Edged just a little closer to completion today.
To recap, to make room for the new pots, ya'll may recall I routed away one of the anchor points for the rear control cavity cover. So, I had to decide where and how to recreate that. Otherwise, the entire long edge of the cover would not be fastened down.
However, as the previous anchor point was centered along the long edge, a new one would be decidedly offset one way or the other. So, I decided to make two!
To start, I looked at the grain orientation of the original and decided to replicate that.
I began by cutting off a section from a 2x4 with my miter saw:
Then I ran that through my table saw to get it to the height I needed, plus just a hair more to allow for sanding later:
Next, I rounded off both ends with my belt sander and cut them off with my miter saw.
Here's the piece just before cutting:
And...behold...two little anchor points!
Here's what they look like just after I glued them into place, but before applying a clamp. Of course, I'll drill pilot holes before screwing the cover down to ensure I don't crack them!
The clamping was a little tricky. The only clamps I had with enough reach were pipe clamps. So, I made a little clamping caul to bridge both anchor points. After padding everything prodigiously, I set the clamp. The waxed paper around the caul assures no glue that oozes out will stick to it.
Finally, this last shot shows what has pretty much been the standard practice for all of my clamping operations throughout this process. In addition to applying masking tape to the body, I've applied a couple of layers of padding and used a flat wooden clamping surface. All this ensures no divots in the guitar body.
At this point, the actual construction and modification required to "Les Paul-ize" my Jackson is finished. I just need to fabricate a cover for the new switch cavity and apply fresh shielding paint throughout.
