Official Luthiers Forum!

How do you guys accurately cut the neck heel to length when fitting the neck to the body – table saw, band saw, laser beams? I was never able to produce a dead on controlled cut on my first two guitars to accurately align the end of the heal with the side purfling. Trying to fine tune by block sanding after making the initial cut generally produced a less than flat surface and a heightened level of frustration.

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Doug Mills
Chicago, Illinois

I use the disk on my combination sander. If I forget to do this step before I carve the heel profile, I'll rest the tenon on a block of wood and slowly swing the heel cap area into the disk sander. Works well either way. Personally, I try to have the uncapped heel just barely touch the binding. My caps usually match the binding and I like the look when they flow together.

Cutting on the table saw works great but the heel cap plane is parallel to the fretboard and kind of disrupts the flow as it is not similar to the plane of the back. If you can cut the heel perpendicular to the cheeks of the heel it looks better to me. This might be splitting hairs but it's a little detail I like. This has worked well for me and gives a nice flat surface:

Cut close on the table saw

Mark the level you want to end at and attach your neck to a jig that keys off the cheeks. (Assuming the neck is set and the cheeks are at the proper angle) Make sure all the pieces of the jig are at 90 degrees to each other.





Set up the belt sander at a perfect right angle to the table and the miter gauge and clamp the miter gauge



Sand carefully to the mark.



This puts the heel cap at 90 degrees to the cheeks and closer to the plane of the back and things seem to flow a little better.

Terry

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I've only built classicals w/a spanish foot so I've only done this with the neck atatched, but I just pare it with a very sharp, wide chisel. Seems to work fine, leaves a nice, flat gluing surface.

Good suggestions. Thank you.

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Doug Mills
Chicago, Illinois

I like to put veneer or fiber (fish paper) layers under the heel cap that look continuous with the side purfling. I wait until I have the neck almost fully shaped at the heel, and fit for angle and alignment before trimming on the disc of my combination sander. Heel cap and its purfling layers are the last thing to get glued. Then I finish shaping the cap end of the heel.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Howard,

Do you wait until you glue the fingerboard onto the neck before trimming the heal length in order to ensure absolute precision in locating the end of the heal before you trim the length? Do you use a jig similar to what Terence is showing to trim with your disk sander?

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Doug Mills
Chicago, Illinois

Yes, I glue the fingerboard to the neck well before fitting the neck to the body (before shaping the neck), and I fit the neck about 90% of final before trimming the heel, so I'm sure there won't be any shimming of the board or other adjustment that could throw off the heel length.

I don't use a jig. I mark both sides of the heel and go slow, trying it on the guitar body as it gets close. There is probably a better way that is less risky.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Great looking work Howard. I've found that the most important "tool" for almost any task is patience.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/