Rag 'n' Bone Brown is an online video channel documenting woodworking, restoration, DIY and upcycling projects using mainly salvaged wood and reclaimed materials by Keith Brown, Maker Of Things. Videos range from build projects like furniture builds and restorations, workshop projects, home & garden & pet projects to vlogs, tool reviews and influencer interviews. Based in Norwich in the UK, the channel began in 2015 on YouTube.

Making An Electric Guitar from Oak (part 5 of 9)

In this video I work on the guitar body

Making An Electric Guitar from Oak (part 4 of 9)

In this video, I started by doing some shaping of the end of the frets with an electric file, a hand file, and the orbital sander to round over the sharp edges and make the neck more comfortable to play.

Next I wanted to add some fret dots to the side of the neck.  I had an idea to use cocktail sticks or “tooth picks” for this.  I first marked up where the holes would need to be drilled with an awl, and then I drilled appropriately sized holes to accommodate the sticks, added wood glue, inserted the cocktail sticks, flush cut them and sanded to finish.

Making An Electric Guitar from Oak (part 3 of 9)

In this video I started by cutting a slot for the nut to slot in to the fretboard.  I did this on the cross cut sled on my tablesaw, making a couple of passes to get the slot to the right size.  Then I did a bit of shaping to the end of the fretboard using the belt sander.

Next I wanted to add the frets to the neck, and I used a free online tool by StewMac which accurately calculates the correct fret spacing for the scale of any guitar.  Then I carefully marked these up measuring the distance from the nut slot using a steel ruler.

Making An Electric Guitar from Oak (part 2 of 9)

In this video I began by drilling the holes for the tuners to fit in to the headstock.  I did lots of careful measuring to check that the tuners were eventy spaced out and level with the string slots of the nut.  I first drilled some pilot holes with a 2mm drill bit on the drill press, and then I drilled the holes to their final size. 

The heatstock wasn’t quite wide enough, so I glued on another strip of oak to it.  Once the glue had dried, I could then shape the headstock on the bandsaw and belt sander.

Making An Electric Guitar from Oak (part 1 of 9)

Following my fairly successful ukelele build recently, I decided up the stakes a bit and have a go at building an electric guitar.  I’d never built a guitar before.

I would start by making the neck.  I used oak which came from some salvaged hat and coat stands – I had to cut them to length, thickness plane them and then laminate two pieces together to give me a workpiece which was the right size.  Then I could mark up where the headstock and nut would be, and also where the neck would meet the body.

Making A Cross Cut Sled for the Tablesaw

In this video I make a cross cut sled for my tablesaw and test it out using the 5 cut method

Making A Simple Birdhouse

In this video I make a simple birdhouse for my garden from salvaged wood

Making An End Grain Chopping Board / Butchers Block From Salvaged Oak

In this video I make a chopping board from some salvaged oak hat and coat stands

Hedgehog House Update & Coming Soon...

A quick update about the hedgehog house and what is coming soon to the channel

Making A Ukelele - the entire build (Quick Version!)

This is a 15 minute video featuring the entire ukelele build in high speed with no talking.  If you'd like more detail, please check out the full 6 part series.  

Free plans can be found on the Resources page of my website.

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