Tag: Neck

Jigging, plating and sanding

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin

So despite my lack of motivation, I did make some progress this week.

I thought I had finished making jigs, having completed acoustic number 4 entirely in my home workshop…apparently not.

Number 4 had a dovetail joint for the neck, for which I bought a template from Stew Mac and build my own device for using it. Nothing wrong with the jig or template, but I swear I’m not doing another dovetail joint, they are just too difficult!

So for this build, I’m doing straight mortise and tenon joint with bolt on neck.

But, I needed the template to cut the mortise and tenon.…

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Week 26 – Finishing off body and neck

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin
  • Split in back of neck had opened up again.
  • Sanded down side of neck so that side of fret board is flush with side of neck. Started with 150 then worked down to 180 grit
  • Orbital sanded the front, back and sides with 120-150-180 grit
  • Glued split in back of neck and taped up with masking tape to dry
  • Filled gaps at base of neck and fret board
  • Sanded head with orbital sander
  • Using 180 grit, sand bevel round all sharp edges on body, neck & head then make radius (1mm only)
  • Started thinking about bridge block designs
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Week 25 – More neck work

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin

Fitting truss rod

  • Block plane & chisel down truss rod cover strip so flush with neck
  • Cut off fret wire using side cutters held parallel to side of fretboard
  • File down edge of frets till level with side of fret board on top and bottom
  • Start flat then bevel inwards to fret board front then repeat till level
  • Use finer file to finish then bevel file to complete

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Fitting Fretboard

  • Block planed top of body till fret board level with neck and sound board. Plane VERY finely set
  • Orbital sand front and sides till smooth
  • Planed and used cabinet scrapers on fret board till it sat flush on sound board
  • Drilled 2 x 1.5 mm holes in back of fret board and inserted two nails and cut off to act as locating pins
  • Glued fret board to neck and clamped with 4 ‘G’ clamps
  • Fret board moved slightly so had to use clamps sideways to relocate
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Week 22 – Bringing together body and neck

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin

Fitting neck to body:

  • Chiselled down dovetail joint till fitted to body (Michael did most of it)
  • Then sanded down neck and used iron & wet cloth to remove vice marks in back of neck
  • Sanded too much of neck joint to Michael had to re-fit (oops)
  • Glue round both sides of dovetail join, fitted and clamped
  • Took off excess from heel first ready for heel cap next week
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Week 21 – Neck and Fretboard

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin

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Fret Board

Started shaping fret board curve. Needs to match curve radius of sanding block (14′)

  • Start by block planeing straight chamfers on either side of fretboard
  • Work back to centreline, but don’t take any height off centre
  • Once nearly at correct curve, sand with 80 then up to 180 to get smooth and curve
  • Mark centre line and punch centre holes for pearl inlay using 6mm drill
  • Glue inlays in place with super glue

 Neck fitting

  • Attach guitar to vacuum clamp and trace round dovetail jig with pen for the groove
  • Michael drilled out the bulk of the wood using a wide drill (but slipped and took a chunk off the front!)
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Week 20 – More neck work

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin
  • Continue to shave neck at neck block to get ‘s’ shape on profile
  •  Then do near head, careful not to shave off any from head block itself
  • Use straight spoke shave to match rest of neck to head and heel
  • Inspect for dips and high spots (DO NOT SAND) and shave heel straight
  • Sand using 100-120-180 till smooth
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Week 19 – Bindings

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin

Took masking tape off top and bottom holding bindings in place
Gaps around bindings needed to be filled:
• Flush binding and b/w/b to sound board and back with a small block plane
• Sand spare bit of side to make pile of dust
• Mix dust with a small amount of titebond to create a past of glue and plaster into gaps!

Tuning peg holes

• Attached tuning peg template to head and clamp to bench with piece of scrap wood underneath
• Drill through peg holes with 9.5mm drill

Shaving the neck

• Attach neck jig to neck with 2 screws
• Attach bench vise piece to neck jig
• Using rounded spoke shave, plane off excess from neck block (cut majority off first with a tenon saw)
• Start on one side and shave straight chamfers .…

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