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I am interested in the idea of making a laminated neck. What are the pros and cons? What about wood grain orientation? Can you use flat sawn lumber to build up the neck? Is there a problem using two or three species together? Do you need a odd number of layers like plywood? Is there any info or tutorials that anyone could point me toward. Thanks Bill the Greenman

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Mistakes are mandatory-learning from them is optional. http://www.opensourceluthiersupply.com

In my opinion stronger than one piece necks. If a con, can be the gluing together and stuff takes a little longer. You can use flat sawn and turn it on edge and then you have quarter. You can do the lam's however you want. I usuallly get orphan sides or bad grade stuff and do those as lam's. Lot of options. I like the single black I think call it fish paper 3 piece some now, but whatever scheme you like works.

Hi Bill,
here's what I did. I found this very nice flatsawn piece of spanish cedar at a local lumber yard. The grain is almost parallel throughout the whole board. The board was around 72" x 6" x 7/8".



I also had some Wenge practice sides from LMI - at least I think it's Wenge - literally the first thing that happened when I touched the practice sides was that I had a huge splinter in my finger



I then cut out three around 35" x 1.25" x 7/8" pieces from the spanish cedar and two equally long and wide pieces form the Wenge sides



Then comes the planing and sanding part...you obviously want a really good fit here. Finally gluing everything together. Here's what the neck looks like. You can see that the grain orientation is now pretty much quartersawn.



I did cut of three pieces from the neck blank to produce a stacked heel:



You could also use around 4x4x7/8 pieces of lumber to produce a one-piece heel. I'd probably recommend that as you don't have to worry about getting everything as perfectly aligned.

You could obviously also use three 30x4x1 pieces of lumber (and two sides), glue them all together, and then cut two necks out of the 30x4x3 block. I think that's what most builders do. I probably would too, if I sold my instruments, but since I'm a beginner I try to save lumber wherever I can.

best, Christian

I wrote up how I make my two piece laminated necks a while back in a "build thread on another forum", let's see if I can cut and paste it in here (sorry if the pictures take up a bit of space, but they are linked in so they won't show up compressed like pictures that are uploaded to the OLF)


I buy large boards of mahogany at the local lumberyard, which I cut several blanks from. Or should I say, used to buy, the good stuff is all gone now and they won't be restocking they tell me. I'm glad I hoarded while I could! Here are some of the mahogany boards that I make necks from.






The board that these blanks were cut from was approximately 40 mm thick and prefectly flat sawn, so when cut like this they will make a fine quarter sawn neck. To match the grain in the neighbouring pieces, I lay my neck cutting template on the board in a mirrored pattern, just like they are oriented in the picture. The grain, when the pieces are glued up, will then be ))((, and the theory is that the equal but opposing grain will help stabilize any movement in the wood.






The neck is now “quartersawn” and as the pieces are “slip matched” (?), the grain in the two parts is quite similar; looks nice, and makes sense structurally.







I code them before they are cut from the boards, and tape up the matched pairs and store them on the neck shelf until I need them.







I label each blank and tape them up in pairs before they are stored on the shelf, some of them for years.







So, the first thing that happens to the neck blanks after being taken out of storage, is a trip over to mr. Wadkin Bursgreen







So, I get a nice and straight gluing surface real quick. This jointer bed is also a convenient shop reference for straightness.






And the other one...





I use fish glue to glue up neck laminates. The fingerboard will be glued with epoxy, which releases at a much lower temperature than the fish glue, which is convenient should it become necessary to remove it for repairs some time in the future. It also has wonderful initial tack, so no slipping around as I put the clamps on.





And here it is, all clamped up.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Except for the time factor, I think there are mostly cons for laminating necks. Especially if you mirror the grain orientation like Arnt does. (Thanks for the Demo Arnt!)
Increasing stability and rigidity across the entire neck assembly is why I do it. Personally, I like the way it looks too. I made a 7 layered neck for a resent build that has added a bit of zoot bling.

And as an experiment, I made a 9 layer neck without a truss rod that seems to hold up to string tension just fine, so far. It’s likely overkill with these multi-layers but I do like the strong feel of these necks.

One thing to watch for is when using soft and hardwoods together. The softer woods sand faster so I use contoured sanding blocks to even them out near the end of shaping the profile. Also, depending on how you glue them together, it may be a good idea to let the glued blank sit for some time before working it into the final shape.

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

Wade, is that Lacewood in the first neck? It looks incredible !

Christian