In control . . . somewhat

Well LIFE got in the way again . . . so progress has been somewhat slow . . . BUT . . .

First we got the jack . . . and that's were it needs to go . . . and checking for angle

So I don't have any pictures from actually drilling the hole . . . first I drilled a 7/8 hole using a fostner bit in my hand drill about 1/8 - 3/16 deep as a countersink

and then tried a 3/8 fostner in my hand drill to do the rest but that was slow going so I switched to a 3/8 spade bit to drill through to the control cavity. This is the final result with the electrocup nice and countersunk.

The end were it went into the cavity needed some work to enlarge it so the female jack would fit but some careful work with a rotary rasp and 220 grit sandpaper took care of that . . . sorry no pics here.

Next up the cut outs for the volume & tone controls. If I had a drillpress I would have used that with a Fostner bit but . . . yep . . . don't have one, so this called for a template and some router work . . . 

Some careful measuring, routing and work with a 1" spade bit later we have a template that fits perfectly in the cutout were the control cutouts need to go . . . and some work with a top bearing router bit later we have the cutouts for the controls. And as you can see I annotated the template after the fact. This last photo also shows the 'headache' I've put off dealing with, a rather large tearout at the back of the lower front bout. Still wondering what I'll do to fix it . . . which is on the 'menu' for next weekend . . . together with the removal of some material from the top front bout . . .

And finishing up on this . . . . the relief on the treble side of the neck pocket

And then there was THIS

Two pieces of 3/4" plywood laminated and banded on the long sides to form a base for my wife's lathe . . . for now it can be clamped to my work table or the old picknick table in the back but eventually it'll get the rest of a stand attached.