Today I routed the control cavity cover about 0.5 mm smaller and sanded it smooth. Then, I copied it to the final plywood template. It fits much better, although I’m still not completely satisfied with the consistency of the gap between body and cover. So I will probably do some fine tuning soon. Here’s what I’ve got right now:

Then I started making the real control cavity cover. I took some time selecting a piece that has an almost equal grain pattern (from the same blank, on the same ‘height’, so it’s pratically the same grain but somewhat shifted to the left). I think it will be very cool, hope it comes out the way I imagined.

No bandsaw, no thickness sander or planer.. so I’m going the MacGuyver way… First, I cut the selected piece from the body blank with a jigsaw. Then, I clamp it to the table and slice of a piece (about 3/8" thick) with a hand saw:

Of course, the thickness varies and I need to ‘plane’ it to the desired thickness of 1/4". So, I grab a left over piece of 3/8" thick MDF and screw the cover-to-be to the MDF. I pre-drilled the swamp ash and I also sunk the screws using a counter sink bit, so that they sit lower than the desired thickness of the cover – I don’t want to run into those screws with my router! The screws are also placed safely outward the edge of the control cover. I also could have used double sided tape, but I feel this method is better, since the cover needs to sit really tight and flat against the board, to get an equal thickness in the end. Then, I glue two bars on each side of the cover to the MDF, like this:

Next time, when the glue dried, I will put this assembly upside down on my router table and ‘plane’ the cover to the desired thickness. Then, I’ll cut most of the excess wood of with the jigsaw and use a copy bit on my router to cut it flush with the template. A lot of work altogether, but well worth the effort: I like a wooden (matching) cover way better than a plastic one.