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Trimming the heel to get it square and the correct size is a problem for me. Tried to cut it with a saw, sand it down with a vertical sander and even sand by hand with a flat stone. Always seems to come crooked and after several tries it becomes too short requiring some type of band aid to make it usable. Is there a trick or a magic incantation to help with this job?
Thanks- Rich

Rich-
Is the neck off the guitar (like a dovetail, or bolt-on neck) or already attached to the body?

I would stay away from power tools for this job- especially power sanders as they can 'get away from you' in a hurry, and you can't see the surface you are sanding.
I usually use a hand (Japanese-style) saw to trim it 'close' (ie within 1/8" or so) and then use a block plane to work down to the lines. If the grain is tricky, I'll use a block (hardwood or plexiglass) with some sandpaper stuck to it. Easy does it, light cuts, lots of checking as you go.

It's pretty common to take off 'a bit too much' - thus some of the decorative stacks of veneers under the heel cap that you often see.
Also, the important thing is to get the heel cap parallel with the binding/guitar back- more important than having it perfectly square. In theory, these are both the same, but in practice not always so. A tiny bit off square won't be noticed, but the binding /back is a 'reference' right next to the heel.
If you haven't done this sort of thing much before, spending 10-20 min with a piece of scrap or two and some sharp tools will help get the 'knack' established.

Cheers
John

I usually rough cut the length on the table saw but this puts the plane of the heel parallel to the fretboard which looks strange on the guitar. After the rough cut I use the jig below which will sand the heel to proper length and put the plane parallel to the cheeks which looks a lot better. Just make sure everything is square and it works great and makes it easy to fine tune length.

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Terence-
Do you angle the heel cap to follow the line of the back?
It's tough to see in the pics- is everything 90 degrees?

Cheers
John

Yes everything is at 90 degrees. I do the heel sanding after the neck is set and cheeks are at the right angle. The jig then sands the heel at 90 degrees to the cheeks which also puts it 90 degrees to the headblock. It's not perfectly in line with the back but close enough that it looks fine. You could probably figure the angle of the back and shim the jig or tilt the belt sander table to get it perfect. It does come out nice and flat and ready to glue the heelcap.

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

I rough fit the neck, then, with the neck temporarly installed I use my Foredom tool, router base, and rosette cutting jig to trim it at the correct height. The rosette cutting jig rests on the back while the router bit hangs over. This makes the angle on the heel match the angle of the back. I'll glue on a piece of fiber (to match the purfling) and the heel cap before shaping the neck.

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Thanks for all the help. Think the sanding jig would work best for me.
Rich