How Do I Route A Rear Cavity ?

[post toastie]

what tools does one use to drill a cavity in the back of a guitar and most importantly what tool is used to recess the area for the cover ?

thanks.

[CTN]

Re: How Do I Route A Rear Cavity ?

make templates, draw outlines, make sure your templates are stuck onto the body with double sided tape.

do the recessed area for the cover first. For that I'd just use a router straight away without forstner bits first. Just make sure you're using the right bit and ball bearings if possible to keep from gouging the template or the body itself. The ones at stew mac are perfect, but a bit pricey. However, I haven't seen sets like that anywhere else, so it might be worth it. Stew Mac Router Bits

For the control cavity, draw your outline within the recessed area, and roughly drill using forstner bits (don't go too deep otherwise you'll pockmark the front of the guitar), and then clean it up with the router, making successive passes until you've reached the desired depth.

[post toastie]

Re: How Do I Route A Rear Cavity ?

thank you so much i'm checking it out.

does anyone else do it differently ? i'm interested in all methods.

[PoorMan]

Re: How Do I Route A Rear Cavity ?

CTN's instructions are pretty much dead-on. That's the standard way of routing body cavities. The only things I might add is the double sided tape he is referring to is carpet tape available at any hardware store. Also, mdf is a good inexpensive template material.

[John_L]

Re: How Do I Route A Rear Cavity ?

If it's just a round hole like a Les Paul switch cavity you can do it with a drill first drill a guide hole all the way through then take a 70-mm bit and drill down to the level of your recess then a 65-mm bit and drill down to the depth of cavity you want. This is what Gibson did until the late 1980's. Drill four holes like this a tidy up the recess with a chisel and you can make a Les Paul/SG control cavity. Three holes in a line and clean up the recess…
You can do a lot with this method especality if you are hand working.

[beandip]

Re: How Do I Route A Rear Cavity ?

Very carefully...

[ex-250]

Re: How Do I Route A Rear Cavity ?

this is the best thread title i've ever seen.

[Jackson Distortion]

Re: How Do I Route A Rear Cavity ?

Lol. Well, son...

[uOpt]

Re: How Do I Route A Rear Cavity ?

Stewmac has the templates.

I would not cut one of those humongous rear cavities that e.g. Warmoth puts in. I have a separate garage for my car, thank you.