Day 42 - Neck blocks

There wasn't a whole lot going on in Dalekland this weekend.  I did manage to trim and glue the gunboxes in place, after satisfying myself that they were square and level with each other.  I originally wanted to build it all as one piece, but changed my mind.  I'm glad I did, too; trying to cut out two symmetrical holes simultaneously would have been really tough, I think.

So, in the first photo, I have traced the interior line where I decided to place it.  The outer "dashed" line is where outside of the shoulder cladding is, where there are still spacers for the upper thin strip of HDF I have yet to place.  I then took and hand-drew the line where I wanted to cut, about ~10mm away from the inner line.  I used the woodcutting blade on the dremel tool yet again to make those cuts.  Using the subsequent cut-off piece, I traced the same line on the lower part of the gunbox and trimmed again.  I repeated this process for the other gunbox.

I don't have a photo of the next part, but the side wall of the gunbox was very long, sticking into the shoulder interior by about 3 inches.  I took the table saw and tilted the blade 45°, adjusted the miter guage to the angle cut on the gunbox (~20°), and trimmed a few inches off, to where the edge was about 10mm away from the top and bottom cuts I had just done.  Again, repeated for the other gunbox.

Next up, I glued them in (initially, just on the bottom, where the three layers of cladding and spacers are, then later inside on top), added a couple of blocks of scrap wood and a piece or two of HDF to hold them in place where everything lined up, and proceeded to let them dry.

After they were dry, I mixed up another batch of PVA water (this time in a squirt bottle instead of brushing it), propped up the sections away from the newspaper underneath, and let fly the gluey mist, onto the skirt, fender, neck rings, shoulders, everything.  Seattle gets moist (the fog we've been having!), and I want this sucker water-tight.

While that was drying, I decided that the next thing I wanted to tackle and get out of the way were the neck blocks.  I've seen a variety of ways that they've been made by various builders (resin castings, 3D printers, chamfered wood).  I knew I wanted them to be wooden, but I wanted to see if I could do it without using the router.  Too much dust!

I decided to use my 1/2" MDF that I got initially for the gunboxes.  I have quite a bit left over, so I cut a few 31mm lengths with the table saw, then set it to a 45° angle and gave it the chamfer (I used a test piece to ensure that I left a 4mm un-chamfered portion on the front).  I had to be VERY careful with that second 45° cut; use a push stick or lose fingers.

In the plans, I noticed that the blocks are 43mm in the back, and 40mm in the front.  I took a scrap of plywood and clamped it to the saw guide, 43mm away from the blade.  Then, I did some guesswork and set my miter saw table angle to 4°.  I flipped the MDF upside down (with the chamfer on the bottom and facing away from me), and made an initial cut on the very edge.  Then, flipping it back up (and this time with the chamfer facing me), I bumped up the MDF to the clamped block, and made the second cut.  I made sure to not pull the blade back up while it was spinning; otherwise, the block would fly out of the miter saw with a mangled edge on it.

I measured the resulting block, and sure enough, it was 43mm on the back end, and 40mm on the front!  I repeated the above process 23 more times, and made all my initial neck block pieces.

AdamWolf had an amazing post about creating an elaborate tablesaw jig for cutting the neck strut holes, but I became too impatient and came up with a weird alternative way.  Again, following AdamSt's lead, I decided to cut a "comb" pattern in the neck block.  However, I don't have a bandsaw, so I used my jigsaw.  To ensure that I accommodated the strut angle, I used the remnant of the chamfer I cut with the table saw and positioned it behind the blade, so that when I pushed the block against the saw, it automatically angled upward a bit.  This rested against a couple of clamped pieces of plywood to ensure that the cut didn't go too deep.

I then tore off the thin cuts with my fingernails, then took a bit of sandpaper to smooth out the cut-lines.  After a test fit, I am completely satisfied with this process, and will do the remainder of the neck blocks in similar fashion.

So, there's still some work to go on these guys, but I'm happy with the progress.  I don't yet have the wooden bearings, so I will wait until I have them in hand before I unpack and set up the drill press, drill the rounded holes, and test fit the bearings.