Neck-Thru Build Pics

[Gordon Bellerose]

This morning I also finished shaping the headstock. Most of the work was done on the spindle sander. I use a 1/4 inch spindle to shape the sharp angles on top, and a 2 inch along the sides.
I'm guessing by now that most of you realize I really like that tool!

Here is a shot of how I thickness the headstock.
I use the router table fence, and simply run the headstock through.
Because of the headstock angle, this could not be done on my thickness sander.



And, here is a shot of the headstock now.
Next I will drill the tuner holes, and after that I will glue all the parts together.

[Gordon Bellerose]

This morning I drilled the tuner holes in the headstock.
This is my setup. I simply clamp a piece of scrap to the drill press table, so I can get the right angle for the headstock.



This drill bit is the special tuner hole bit from our friends at Stewmac. It is a 2 stage bit that drills the correct size hole in the back, and a slightly smaller one in the front. You must of course, drill from the rear of the headstock.

You could do this using 2 different size brad point bits. Drill a pilot hole right though. Then drill almost through with the larger bit from the rear, and then drill the smaller hole from the front.

I set the drill bit depth so the second shoulder is just above the scrap wood.



I drill pilot holes and then drill. This picture shows the bit a little clearer.



And here is the finished product. You can see the small lip left on the top of the headstock. This is a great fitting hole for 10 mm tuner bodies.

[Gordon Bellerose]

It's finally time to start making this thing look like a guitar!

Here is a shot of the glue up.

[Bob Francis]

Looking good Gordon!

[Alexander Higgins]

Gordon,
How did you cut the back of the neck and headstock profile, is that just bandsawed?

[Gordon Bellerose]

The neck profile itself, if you mean the neck thickness from the headstock to the body, was cut using the bandsaw, before the fretboard shaping was done.
In other words, I cut the neck profile while the blank was still square and flat, just after cutting the headstock angle.

I cut the headstock to a 5/8 thickness, and use the sander from there to the final thickness.
The neck goes from a thickness of 9/16 at the nut, to 5/8 at the 15th fret.
This gives me a bit extra wood to shape and sand down to the final thickness.
I like 17/32 at the nut, and 19/32 at the 15th.

[Gordon Bellerose]

The build has been on hold for a couple of weeks.
SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED needs a new dresser for the bedroom.

[Art Davila]

Wife or Daughter? In my house they both think They are in charge. and if they are reading this they are....

[Gordon Bellerose]

Can't be too careful what one says in public, or in private when it comes to "Who's Boss".

If the truth is told, we all know that the wife is really the boss.
Happy Wife = Happy Life.

[Gordon Bellerose]

OK. The new dresser and night table are now done and in the bedroom. My wife is happy, and I can get back to this build! YAY!!

I figured it was time to make the fret board tonight. Here is my set-up.
Table saw with fret slotting blade. Slotting sled with a template, a bit of double sided tape and an ebony fret board.



Here is a closer shot. This pic is an older one, I have since added a thumb guard to this jig at Charlie's suggestion.



Here is a shot of the partially slotted board.



I was on a roll and did three!!

[Gordon Bellerose]

In my previous post I said that the frets were .100 high.
Wow! those are tall frets.
Actually they are .050 high.

[Gordon Bellerose]

After slotting the fret boards, I got out the radius shaping jig.
This jig looks kind of crude, but works quite well. I put a straight edge on the pipe and it is dead on.



Here is a shot of the router in the holder.
The circle is a 12 1/2 inch radius, so the bit can protrude 1/2 inch, for a 12 inch radius.



Here it is over the board.



And then I finish it off with the radius sander. There will be more sanding after I inlay the dots.

[Gordon Bellerose]

Well, I hit my first major setback.
Upon doing a really close inspection, I found that a couple of the joints were a bit sloppy.

Here's the one on the headstock.



So, I had to cut it apart. I will run it through the router table used as a jointer, and re-glue a new piece onto it.



I don't have a picture of the body joint that was bad, but here is what it looks like now.
I will have to true up the edges again and re-glue. It will also require some more shaping in the neck-body joint area.
What a PAIN!!

[Art Davila]

I have seen the same problem in some necks before. One of the forms I had seen a post saying if the joint could be closed with pressure from a clamp, then you could wick super glue and re clamp it, and it would be fine. I have never done that myself, but always thought it made sense, but anyone know if that would work? or if not explain why?

[Gordon Bellerose]

I don't really know if that repair would work, Art.
I thought about trying to fill the joint with glue and sanding dust, but decided that the joint looked bad enough that I would do a proper repair.
I think the superglue would leach into the wood causing a stain. This guitar is not being painted, so clean wood work is a must.


I got the router table set up as a jointer and straightened the edges of both the neck, the body, and the headstock.

This is my set up. I slip a couple strip of very thin cardboard behind the out-feed side of the router table fence.
Although there is a bearing on the bit, I only use it to help get the fence set correctly.
I put a straight edge against the out-feed side, and move the fence so the straight edge just touches the bearing.
Then I raise the bit so that only the cutting edges are contacting the wood.
The cardboard is not quite 1/64" thick, so I get a pretty thin cut.



Here, the sides are set close to the bit.



After repairing the joints, the body is glued up again.



And the headstock too.

[David King]

You'll feel a lot better getting it right rather than staring at it for the rest of eternity.
Joinery is the most fundamental and the most challenging skill in lutherie. Having the right tools really helps though.

[Barry Daniels]

Gordon, how are you preparing your joints?

[Gordon Bellerose]

On the initial joint I only used my table saw, and a hand plane on a shooting board. I may have gotten a bit lazy, and that's probably why the joint looked bad.
It was a bit of a gap; maybe 1/128 wide, by about 1/1/2 inch long. It wasn't really horrible, but it was visible to me; that's why I wanted to re-do it.

This time, as shown above, I got really good results using the router table as a Jointer.

[Gordon Bellerose]

I'm really angry and quite embarrassed, but I swore to myself in the beginning of this thread that I would share everything.
All the successes, and all the mistakes. Leonardo taught me that.
So here is my mistake.
After I glued the new piece on the headstock I was cutting it to shape on the band saw.
As you can see, I was not paying close enough attention, (I was tired) and cut into the neck area a bit. This is not a repair. This is a cut the neck into firewood and start new, kind of mistake.



I have the new neck blank glued up and will start shaping again tomorrow.

[Art Davila]

oops posted but did not see that head stock had been cut off