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So this is what happens when a Machine Tool Technology Instructor/bassist finds out about cigar box guitars? well his students get to learn the finer points of cutting wood with a milling machine.  

It's still in progress i will update with more pictures when i have more details but here's what we have so far.

The neck:

So i lucked out on the neck. One of my students, a former wood worker, had a 18 year old piece of purpleheart wood in his basement. when i told him what i was thinking about doing well he asked if i wanted it. It's an amazing piece of wood and i've got enough to do a guitar after we finish the bass.  

so far the neck has been milled out for the box lid and we are working on doing a slight taper from 1-7/8 down to 1-1/2 at the neck and rounding the back edge. The holes are drilled for the strings  and the tuners (not shown in this picture). Still remaining on the neck is bushing for the strings to pass through. I'm doing a brace down the back where the cut away is and i"m prepared to do a truss rod if necessary.

the lid was 7/16" thick i wanted to have the neck and the lid blend together as much as possible, but didn't want to mill all my neck away. so we thinned it down a bit on the back side.

So here's where we are at so far. It's going to be a 4 string 30 or 32 scale (depending on where i decide to mount the bridge) string spacing at the neck and bridge match my ibanez sr 5 string (with one less string).I like the contrast between the neck and the body.

Speaking of the bridge it's going to be a piece of work it's half way through I'll update when it's completed