Official Luthiers Forum!

I've outsourced all of my necks to date. I'm not setup to make the joint or truss-rod slot, and when you add up the cost of the blank, truss-rod, and time, Hanaeli-Moon seems pretty reasonable.

The itch is there, though, and it's something I'd like to learn. Especially after following last week's dovetail v. bolt-on thread.

I have Porter Cable 690 and 310 routers, but no table. If I had a table the truss rod slot would be simple. Is there a way to cut it by hand (rabbet or pattern maker's plane?), or with the router without a table?

I feel comfortable enough with a saw to cut the tenon on the neck blank, but not sure how to cut the mortis on the body by hand. Any ideas?

A neck angle jig would be great, but our single car garage is pulling double duty as a garage gym. Space is pretty limited, so the more compact the better right now.

Truss rod slot is easy peasy! Just put an edge guide in the router and rout it in there. Do it in several passes of course not the entire depth at once but there is absolutely nothing to it. As far as the mortise and tenon use a hand saw or table saw. On my irate I did it with a hand saw. Just carefully mark the neck blank up and saw the two blocks out and kaboom baby you got a tenon. For the mortise you can cut it into the neck block before installation. Just mark to up and cut both sides with the saw and chisel out between the lines. Then carefully trim to fit the tenon nicely. The only thing you have to worry about doing it that way it to be sure you glue the neck block on it's in nice and square and straight. A center line around the block really helps with this.

Hope that helped. Let me know if ya got more questions. I may even be able to find a picture or two

Thanks, Zeke. I'm comfortable cutting the tenon. Didn't even know about edge guides.

Chiseling the mortis to tight tolerances seems iffy, but makes sense. Knock out the majority with a mortis chisel, then bring it home with some bench or paring chisels?

As Zeke said, a router with an edge guide will do it. You might use a 3/16 bit a hair off center and passes down each side (so you're left with 1/4" slot that you know is on centerline). As far as the mortise, many have cut them by hand (Jimmy D'Aquisto for one).

_________________
Dave
Milton, ON

I have Porter Cable 690 and 310 routers, but no table. If I had a table the truss rod slot would be simple. Is there a way to cut it by hand (rabbet or pattern maker's plane?), or with the router without a table?

A good functioning router table is simple, easy and cheap to make. Grab a piece of 3/4" mdf, counter sink mounting holes using your existing router base as a template. Use a straight edge of plywood clamped to the mdf as your fence...voila! I have made several of these to accommodate various sizes of router bits for minimal bit / table clearance.

_________________
Doug

Don't let fear or common sense stop you from trying to build something

Here is the edge guide that came with my Bosch colt



Just set it and take your passes works great.

For the mortise you take most out with the chisel and then either chisel the sides slowly for a fit or I used a flat file on the sides.

I have to agree with Doug about the table. If you've got a router, a piece of plywood or mdf should work just fine. Just need a couple of clamps and nice striaght board as a fence. I've used the edge guide, which works, put I find it easier to run the wood over the router than the other way around.

I have plans for a table, just prefer not to build one at this point. I agree that one would be nice. I built a few drumsets one summer in college. I just screwed a router to some plywood and flipped it over to cut the bearing edges

Dave, do you know how D'Aquisto cut the mortis?

James of you have the cumpiano book he shows how to do it in there. It what I used as a guide for my first.

Better than an edge guide (they only guide along one side and can move along the other) is a couple pieces of straight scrap clamped in place and run the router between the two pieces over the neck blank. I did my first that way - before I built a router table.

_________________
Thank You and Best To All

Here is Zekes quick and crappy mortise tutorial.

Step one mark centerline


Step two measure and mark both sides of mortise and mortise depth. Mark on both sides and across the top. Shade in area for idiot proofing


Use saw (I like the miter saw) to cut just inside of the lines to the depth of the mortise. Be sure to check both sides if the block do your cuts are nice and square


Use chisel to remove material inside of the two cuts. (I was in a rush and had tear out on the backside. Go from both directions to the middle to prevent this)


Voila a mortise. Now just file the sides a little at a time regularly checking the fit to the tenon.

Router with an edge guide is all you need for a truss rod. I have a table, prefer to use the edge guide. Just remember the simple rule: routers go left. Relative to the direction you push them. So keep your fence to the left or the guide to the right.

I have done similar from the start.
2 strips of Baltic ply, 18mm apart in a "frame" type jig and run the router with an 18 mm guide bush up this "slot"
Very simple to make, just give it a wax now and again.
Basically nowhere else for the router to go but straight.

_________________
The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Zeke thats incredible but why not use your table saw? Take a 2' piece of whatever and run a few passes through the old saw and voila! You have a years supply.

I don't use the table saw because I'm too lazy to walk across the street and all the way to the back of the foundry to the pattern shop where the only table saw us located. Plus now I use a Simpson jig and router.

Zeke, love your tutorial. Cumpiano would be proud.

But keep your fence to the right in a table situation. Your router is upside down and will want to push the wood to the right.

_________________
Pat