Official Luthiers Forum!

Here's the follow up to my neck making methods.
I'll show how I cut the dovetail joint in the body and the neck blank that I previously made.

My body jig has a plug that references in the soundhole and a centerline that is used to line up the body.

The whole rig is hinged to make it easier to load the body, center it up

and then swing it into position to route.

The phenolic template is for my dovetail setup, which takes place in two operations.
The first pass is with a straight cutter to wast away the bulk of the material.


Then I switch routers to one set up with the dovetail bit.

Here's the body with it's dovetail cut.

Now I use my set up blanks (made out of a piece of clear kd cedar 4 x 4) to determine what is the proper set angle for a particular body.
I've got two of these with dovetails cut at 0, .5,1.0,and 2.0 degrees. (the set up blanks are double ended)


When I've determined the proper angel with my set up gauge that indexes in the truss rod slot I use the set up blank to adjust my neck dovetailing jig to the set angle I've decided on. This jig also hinges for loading/using.

Now I trim the end of the neck blank on my Incra miter gauge on the table saw. Again there's a spline that references in the truss rod slot.


Now I put the neck blank into the routing jig and again use a straight cutter to waste the bulk of the material and the dovetail router to make the final cut.


In a matter of minutes I've got a neck that drops right in. I'll check the set angle to be sure.



The last steps here are to thickness the headstock and run the roundover opreation (shown on my previous thread)


There you have it.
My jigs are probably the same idea as the Woolson variety. I can't say for sure as I've never seen them.
After I get my Miami guitars done, I'll consider drawing up a set of plans if there's enough interest.
-C

_________________
Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

What a great process! I am envious!

Thanks Charles!
By the way, I made your post global for 10 days..

_________________
Support the OLF! Bookmark our STEWMAC link Today!
Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Awesome threads, really...thanks for all the time it took to do this. As for the plans, I'll bet there will be enough interest. I'm certainly down for a set.

Thanks again.

_________________
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Many thanks from me too Chas - your tutorial is very well done!!!

_________________
Ann Arbor Guitars

dude, wow......

I work at a slow pace, maybe 2 nights a week or so.
I am a year into this and have 3 1/2 bodies and a bunch of necks and blah blah....

But the thing that has been gettin to me is the neck joint imperfections. I built a crude neck/joint system similar to yours. But just seems aggravating to line up consistently.
Your trick of using the truss rod slot on the neck jig to line things up for consistency just solved my problem. Such simplicity, so effective,

Thanks alot.

Jon

Great post Chas!
I know theres a million ways to skin a cat... but I love to see em all!
Im sure Im not alone in this either...
Cheers
Charlie

Shucks YES make some plans, I'll put an orderv in right now for one.

You sure make that look easy.

_________________
"After forty-nine years of violin building, I have decided that the search for a varnish is similar to the fox hunt. The fun is in the hunt."
Jack Batts Maker and Repairer of Fine Violins

Very nice Charles. Well thought out. Thanks for posting it. These types of threads are my favorites.
Terry

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

I like the tutories Chas. Lot's of good info in them for sure. Did you ever draw up the plans for your neck jigs? I'm getting to the point of doing a neck and would like to try out your system and would like to have some drawings to work from for the jigs. Job nicely done, Thanks.

Great as usual Charles. May I offer a suggestion? Regarding the pix. I noticed it in another thread. If you could post them so that they can be enlarged it would make the posts spectacular. I think if you avoid the "inline" part of where to post the pix, you'll be okay. You might have a limit of pictures (eight I think ) So you might need addtl. posts to cover your topic.

So there it is! Great thread. Thank you!

Oh and here's Neck Making with Shelix, etc. Part one
http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10117&t=15991&p=228885&hilit=+neck+making+shaper#p228885

(rats. The old forum software made it easy to relabel the url. Somebody PM me and tell me if there's an easy way ot do that. DOn't see it...) Sorry...

Hi Terry,
Thanks for the feedback. I'm in the process of updating my website and adding some "shop pages" to it. I'll re-work the pictures then and either re-post here or link to my new site pages.
I'm still planning on drawing up plans for my jigs as well. So many projects....
-C

_________________
Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

Man, that is a thing of beauty! I'm still contemplating the neck shaft operation now that I've downsized my shop and have no shaper...

_________________
http://www.presnallguitars.com

Charles,

As I probably said earlier, You've inspired me. Thanks for that. I bought a bunch of machines and tools from a friend who got out of furniture making. A grizzly 3hp shaper and a buncho cutters was included. That was about a year ago and I still haven't done more than turn it on. It's up on an enclosed patio. I doubt it'll ever see my basement shop. When we move, My shop MUST be located where I can readily move large pieces of equipment into. I will then fire up the shaper and start making stuff happen. I will probably do some training before I jump in though.

I've bookmarked the thread, and will keep it for reference. I'm with Terry Kennedy, these threads are amongst my favorites. So again, Thanks!

I was planning on doing it with a 3 hp router and router table.

Just for info to all ~ a 3 HP router is NOT the same as a 3 HP spindle shaper...

Yeah but I'll be able to do it with the router but I'll have to choose some different bits.

If you're not concerned with cutting the back of the headstock along with the rest of the neck shaping you can do the entire operation with a router table and the tall spiral flush cut bit from OCEMCO.
I have a alternate to the back of the headstock cut I'm doing with a plunge router set up that would adapt easily to the headstock thicknessing operation (along with a diamond volute or any other pattern you chose).
More on that soon too.
-C

_________________
Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

Yeah, I'd sure like to see that. I've been doing the back of my heads with a belt sander that I converted with a add on table that allows me to use it as a thickness sander. I sand it up to the volute and chisel out the volute and surrounding area. I would like to use a router for that.

I sometimes use the same sander method (second to last photo on the series on this thread). The advantage is you get a nice ramp to the volute- providing you don't want a diamond volute or such. My router jig can do most of the volute work for you, as well as handle the stepped peghead necessary for my "hybrid headstock®" (see my website).
-C

_________________
Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

Can you signpost me to part 1?

it is in the posts above -
http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10117&t=15991&p=228885&hilit=+neck+making+shaper#p228885

_________________
It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX