Here goes, First Lap steel build

Solid Body Steels, Reso, Weissenborn...
mark63uni
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:26 pm
Location: New Brunswick, Canada

Here goes, First Lap steel build

Post by mark63uni »

So here's my first build. I'm going to do a semi-hollow body.. not that I thik it will make a huge differance in sound being such a small body, more so just because I wanted to base it a bit off my Gibson 339.. and I guess I like a challange ;) I've had 2 pretty solid days to work on it so far so I feel like it's came along ok so far. I'm just waiting for a my garage to warm up a bit here now so I can get a 3rd day in.

First day:

A couple scribbles of my idea.
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The stock, some nice maple I've had kicking around for a while
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Book matched the top
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The sides
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Neck layed out
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Top and neck, done for the day
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mark63uni
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:26 pm
Location: New Brunswick, Canada

Re: Here goes, First Lap steel build

Post by mark63uni »

Here's day 2.

A small steamer I built for the sides
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Side forms
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rough cut the top
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A rosewood board I had that I didnt reeeeally didnt want to cut up
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but.. it made a nice fret board
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mark63uni
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:26 pm
Location: New Brunswick, Canada

Re: Here goes, First Lap steel build

Post by mark63uni »

Some of those pictures got mixed up, that rosewood board ended up a few pictures up.
na4it
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2013 12:26 pm

Re: Here goes, First Lap steel build

Post by na4it »

NICE! And some good "ol'time" techniques going on. I like it!
Scott Duckworth
E6 Rogue lap steel, D6 Regal RD-30MS squareneck reso-guitar,
Li'l Izzy, Zoom MS-50G Effects Pedal into a Berhinger mixer and Harbinger V2112 speaker(s).

Amateur Radio Operator NA4IT (Extra)
http://www.qsl.net/na4it
mark63uni
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:26 pm
Location: New Brunswick, Canada

Re: Here goes, First Lap steel build

Post by mark63uni »

Thanks! Yea we can acquire all the power tools we want but nothing feels better than getting your hands dirty once in a while. That's the first time I used a scraper, I could have done that all day!

Funny thing, yesterday I had looked everything over, was super excited to just be out working in the garage,.. I had the neck almost done, yup, sides scraped and ready to steam,. Top was cut to shape, check. OH! Well in all the excitement I had forgot to make the BACK!! Duh Haha so I did that before I shut'r down for the night.
mark63uni
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:26 pm
Location: New Brunswick, Canada

Re: Here goes, First Lap steel build

Post by mark63uni »

I got a little bit more done yesterday

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Body knotched and set into place, starting to look like something
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mark63uni
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:26 pm
Location: New Brunswick, Canada

Re: Here goes, First Lap steel build

Post by mark63uni »

I read in another post somewhere that double sided carpet tape was used for sticking on an edge to router by, that's what I did for the neck sides, taped a straight piece of mdf to the neck to run the bearing on and it worked great.
Bent
Posts: 1397
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 3:10 pm
Location: Ontario Canada
Contact:

Re: Here goes, First Lap steel build

Post by Bent »

Mark, A lot of painstaking work and love is going into that guitar. It will be a success for sure! Good luck with your already fine product!
PS I wish I could draw like that. It would make life so much easier....
http://benrom.com/
21 BenRom pedal steel guitars, a Nash 112 and a 1967 TOS Milling machine with many cutters making one hell of a mess on the floor.
mark63uni
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:26 pm
Location: New Brunswick, Canada

Re: Here goes, First Lap steel build

Post by mark63uni »

Thanks Bent! Here's some pictures from today. I hope I'm not making myself look like a dummy here posting so many photos, maybe I'm putting too many. I just like seeing a lot of the process on people projects,. Anyway here's how today went.

After the sides steamed for a while (not actually long enough I don't think) I used a pipe and torch to make the bends close to the mold.
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Then clamped them in the moulds
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I don't know what these are called,, but they go around inside the sides. Y'know
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Hollowing out the inside. I started by using a small hand plane that I reshaped the blade on but it was snagging way to much on the curly so I switched to a dremel.
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Then got the F holes cut at my friends on his scroll saw. They're the opposite way as you'd usually see them,. But I drew a couple and thought they fitted the body's profile nicer like this.
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ljs
Posts: 101
Joined: Mon Sep 06, 2010 1:30 pm
Location: North East(the town) PA

Re: Here goes, First Lap steel build

Post by ljs »

You are doing great and I really like the step by step photos you are posting of your build. By all means keep them coming. I've made a few lap steels in the past and I have another started, but different things have gotten in the way and taken priority over this build. I hope to get back to it soon.
LaVern
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