Power drill

You will probably already have a power drill; if not, it is worth buying one, not least because they are quite cheap anyway.You should also have a good and stable drill stand with vise. Cordless drills (powered with rechargeable batteries) are also useful as they are small, quiet and easy to handle and can be recharged within 10 minutes to an hour, depending on the battery charger. Obviously, a hand drill will also be quite sufficient if you buy ready-made hardware.

A drill press - as opposed to a power drill on a stand - will be a real blessing and not that more expensive than some of the more expensive power drills. With a drill press everything is firmly in place and the noise level is pleasantly low, too.

Drill bits

1Forstner bit for drilling largediameter holes and removing wood prior to routing. It produces a hole with a flat bottom. A small depression in the middle is left by its point.

2Brad point bit for use in wood. It has a useful centering point and produces a hole with a flat bottom.

3Twist drill bit for use in metal and wood. The bottom of the hole is cone-shaped.

Power tools

There are a great number of portable power tools available for almost any kind of application. Portable machines such as belt sander, power planer or circular saw can be very useful and make work easier, but they are not absolutely indispensable for building an electric guitar. Whenever possible buy semi-profes- sional or even professional tools; the machines aimed at the amateur woodworker are in general less powerful and, although sufficient for your needs, will not bring such long-lasting delight. Your finances permitting, it is obviously always advantageous to buy high-quality tools and machines rather than low-quality ones.

Plunge router

A plunge router is an absolute must. I would even say that it is the most important and most versatile tool needed for building an electric guitar. There are countless books and videos on what you can do with a router - in fact, there is hardly anything that can't be done or made with it. Although a small one will do, a more expensive and more powerful model will obviously be more versatile. Power drills with routing attachment cannot replace routers as they are not capable of producing the high speed required.

Almost all router manufacturers offer collets of different sizes (6), and I would recommend that you buy an assortment of all collets offered by the manufacturer of your router in addition to the one(s) which come(s) as a standard. This has the advantage of allowing the use of virtually all router bits.

I would strongly recommend buying a mediumto large-sized router with a 12mm (1/2") collet. Although a router of this size is often twice or even three times more expensive, it is also far more versatile. Buying a more expensive, professional router might well cause an intense, short-lasting pain, but compared to the life-long “suffering” with an undersized machine this is clearly the better choice for the long term. And if one day you decide to give up your hobby altogether and you sell the machine, potential buyers will be happy to pay good money for a high-quality machine.

Buying 1/2", 12mm, 3/8", 8mm, 1/4" and 6mm collets will allow using almost any router bit. If you would like to save money, buy shank adapters (also called reducing collets, reducer sleeves or bushing adapters): one 1/2" collet will then be sufficient and bits with smaller shanks can be fastened by using e.g. a 1/2" to 1/4" or a 1/2" to 8mm shank adapter. For larger router bits these adapters are not as well suited as the shanks are prone to slipping out of the adapter, but for the small cutters that you will need for building your electric guitar these adapters will do the job, as

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long as you make sure that the collet is very well tightened. Another drawback is the increased cutter vibration. Shank adapters are more of a makeshift and I would recommend that you to use a right-sized collet straight away.

Some routers additionally allow the use of cutters with threaded shanks which are simply screwed onto the machine. Reducing sockets to fit other thread sizes are also available.

Collets should never be tightened with brutal force and never without a correctly-sized bit in it. They are wearing parts and should be replaced as soon as they are slightly damaged.

The depth of cut that can be made with a router depends on its maximum plunge depth, the length of the cutter and the length of the cutter shank. Two-thirds of the length of a normal-length cutter shank should always be in the collet. Cutters with longer shanks can not only be fastened better but also allow making deeper cuts than correctly-fastened cutters with shorter shank. If you do not make deep cuts, use bits with normal-length shank as the longer the cutter, the more it vibrates.

The depth of cut can be adjusted without using a scale. The scales of some routers are quite unreliable anyway. Place the router on the piece you are working on, lower the bit until it just touches the surface of the piece and lock the router. Then put something which is the same height as the desired depth of cut under the depth stop and fix the stop. Feeler gauges are suitable for low-depth cuts and drill shanks (as shown in the picture on the right) for deeper cuts. When using a template errors in setting the depth of cut often occur because the thickness of the template is not taken into account.

My plunge routers

I have a small router (4) with 600 watts power, a maximum 24,000 rpm (revolutions per minute), an electronic speed and torque control and a 6mm and 1/4" collet. I found it was sufficient for me until I discovered how much better it was to to work with a stronger and more powerful model.

My second router (5) has an 1800 watts motor, a constant 22,000 rpm and can accept a 1/2" bit shank.

Because it doesn't have an electronic soft start control, there is a jerk when the machine is switched on, but this is not really a problem. Now I use the smaller model for precision work where the heavier router would be too difficult to handle. At the front (6) you can see collets, shank adapters (reducer sleeves) and a 10mm thread adapter.

Always wear eye and ear protection when using a router. Never change the cutter bit while the router is still plugged in.

Table-mounted router

Most routing jobs can be done better and more safely if the router is mounted upside down on a table. I built a very basic router table from a board and a router mounted beneath it. When working with it I simply secure the board on the workbench with two clamps. The router that I use for this is a very old model of the German manufacturer Scheer (shown on the left in the picture above) which was a real bargain as I bought it secondhand. A lot of carpenters prefer smaller, more modern and easier-to-handle models and additionally have a shaper so that such old-style routers are often no longer needed and just use up space. I also find them quite unwieldy as routers, but for use as simple table-mounted routers they are ideal. The Scheer- model has 1800 watts power, a constant 12,000 rpm and a 10mm thread for holding the router bits. I also managed to get a colletadaptor and a 12mm and 1/2" collet. Cutters with end-mounted ball bearing which are sufficiently long for the body of an electric guitar all come with such a thick shank.

Make sure to move the router in the correct direction (i.e. in the opposite direction of the revolving cutterhead). When routing around the outside of a piece of work the router has to be moved in a counterclockwise direction (a). Cavities on the inside, such as pickup cavities, are made by routing in a clockwise direction. Routing against the direction of rotation has the advantage of making it a lot easier to guide the router smoothly.

The same is true if you use an edge guide. When routing in the right direction (against the direction of rotation) the edge guide is pulled towards the work (b), thus keeping the routing line straight. Routing in the opposite direction would make it very difficult to keep the guide close to the piece of work.

Edge guide

Router bits

There are three types of router bits: HSS (High Speed Steel) TCT (Tungsten Carbide Tipped) and solid carbide ones. The HSS steel cutters wear much more quickly when used on hardwoods. They can therefore only be recommended for routing softwoods. The TCT router bits have welded-on carbide blades. Such cutters are more expensive, but they also last longer and allow cleaner cutting.

When buying router bits the size of the collet of your router has to be taken into account. Cutters with thicker shank are more stable. Also be aware of the maximum shank diameter permissible on your router. Avoid using a much longer cutter bit than is necessary for doing a particular job as the longer the bit is, the less smoothly it will turn.

How to quickly turn a router into a table-mounted router

By fastening a rectangular base plate to the router base as shown on the left you can quickly convert your router into a table-mounted router. The table opening has a rabbet around its circumference and the rectangular base plate is fastened with two screws placed at diametrical corners.The inserted router base is adjusted flush with the table with shims glued on the rabbet. The table on the left is a simple plywood board fastened to the table edge with two clamps. It was stiffened on its underside to keep it flat.

Flush-trimming cutter bits, which can have the ball bearing mounted on the shank (2-6) or at the end (7), are extremely useful for building electric guitars. The diameter of the ball bearing and the bit are identical, and the bearing can be guided along the edge of a 1:1 template fixed on the workpiece. By stacking on the right ball bearing you can turn an ordinary bit into a ball-bearing cutter bit. The smallest ball bearing size I managed to find has an inside diameter of 6mm and an outside diameter of 10mm; I used it on a 10mm router bit with 6 mm shank (2). Always use some kind of protection to stop the bearing from sliding up the shank during use as this could ruin your work. The ball bearing could be kept from sliding up by fastening a metal ring with a tiny allen screw (3, 5, 6) or by stacking two or more ball bearings above each other, in which case the collet keeps them in place (2, 4). If you can't get hold of a smalldiameter bearing, it may be necessary to use the bit shank as a stop (1). Be aware that in this case the fast-turning shank becomes very hot and can damage the template during routing.

Rounding-over bits with ball bearing are very useful for rounding off body edges. They are available in different radii or as oval shapes of different sizes (8). Always make sure not to exceed the maximum cutter bit diameter or the maximum speed that is permissible on your router.

Special surface-trim cutter bits like the ones shown below make smoothing wood surfaces easier. They have three cutting edges, which gives smoother surfaces.

Spiral bits

The parallel cutting edges of normal router bits are not permanently in contact with the wood, which results in vibrations and tool marks left on the surface.

Bits with spiral edges, on the other hand, are always in contact with the wood and cut continuously. There is no vibration from the impact of entering and leaving the wood. Furthermore the shearing action of their cut produces shavings and leaves a much cleaner surface. Last but not least this type of bit is quieter. The more cutting edges a spiral cutter has - the one on the right has two, the one on the left four - the better. There are bits with up-cutting or down-cutting spiral. Chips are always removed in the direction of the spiral. The bit on the right in the picture above has cutting edges on its point and an up-cutting spiral and can be used for drilling holes. The bit on the left also has an up-cutting spiral but no cutting edges on its point.