Here is where we are so far.

So far we have the body and neck roughed in pretty nicely.  The neck will be a challenge of course.   Rosewood fingerboard should be nice but no easy task.  We shall see. Hey it looks like a telecaster!

Two Thinlines

My thinline is the swamp ash.  Jerry is putting together a maple and poplar version.  The maple is bookmatched and flamed. 

Top and bottom

This is the progress so far.  "f" hole placed, cut and sanded on the top.  The cavity for the "f" hole is opened.  Making this a semi-hollow body telecaster. 

Jerry showing me how to route

Here is the process of routing the cavity for the thinline.The clear template is what assists to make sure the router does not stray.  That is good.  We went 1/8 inch deep with each pass.  One inch total. 

Router

If you did not already know what a router is, here it is. Wicked tool.

Body and top

Here is the top and body re-pinned.  Ready for routing the cavity.

Fine tuning the "f"

Once the rough cut is done then I had to carefully sand the hole to correct size to match the template.  That part took a few hours.  I really enjoyed that part.  Very fine and controlled work.  Using a sand paper wrapped around objects that could easily be manipulated. This is more art than science.  You get to know every grain and piece of the wood.  I never would have thought I would have that kind of patience.  Another lesson learned.

Here is the rough cut body and top

Once the "f " hole was roughed in as well as the body, I re-pinned the two pieces.  Here they are. 

'f' hole with lines

In order to place the "f" hole correctly on the guitar, we had to do several meaurments to make sure it was alighned.  I would have just "eye balled" it according to the plans, however Jerry made a template of the "f" hole and how it is positioned on the body. That is the difference between right and left brained people. 

"f" hole cut

Here is the jig saw set up and beginning to cut the "f" hole. Drilled a hole to get started.  Then put the top into saw table.  The blade in removable so that it can be taken in and out of a piece such as the thinline top. Go figure.

Jig Saw

How do you cut in the middle of a piece of wood?  I learned how a jig saw works.  Nifty tool.  Small blade that lets you turn the wood.  This will allow me to cut the "f" hole out of the thinline top.