Complexity is the Enemy of...

[Bryan Bear]

You know Alan, I initially read that as attaching to the neck and somehow my brain filtered out the attached to the body part. Your tool chops are several orders of magnitude beyond mine. I would be way too scared to get a bench plane that close to an assembled body. I'm just far too clumsy. Whenever I see a video of someone carving a heel using a chisel while the neck is on the guitar I have heart palpitations. You guys inspire and terrify me!

[Eric Knapp]

Based on all your input I made another attempt to radius a test FB today. I used a combination of a sharp plane, a bunch of newly made radius sanding blocks, a leveler made from a nice carpenter's level, and a straight edge. It might be a good one this time. One of the things that struck me is there's actually a very subtle difference between the various radii commonly used on guitars. I also think I will get better with a plane over time but at this point I can't do it all with one. I need the sanders to keep the compound radii intact. I do see how I could get good at this with more practice.

I could not have gotten this far without everyone's help and I humbly thank you all.

-Eric

[Dave Weir]

Here is a way to make a perfectly radiused fret board, requiring very little skill, and very little expense (so it's right up my alley).
Any radius, including compound radius.
You just need a few flat boards, and some sandpaper. Toss the radius block in the scrap bin.

The first board is a 1x3 or 2x4 or something like that. About 12-16" longer than your fret board. very flat, and pretty stiff.
Your fret board or neck gets taped to that, so the center of the fret board is at the center of the carrier board. Double stick duck tape from Lowes is what I use.
The second board should be at least 6-8" longer than the first. a melamine shelf board works pretty good. I use a piece of a pool table.
Get a role of 80 grit self adhesive sand paper from Harbor Freight or where ever. cut a piece about 6-8" longer than your fret board. Tape that to the center of the melamine shelve or whatever your base board is.

Don't stress too much on the lengths of everything. Once you try it you will realize you could have had a longer sanding stroke if you did this or that, but you'll figure it out.

Now you can flip the carrier board over with the neck down and sand the neck, and it will sand it flat. But we don't want it flat.
So take some 3/4 stock (like a 1x6) and make two identical small segments of a circle, with a 12" radius. Google parts of a circle if you don't know what a segment is. The height of the segment will need to be the same as the final thickness of your neck at the heel, or you fret board, plus the thickness of your sandpaper.
Attach the two end pieces to the carrier board so the high points of the arcs are lined up with the center line of the fret board.
It will help if you draw a radius line before you cut off the segment, mark on the radius line your height, and then drawing the cord perpendicular to the radius. That will put the radius line at the highest point, or center, of the arc.

Then you just sand away until the fret board is no longer contacting the sandpaper, because the end pieces will have contacted the base board.
If you cut your end pieces right, and line them up right, your fret board should be (relatively) perfect.

For compound radius you need to do some math and figure out what the radius would be if you extended the fret board to the points where your end pieces are, and then cut the end pieces as needed.

If you are trying to do a one piece neck you might find the wings of your head stock bump the base board before your are done sanding. In that case you need to raise the sandpaper up above the base board by a quarter inch or so, and raise the height of your end piece by the same amount. And all this assumes the back of your head stock and back of your heel are in the same plane. If not, that's another complication you need to resolve.

[Eric Knapp]

Here is a way to make a perfectly radiused fret board, requiring very little skill, and very little expense (so it's right up my alley).
Any radius, including compound radius.
You just need a few flat boards, and some sandpaper. Toss the radius block in the scrap bin.
...

I saw videos on YouTube using this approach only with routers and belt sanders. This option is intriguing and I'll revisit my approach with the next fretboard. What I'm doing now works but is maybe less precise than I'd like. I might be able to increase my precision doing this.

How long does it take for hardwoods like ebony and rosewood? I'd like to decrease the physical effort needed over time. (I'm old and getting older.)

Thanks!

-Eric

[Dave Weir]

If you are hand sanding from flat, probably a couple hours. You can adjust your end blocks up 1/4" and substitute a big router table for the base board and sand paper. Raise the bit up to a little under a quarter inch, and you can get close like this first, then sand it to get it perfect.
I tried it, really didn't find it saved enough time to be worth it.
I made quite few necks hand sanding the whole thing, then made this belt sander with a 1 horse farm motor, knife grinding wheel and tension wheel from a smaller Craftsman sander. I stretched it out so I could have the platen carry the whole fret board. the tables at each end are in the same plan as the sand paper. I just use masking tape (.005) to shim it exactly right.
It took a while to get it dialed in, but it will do a maple board in about 5 minutes, Ipe in about 15. The Farm Motor doesn't even notice the load.

[Jason Rodgers]

Here is a way to make a perfectly radiused fret board, requiring very little skill, and very little expense (so it's right up my alley).
Any radius, including compound radius.
You just need a few flat boards, and some sandpaper. Toss the radius block in the scrap bin.

The first board is a 1x3 or 2x4 or something like that. About 12-16" longer than your fret board. very flat, and pretty stiff.
Your fret board or neck gets taped to that, so the center of the fret board is at the center of the carrier board. Double stick duck tape from Lowes is what I use.
The second board should be at least 6-8" longer than the first. a melamine shelf board works pretty good. I use a piece of a pool table.
Get a role of 80 grit self adhesive sand paper from Harbor Freight or where ever. cut a piece about 6-8" longer than your fret board. Tape that to the center of the melamine shelve or whatever your base board is.

Don't stress too much on the lengths of everything. Once you try it you will realize you could have had a longer sanding stroke if you did this or that, but you'll figure it out.

Now you can flip the carrier board over with the neck down and sand the neck, and it will sand it flat. But we don't want it flat.
So take some 3/4 stock (like a 1x6) and make two identical small segments of a circle, with a 12" radius. Google parts of a circle if you don't know what a segment is. The height of the segment will need to be the same as the final thickness of your neck at the heel, or you fret board, plus the thickness of your sandpaper.
Attach the two end pieces to the carrier board so the high points of the arcs are lined up with the center line of the fret board.
It will help if you draw a radius line before you cut off the segment, mark on the radius line your height, and then drawing the cord perpendicular to the radius. That will put the radius line at the highest point, or center, of the arc.

Then you just sand away until the fret board is no longer contacting the sandpaper, because the end pieces will have contacted the base board.
If you cut your end pieces right, and line them up right, your fret board should be (relatively) perfect.

For compound radius you need to do some math and figure out what the radius would be if you extended the fret board to the points where your end pieces are, and then cut the end pieces as needed.

If you are trying to do a one piece neck you might find the wings of your head stock bump the base board before your are done sanding. In that case you need to raise the sandpaper up above the base board by a quarter inch or so, and raise the height of your end piece by the same amount. And all this assumes the back of your head stock and back of your heel are in the same plane. If not, that's another complication you need to resolve.

I like this, Dave. For my purposes, I think I'd keep the neck carriage still and run a flat sanding block/beam over the top. It might need some rails on the side to keep the sander straight, but that would just be two boards affixed to the sides of your carriage. The end radius blocks could be swapped out with a variety of radii. Hmm....

[Dave Weir]

You don't even have to keep the sanding block straight, and you can use wider (or multiple strips of) sandpaper. you just need to make sure the sanding block doesn't fall off the end pucks.