 18" Maple - 0.875 board feet @ $8 per bf = $7.00 CAD
1 pcs 6-1/2" x 7" Maple - 0.3159 board feet @ $8 per bf = $2.53 CAD
Total used so far $12.09 CAD @ 0.75 exchange = 9.07 USD

K, I lied, one meme today... but I saved it for the end in case people came for the memes, saw that there was none and then left without reading the other stuff....

 

TOAN BLOK!!!! I'm totally using that.... love it....

DO IT!!!
you know you wanna!!!!

 

Yes, home Garage / workshop. I inherited the saw from my dad when he downsized and no longer had room for it. The table saw is a blessing and a curse due to it's massive size. I have to store it in behind the stairs in the garage and have to pull out a vehicle, move my large air compressor and then snake it through junk just to get it out and use it. That being said, I've found it to be an absolute indispensable tool. Someday I'd like to trade her in for a sawstop as tablesaws in general scare the living bejeesus out of me.... but I'm not made of money so likely wont ever happen.

 

Well......
I've gone and done shot myself in the foot.....

You see... my table saw gets a fair bit of use and the blade is starting to show the preliminary signs of dulling.....
you know, starting to burn on some cuts, additional force required to push pieces through... etc....
so I did some research, found myself a local place that sharpens table saw blades.
"Great service, got my blade back in 2 hours"
"Excellent and quick service"
Seems like a great deal right?
Dropped it off CRACK OF DAWN Thursday morning hoping I'd get it back before the end of the day..... no such luck. 4-5 working days (and Friday was a holiday up here).

My whole build plan centers around this saw......


Well, here's the small progress I could complete......
Got some work done on the pickups.....
In case you haven't guessed, I'm doing a multiscale... so angle pickups... they are a must!
so, I grabbed myself, my trusty old chunk of aluminum.
Glued on my template and cut out the outside profile with a jewlers saw. I've got a metal cutting blade for my bandsaw but this does a much nicer, cleaner job and I can get closer to the line....
Easy peasy....

next was to drill all of the holes
Also got that done without incident.
Next I grabbed my 2 doner picups and tore them down.....

Got those bad boys on the local music gear buy sell. Bottom one was free (it's currently not working) / top one was $10.
Tore out the magnets and the screws that hold the bobbins in.
and there we have it. Next step is to cut out the bobbins and figure that junk out. hopefully I can get that all done before my table saw blade is ready....

Peace out for today.

Oh yeah, before I go - Budget time
Aluminum (I've had this piece forever so I don't remember what I paid for it. a quick internet search yields $150 for a 4' x 8' piece of similar material)
I'm using 4" x6" roughly... so $0.78
Magnets and screws $10 - found / repurposed - $5.00 (I may come back to this and re-budget if I get to close to the $200 mark, I am after all only using a portion of the pickups)
Total used $5.78 CAD @ 0.75 exchange = 4.34 USD
+ previous total $9.07 = Total to date = $13.41 USD.

 

I've done it before with an old ibanez pickup and it sounded great. Aluminum is non magnetic so it's essentially same same as nickel-silver as far as I'm concerned. I would expect the industry uses nickel-silver for corrosion resistance/cost but Aluminum has worked great for me in the past. cant really comment vs brass as brass does somewhat effect the magnetic field but I wouldn't expect a major difference either way, it's just a baseplate.

 

Just you wait, I've got a contraption that's held together with duct tape and chewing gum.... I believe the word is "JAnky"
OHHH YEAH!!!!!!!