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Hi everyone,

I was working on my first neck blank today, and I cut the side slots. I noticed that I had actually cut a non full depth kerf next to my real kerf on both sides of the neck, on the headstock side. The kerf on the headblock side is perfect of course, but on the heel side there is a 1/4 deep kerf. I am thinking that when I shape the heel that most of that error will disappear. But I have a feeling that I may still have a little bit of an opening at the top of the heal between the side and the heel once I am done. Should I keep going and then just fill in the space with some wood chips/dust and glue when the sides are on ?

I am building a classical - Spanish heel, I was using a japanese saw as well. It is weird that my headblock side came out fine, but my issue is on both sides of the neck on the heel side. Sucks ! Is there something I can do to prevent this on my next neck ? Is it my sloppy saw technique maybe ? ugh...

to make things worse, I notice that when I look at the cuts, they are not perfectly symmetrical on both sides ? It seems as if one side has more of an angle ? What if I use some sand paper and sand back my mis cut kerf and even out the angles on both sides, sand back towards the 12th fret, maybe by a millimeter or so ? that would push my upper bout up towards the 12th fret a little more ? is this a bad idea?

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

Some pictures -
ugh what a terrible start

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

Hi John.
Keep going. That should still work fine. A word, however, you don't need to cut your side slots so deep on the fretboard side of the heel block. Half an inch deep there should be fine, and gives greater strength.
I cut my side slots on an angle. Some pics should be explanitory.
Another tip. Try slotting the heel before you trim the neck to width. This way any tear out from your saw gets removed when you trim to width.

cheers,
Claire

You could consider making the slots much wider and using the Romanillos wedge system to hold the sides in place. A lot of builders are using this method now including myself. I use a 10mm wide slot, carefully cutting the front of the slot then cutting the rear and chiselling out the waste. Some people use a dado type blade in the table saw or two saw blades held together at the required gap. I prefer a hand saw with a back stiffener for this cut, and use an old fashioned tenon saw. Here's a few pictures.









Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Hi John,
I forgot to mention.
To stop that wavering saw:
I use a tenon saw to cut my side slots as mentioned by colin, and i start my cut by clamping a square block of timber onto the job along the headstock side of the side slot line as a guide before i begin to saw. When I'm satisfied that I have a good start I remove the guide block so that I can see where I am going. I prefer to use a dull saw for that job because I get a neater and finer cut with less tear out than I get with my sharp saws.

Claire