+## Body ##
+
+I started out with a 1962 Stratocaster design file created in Alibre by
+user protomachinst6 on CNCzone.
+
+http://www.cnczone.com/forums/musical-instrument-design-and-construction/17659-cnc-32.html
+
+I originally hoped that I would be able to use FreeCAD to modify this design,
+but the STEP import process seemed to lose the ability to keep the various
+sub-assemblies oriented correctly relative to each other. Since Alibre has
+been replaced by Geomagic Design, I pulled down a 15-day trial version of
+that package to one of the Windows machines in the house, and (not
+surprisingly) it was able to read the file just fine. I was then able to
+export just the body and read that into FreeCAD, which was used for the
+remainder of the design work.
+
+Another interesting STEP file of the body from a 1962 strat drawn by Marc
+Erasmus is available on [GrabCAD](https://grabcad.com/library/62-strat-asm)
+and it appears at least one person has actually built a guitar using these
+files.
+
+To build the guitar body I want, the existing body design file was
+modified to eliminate the tremolo cut-out and rear cavity, to add screw holes
+for the hard-tail bridge, and to shift the electronics cavity from being
+front-open to being rear-accessible with the front just having 3 holes for
+the volume and tone control shafts and the slot and mounting screw holes
+needed for the pickup selector switch.
+
+The first attempt to cut the body on our CNC router failed, because a large
+delivery of building materials happened in the middle of the roughing pass,
+and I naively thought the router would be ok cutting for a while without
+me. Apparently, swarf jammed the bit up enough to cause the machine to lose
+steps and shut itself down. Unfortunately, when I attempted to restart the
+cut, something went horribly wrong and the roughing cutter put a deep gouge
+through much of the body of the guitar. I decided to call this attempt a
+bust, and look for more wood to start over with.
+