Making and using templates for items on your CBG build's is quick and easy! Thanks to Brian Romero (Bairfoot Cajun) for this tip...
Use light weight cardboard from the case of a soda carton (I use Canada Dry - mixes well with scotch; Brian uses Mountain Dew) and carefully trace out your template. Here is a couple of templates I made, one for a standard Dobro sound hole and the other for a recessed Strat jack plate.
Cut out the template using a razor blade or an Exacto knife. Save the templates for use on other projects. You can make headstock templates, sound or f-hole templates, jack plate hole templates, and many other templates that you can think of. It saves time when you use the same accessories to spuce up your CBG's and also makes for pretty accurate cuts...
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Which I reformatted to work with a 4" piece of 1x3 (3/4" x 2-1/2") for headstock material, assuming a 1-1/2" neck width.
Printed them out and glued them to piece of plywood, then bandsawed and filed them to final shape. I just did these two rough cuts, they have yet to be routed. We'll see how they end up!!
You can also add hand drawn templates and shape templates as well.
For shape templates like banjo heads I've printed out a template downloaded from the internet. I use a hobby knife to cut along the outside of the pattern and where the peg holes are to go. Leaving tabs along the edge so that you aren't just cutting out a large hole. Cut alongside the first cut so that the end result is like a line drawing cut-out of the edge of the pattern. Then use a sign makers method of filling a cloth bag with chalk, lay the pattern down and tap the pattern with the chalk bag. When removed you have your layout or pattern transferred to the build. Made a msitake, simply wipe and redo as may times as you like.
No pics, but you can also make more permanent templates out of thin plexiglass (like 3/32" or 1/8"), with a dremel. More effort, but they'll last longer (and hold truer to form) than cardboard. And they don't go to mush when you spill a bottle of beer on them. Or so a friend told me...
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Kool idea
I just made these:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZQKfbMb5K7S1Biux8
Which I modified from these:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Guitar_headstock_outlines
Which I reformatted to work with a 4" piece of 1x3 (3/4" x 2-1/2") for headstock material, assuming a 1-1/2" neck width.
Printed them out and glued them to piece of plywood, then bandsawed and filed them to final shape. I just did these two rough cuts, they have yet to be routed. We'll see how they end up!!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/cFPiiNJ5zzwvZQtD7
You can also add hand drawn templates and shape templates as well.
For shape templates like banjo heads I've printed out a template downloaded from the internet. I use a hobby knife to cut along the outside of the pattern and where the peg holes are to go. Leaving tabs along the edge so that you aren't just cutting out a large hole. Cut alongside the first cut so that the end result is like a line drawing cut-out of the edge of the pattern. Then use a sign makers method of filling a cloth bag with chalk, lay the pattern down and tap the pattern with the chalk bag. When removed you have your layout or pattern transferred to the build. Made a msitake, simply wipe and redo as may times as you like.