Excerpt from the book It's easy to Build Your Own Lap Steel Guitar. The book describes the building of two lap steel guitars: The simple one shown on the left and a more conventional lap steel guitar.
Tools | Material | Making the peghead | Mounting the harware | Fitting the electronics | Fretboard | Finishing | Assembling
What is a lap steel guitar?
Parts of a lap steel guitar
Building a lap steel is easy
The guitar
Photos
Detail photos
Line drawing
Tools
About hand tools
Sharpening
Measuring and marking tools
Cutting tools
Boring tools
Tools for the electronics
Special guitarbuilding tools
Clamps, Glue
Material
Wood
Wood needed
Hardware parts needed
A note on the bridge used
Finishing material
Rough calculation of costs
List of tool and parts suppliers
Making the peghead
Marking the peghead contour
Cutting the peghead shape
Smoothing the transition
Making the peghead taper
Mounting the hardware
Drilling the tuner holes
Mounting the tuners
Mounting the nut
Placing the bridge
Fitting the electronics
Cutting the pickup cavity
Cutting the control cavity
Making the pickup cavity and control
cavity cover
Fretboard
Making the fretboard
Marking the fret positions
Cutting the fret slots
Filling the fret slots
Fitting the fretboard dot
markers
Gluing on the fretboard
Assembling the guitar
Wiring the electronics
Putting the strings on
Cutting the nut slots
Final setup