AJ’s custom Stratocaster – day 4
The glue and epoxy are cured, so I got out my smoothing plane. I took my time planing the rays one or two at a time, taking care not to go against the grain. I kept bumping into the letters so I moved up to plane them down before finishing the rays.
Planing down the maple
All planed flat
With the surface smooth and flat, I am going to cut out the pick-up pockets. Since I have a small drill press, I need to cut the board down close to the guitar body. I don’t want to cut out the entire body just yet. I need the large flat surface to rest the router on when I cut out the pocket for the neck and the controls.
Cutting down the sides
Drilling out the pick-up pockets
I use my 3/4″ forstener bit to give me the rounded edge of each pocket.
Drilling out the pick-up pockets
Drilling out the pick-up pockets
While I am at it, I go ahead and cut out as much of the pocket as possible.
Drilled everything that could be reached
1/4″ spiral up-cut bit
I will use my 1/4″ spiral up-cut bit to freehand cut the rest of the pockets. I set it to the full 1″ depth. The spiral up-cut bit does a good job of removing a lot of material in one shot.
Pockets routed
With the pockets cut, I decide to put a bit more epoxy over the inlays to fill any voids that were missed the last time around.
Second coat of epoxy
Midnight Woodworking 
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