Si600

I was thinking that I might dowel them anyway once I'm done just to really over engineer it against it racking. I'll dowel the other half and see how that goes.

More has happened. Will the horror never end I hear you cry. First up, a little tidying up on the front leg, chamfering the edges, squaring off the foot and so on. The foot is going to have a filler before it's finished. Today I've added the first half of the back leg. I don't glue both sides on at once simply because they move so much. The little clamps doing nothing are end stops so I know that the legs are parallel. The only way I could think to do it was running a tape measure alongside a square to ensure that the outside dimension was the same top and bottom. Then it's just a case of getting glue on it and squeezing it up. Of course, the thing moved despite the stops, any tips on how to avoid that happening? Less glue, screw it together?

I had to cut the silk off of the b string on the flats I've just fitted, it wouldn't go through either the hole in the bridge or the hole in the body. All the others were fine.

Just a couple of pictures to demonstrate how far I've got. If anyone cares my entire tool kit for doing this is generic DIY shed hardpoint handsaw, 350mm tenon saw and 20mm chisel. A Record no. 5 and Stanley no. 60 planes and my luxury, (sounds like desert island discs) a Starrett combination square. The supervisor came down to check up on progress. Obviously now I've posted the pictures even I can see a set square, steel rule, marking knife and big rubber mallet which are also in my tool set!

LEDs as face dots as well? *runs away and hides*

First up, some horror show shots for @Geek99 to demonstrate that Build Diaries isn't only populated by the likes of skilled genii. There are those who are embarking on their first serious woodworking projects 😉 The notch for the vice screw nut and housing dado the screw goes through. This hole is for the pin that holds the top of the St Peter's cross. Infill between the stretchers before the other part of the leg goes on. The other side of the leg. The drill bit is to align the holes, as that is a critical point in the operation of the vice. Hopefully my witterings about laminations and four fifths of a leg now make more sense to @SpondonBassed.

@Bill Wy,Aye,Man Is there a bit of a wobble at 8th/9th fret on the treble side?

Have you read my bench diary, warts and all? It's more wart than anything else.

Technical query. The nut that goes on the back of the screw is lining up with the retaining screw holes nearly bang on the glue lines. I can twist the nut so that they go into solid wood, or I can have it square. They're only retaining screws, AFAIK anyway, so will they be OK in the glue line?

Why didn't you square the battery recess like you did the pickups?

Fück. I've just realised I've made a mistake. The big stretcher has to come off. Maybe. I've not left enough space vertically for the nut on the screw. I can cut a triangle out of it to fit, or I can move it. Vote Now! *Edit* That's not coming off, at least not without making more of a mess. Small notch out of the stretcher then.

Both "halves" of the front leg are finished. A long not quite a mortice for the St. Peter's cross and two housing dados. One housing dado I'm happy with, and one I'm very happy with. Bearing in mind I've only made about ten in my entire life! Checking the screw fits the dados before gluing. You can see the full width of five pieces in this test. And glue stops play for the day. I'm not going to glue all the bits in at once, getting the stretchers (?) square was hard enough as they slid around under clamping pressure.

How do I know if the truss rod needs adjusting?

Now I've broken the B string

That didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped, the ball end winding on the B string is too big for the hole in the bridge, either top loaded or through strung. I had to cut it off. They do sound nice though. It's settling at the moment, retune and more play later.

A few days of despondency and general meh. Really hacked off by this: This where I'd got to when I was moaning: To make me feel better, my shopping turned up, this is the screw and handle. Just going on a hypothetical box between the jaw edges, the screw location and the opening, that box is going to be 220mm x 220mm x 140mm when it's finished. I decided that I'd change approach on chopping this section out. The chisel probably could be sharper, but it's mostly poor technique that was the problem, as any fule kno. One finished: The view from the bench as it were:

I have up to a point. I don't have a wet grinder so I've got a honing guide. My waterstone fell off the bench and smashed the corner off whilst I was whaling away with the chisel earlier. Not happy about that.

It's also spruce, fir, pine, whatever. Is that a particularly brutal wood for cutting edges?

Stopped for coffee. I'm in danger of making a mistake at the moment, I can't seem to get the chisel sharp, or to stay sharp. Maybe I'm expecting too much but the first couple of taps seem to bite nice and deeply, but after that it just seems to be a struggle. I'm about to just whack the thing, which means I'll probably split the baulk, so I've stopped for a bit.

I've stared at it long enough, and although the screw hasn't arrived yet, and being a twerp I forgot to order the handle with it I've committed to the design and started cutting one edge of what will become a mortice when it's all clued together. I feel I'm making heavy weather of it, and wondering whether there's a better way than how I'm doing it. No machine tools are available before you suggest that

Not Skiffle?

Mine won't look nearly so nice! If the chop was wide enough to get the blank past the screw then possibly. But I really don't know.

@Richard R a leg vice is one of these: The bench I have is an ex Red Bull GP one from MK and came with a mismatched pair of metal legs. Because of where I want the vice I have to replace the old one as I can't cut through the metal without causing major structural failure. You also don't get Record type vice carcasses over here so I'd either have to buy new or get one from eBay.co.uk and have it posted, which will probably cost a fortune.

I'm building the legs up out of 18mm block board. They're going to have 5 layers with the middle layer being the stretchers. At the moment I've only glued the solid parts together so I have two two part laminations. Which my sense of 'humour' turns into four fifths of a leg.