Hand Tools Only?

My first 3 solid bodies, I did with just a drill, jigsaw and a handsaw.

As Pickedmoor Jon suggested, a paper template will help to bring your design to reality. Have one ready before cutting some wood.

I have a router but I never used it to carve out bodies from wood. My trusty Black & Decker drill and Craftman jigsaw does that job well for me. My method is that I use layers of plywood. I cut out the body shape from 1/4 inch ply. With the template, I can cut out 6 body shapes identical. The first 3 shapes, I cut out the cavities for the neck, electronics and humbuckers (good to have a template of that too). For the forth shape, I deepen those cavities a little bit further but not completely through the wood. The fifth and sixth, I leave alone. Then glue all 6 shapes together, clamp it for an hour or two and viola, you have a body. Its way easy to stack the body like that than to route out a 2 inch thick piece of wood.

Of course, at that point, the edges will be crooked, with an 80 grit sanding drum bit you can smooth it all down. Or, what I did, before I had that sanding bit, I smoothed the sides with a putty resin. Kind of like ceramic clay but this stuff turns to hard plastic. Then I spray paint it all. But if you want to keep the wood grains showing, then use a sanding drum bit. They come in many sizes, small ones are cheap and thats the one I use on my drill.

Happy building. :D

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ILL GREEN March 3, 2019 at 3:08am

Here is an example of my work. The top piece is my veneer which is a 1/8" thick of birch ply by Revel (yup, like the model kits). I get these at the art store.
T-Gripped February 28, 2019 at 1:41pm

Good info, thank you Gents!
- Paul Craig > T-Gripped March 1, 2019 at 4:07pm
  
  The above mentioned tools are great along with a set of sharp chisels and hammer.
ILL GREEN February 27, 2019 at 5:48pm

My first 3 solid bodies, I did with just a drill, jigsaw and a handsaw.

As Pickedmoor Jon suggested, a paper template will help to bring your design to reality. Have one ready before cutting some wood.

I have a router but I never used it to carve out bodies from wood. My trusty Black & Decker drill and Craftman jigsaw does that job well for me. My method is that I use layers of plywood. I cut out the body shape from 1/4 inch ply. With the template, I can cut out 6 body shapes identical. The first 3 shapes, I cut out the cavities for the neck, electronics and humbuckers (good to have a template of that too). For the forth shape, I deepen those cavities a little bit further but not completely through the wood. The fifth and sixth, I leave alone. Then glue all 6 shapes together, clamp it for an hour or two and viola, you have a body. Its way easy to stack the body like that than to route out a 2 inch thick piece of wood.

Of course, at that point, the edges will be crooked, with an 80 grit sanding drum bit you can smooth it all down. Or, what I did, before I had that sanding bit, I smoothed the sides with a putty resin. Kind of like ceramic clay but this stuff turns to hard plastic. Then I spray paint it all. But if you want to keep the wood grains showing, then use a sanding drum bit. They come in many sizes, small ones are cheap and thats the one I use on my drill.

Happy building. :D
Pickedmoor Jon February 27, 2019 at 5:11pm

Hi T

You could try with a paper template and forstner bits, it's what I used before I owned a router

This reply was deleted.

Solidbody city

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