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Folks,

I have a pair of assembled necks that I want to widen. I decided that I could use a contrasting piece of wood to laminate in the middle necks once they were cut in half down the middle. And that's what I'm asking about. These necks came my way assembled but not shaped, but the shafts were trimmed to a narrower-than-I-want fingerboard width. I thought the lamination would bring me past the width I want and I could remove the excess wood. I would much appreciate some advice as to how to split these necks down the middle. I have both a contractor-size table saw and a bandsaw. What I don't have is the experience and insight to get this done.

Thanks very much, everybody.

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Peter Havriluk

I've done this, using a table saw, if the neck already has the scarf joint done or the peghead angle set it is a bit tricky but doable.. Also the neck needs to be square to do this on a table saw. if it was tapered you MIGHT be able to do it on a band saw but by the time you cleaned up the cut line you might lose a fair bit do width. Of course no matter which saw you will lose the blade width.

Kerry

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My Website http://klw-strings.com
My Luthier's Blog...http://klwstrings.blogspot.com

No problem losing the blade width; up to a point losing material down the middle saves me work. My dilemma is locating the necks so's I make my cuts straight down the middle.

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Peter Havriluk

If you have a table saw you can use a taper jig and fence to align the center line of the neck with the blade. Normally the jig is used to cut a taper on a board, but by matching the taper of one side of the neck against the jig you will have a cut through the centerline.

You can make a simple nonadjustable jig by marking the centerline on both ends of the neck, laying the neck on a parallel sided board with the centerline over one edge of the board, tracing around the part of the neck laying on the board, and cutting that part of the board away that was covered by the neck. That will give you a jig that can not only be used to split the necks, but also cut the truss rod channel when the time comes.

Get a piece of plywood about 12" wide, and longer than the neck, with one straight edge, and rip it on a table or band saw so that both sides are parallel to a width of 10". Draw a centre line down the length of the ply, and double stick tape the neck to it, with the neck centred on it. Centre the ply on the blade, and rip. Measure the width of the two pieces of ply with the neck halves on them, and if they are off by a bit, re rip the piece that is wider so that both halves are equal.
Hope this is understandable!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Alex, thanks for the clear explanation of what might work just fine, especially about re-sawing till both pieces are the same width. Your solution was the only one I came up with, less the part about an adjustment/equalizing cut. That never occurred to me.

Onward to destruction in the morning. Table saw's in the garage and it's dark out there right now.

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Peter Havriluk

Once you have the neck mounted on the board, Peter, tack a couple of cleats on either side to keep it in place.

Ale

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

I sure like Ale's way. Very smart!!!

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Peter
Does the neck have a heel? Things get a little more complicated if it does.
Still doable but not as straight forward as Alex's method. You'll need to add
to the setup so that you can flip the process and cut the heel where you couldn't
reach on the first pass. If no heel, carry on!
Ken

You are quite right, Ken. I forget that most table saws wouldn't have the depth of cut required. I'm lucky in that I can rip 4"+ with mine.
One work around would be to first cut the heel with a hand saw to a depth that the circular blade will cut, and clean up with a chisel.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Heels are on the necks. I was aware of the need to consider how to manage cutting through the whole heel block. I think I can finish cutting the remaining uncut heel portion with a bandsaw or creatively using the table saw with a vertical rip fence extension. that won't take long to make and I suspect I'll have uses for the extension in the future. I've got a bunch of melamine waiting for jobs to do.

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Peter Havriluk

Most table saws go up 3". Can you cut the heel to length first and pull it off?

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

Heels need to stay where they are. I will never achieve as good a joint as now exists between the neck shaft and the stacked heel. I agree that in closer-to-ideal conditions the necks could have been disassembled, the parts cut in half, and reassembled. I think I'd do more harm than good by attempting it. But I agree with the underlying thesis that the heels are best cut in half when they're not on the neck, at least in terms of a good saw cut.

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Peter Havriluk

What I meant by pull it off was get the job done.

I was thinking that if you cut the heel to the length it would be on the actual guitar your blade might go high enough to make the cut.

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

2 things...

First... Cutting wood in half is easy.... Getting it back together where everything is straight, square, true, and aligned properly is the complicated part..... What's your plan to get everything lined back up with the laminations in there so half of the neck isn't 1/8" off the other half.

Second... Do you have the capacity/ability to joint large pieces such as this? I haven't seen a lot of saws that cut clean and straight enough that jointing isn't necessary.

Yes on both counts. Licensed aircraft airframe and powerplant mechanic. New to lutherie.

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Peter Havriluk