Rebuild: Update 10

I've done more epoxy work along with some jig building. Check it out.

Here is the guitar with the walnut body sanded down to 400 grit, and wiped with naphtha. There's currently 2 epoxy coats on the body, and 1 on the neck.

 Here i'm applying the third coat to the body with a squeegee. As more coats are applied, and the pores are sealing more and more, the amount of epoxy needed per coat decreases.

Left: 1st coat unsanded. Middle: 2nd coat sanded. Right: 3rd coat unsanded.

3rd coat applied. The epoxy now makes the surface reflective as it becomes more level.

More looks at the reflection.

The sides are leveling nicely. I may need to apply one more coat to the entire body, especially the back, as I can see a few spots of grain still showing.

I figured I'd wait until the epoxy cures a lot first before applying a third coat. In the meantime, I decided to build a jig. I was rooting through my scrap pile from the original build and found my makeshift binding router jig. It was terribly inaccurate and prone to making errors. I decided to do some research to find alternatives. I've seen this jig (http://blackwaterriverguitars.com/Tools%20-%20Binding%20Routing%20Jig.html) along with other similar ones online. It looks relatively simple to build, so I began my design. I used AutoCAD to design the jig and give it dimensions. This was based off of mostly pictures and a few dimensions other luthiers listed on their websites. The resulting dimensions from the CAD file were accurate down to 0.01". I virtually drew a 4' x 2' board of plywood in program and laid out each jig piece out to determine the future cuts. I bought the board, some hard pine, a 12" lazy susan, and a 20" drawer slide. I then made each cut on the table saw, using test pieces to check for the ~0.01" (give or take) accuracy. I had all the pieces, and then pretty much screwed it all together. No reshaping. No filing. No mistakes. It went together exactly as the CAD drawing showed. It took about a day and a half to begin research, design, and build the jig.

Ain't she a beaut. A laminate trimmer will soon be mounted to the end of the arm to the left.

The docked drawer. These beefy 20" slides have almost no play to them. The back portion here is nice and flush.

 The arm extended fully, with the 'parallelogram' raised. She has quite a reach. With a router/laminate trimmer mounted, a small counterweight will inevitably be placed on the back end. The router, when used, will have its entire weight supported by the guitar's edge, so the only true purpose for this jig is to keep it perpendicular with the work surface.

Cheesy DOF picture. Them there's some 1/4" 20 4" bolts with locking nuts on the parallelogram. 

The clearance on the drawer is quite small. However, since everything I build is perfect, the sliding drawer wood never comes in contact with the stationary outer drawer.

Mounting a laminate trimmer (handheld router) to the end will be easy. I just need to get one first. I will then test on a scrap piece of wood. The semi-hollow epoxy job will soon get level sanded and recoated.

-Super duper.