MIMF

Here are different options I have read about to cut a neck scarf joint:

Bandsaw with jig. This seems to be popular but some people complain the cut is not straight / smooth enough. Maybe they didn't use a proper jig.
I don't have a bandsaw - future purchase.

Tablesaw with jig - Cutting angles is done all the time on table saws. But my blade won't go high enough to do it in one cut and if it did it would a pretty scary operation.

Miter saw - simply clamping some pieces against the neck and dial in the angle on the miter saw. This seems effective, safe and simple to me. It does require two cuts instead of one and requires a few more inches of wood.

Hand saw - Well I am not sure I have the skill to do this, a jig would help and I would have to buy a proper saw.

You could do it with the handsaw as long as you plan for a lot of cleanup of the joint. You will have to plane the two faces while clamped together to get it all trued back up. Do the scarf leaving extra length and attach the heel after you know where the nut will end up (depending on how much you have to remove to clean up your faces. In the past, I have even resorted to clamping the two faces together and sanding them flat/true on a flat surface. Don't tell anyone; the joint is still holding BTW.

I have read that a block plane is used for smoothing the surface.
I only have a smoothing plane (Bailey #4 I think).
Any recommendations for a block plane that won't break the bank?
I replaced the blade in my Bailey with a Hock blade and it works great, so maybe would do the same if I bought an old used block plane.
Veritas has nice ones for $155 which I would pay if its the best option.

A block plane is useful for this and other tasks. Probably a cheap Stanley is adequate if you tune it up well - it's what I have. (Save your money for the band saw. )

You can't cut a scarf joint with anything without it having to be trued and smoothed. A handsaw will work if you draw it out square and pay attention to the lines as you saw.

Here's the way I do it, except I hadn't heard of tacking it with glue - I'll try that next time.
http://www.cumpiano.com/classicneckblan ... cneckb.htm

Peter Wilcox wrote:A block plane is useful for this and other tasks. Probably a cheap Stanley is adequate if you tune it up well - it's what I have. (Save your money for the band saw. )

You can't cut a scarf joint with anything without it having to be trued and smoothed. A handsaw will work if you draw it out square and pay attention to the lines as you saw.

Here's the way I do it, except I hadn't heard of tacking it with glue - I'll try that next time.
http://www.cumpiano.com/classicneckblan ... cneckb.htm

Thats a nice tutorial.
So it looks like he cutting it free hand on the bandsaw.
I would want to use some sort of guide.
The block plane is smaller than I thought.
I have his book and they don';t show it actually being cut but mention using a handsaw.
The book seems kind of dated but maybe the web site makes up for that.

Thanks

I have a couple of Stanley 60 1/2 low angle block planes, and they are nice to use. Got them both used from the monthly tool list from Patrick Leach, less than $100 each, both in very good condition. One was actually an early one, but still in the box. Took a little work to flatten the sole, but it's a great plane. He has one on the current list for $75. Here is a link to the current list http://www.supertool.com/forsale/2015januarylist.html.

Once you get a decent block plane you will wonder how you got by without one. Mine is a used Stanley (I think it is a 60 1/2) and I paid like $50 used. Make sure you get one with an adjustable mouth. I don't know why they make block planes without adjustable mouths. . . get it tuned up and thank me in the morning.

So I have come up three candidates for a block plane:

1. This one is used by Cumpiano, I don't think the mouth is adjustable, its a bit smaller than a Stanley 60 1/2 so that may limit its uses.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/Wood/page.a ... 41189&ap=1


2. I can get an old Stanley 60 1/2 on Ebay for maybe $50 and buy a Hock blade for $34. I did this with my Baily no 5 and it worked out great, i don't think you can beat a Hock plane blade.

3. I can buy a new Stanley Sweetheart 60 1/2 for about the same price, I hear new Stanley planes are not that good but this one seems to get good reviews but I still think a Hock blade is just going to cut better than anything that comes on a new Stanley.

I am thinking option 2. might be my best bet.

You probably don't need another plane if you have a #4. It should do fine if it is sharp and tuned up.

I have had good luck with the Stanley 118 "school boy's" low angle block plane that you can find at the flea markets for 6 or 7 dollars. There are certainly better block planes out there, but that plane works fine when sharp.

Any blade, even the cheapest Chinese tool steel will get this job done for you. I have a #2 low angle plane from Lie Nielsen in bronze and it's an amazing little piece though adjusting the blade depth always skews the blade to one side. I get it sharp and get the depth low and level and then leave it alone, only using it on critical joints like this. The rest of the time I use an old Stanley #2 with the cheap blade in it that I picked up for $3 at a junk store. I have it set pretty deep and use it all the time for the stupid jobs like knocking down sharp corners or cleaning up rough lumber so i can see what I have.

For many years the Martin Guitar Co. used a 'V' joint for the headstock. This is a rather stout joint, and probably easier to make than a scarf joint. Martin also used what they call a 'bridle joint", which is a more complex version of the 'V' joint. Neither of these joints require power tools but 'chalk fitting' can be very effective for getting a very close fit.

For my last 60 or so guitars, I cut mine on a table saw. My blanks are 3" wide and I use a 10" cabinet blade. Results in a perfect joint every time.

I misspoke earlier, my Lie Nielson low angle is the #3.

I use this jig, which I gleaned from Kathy Matsushita's site. I added the piece in the middle of the image.
It helps with clamping to keep things from skating around.
The surfaces that could cause the neck parts to get glued to the jig are covered with clear packing tape.

Works real well.

Pat

Cutting the joint is not the issue - planing to a good surface for gluing is the problem. Although I have band saw and tables jigs to cut this joint, I always finish be hand, as the surface off even the best tables blade is so-so for gluing. Finishing by hand also lets you cut the joint with just about anything, including back saw, coping saw, etc. Just get close and finish with a plane. The illustration shows the setup - just use a corner of the bench and keep the cut square. A shim under the neck shaft that is the thickness of the peghead is used to set things up nice and square. The illustration shows some brads used to keep things in registration, but clamping pressure alone is usually enough.

Just about any plane will do, although a block plane is a little short and narrow for the job...a nice salvaged #5, maybe $25 at a flea or tag sale is probably close to ideal.

To Todd's point, what you cut it with is not the important part. It is all about how you prep it. The more precise your cut is the less cleanup you have to do to get ready to prep the gluing surfaces. I just finished a neck blank and thinking about this thread, I was intentionally not careful with my cuts. My "neck blank" was not long enough for a scarfed peghead so I grafted anothe pei e of mahogany. I cut both prices separately on a bandsaw and was a bit sloppy about it. I clamped them together and planed them as Todd shows. The joint came out great. I even went on to saw it in half and sandwich in 3 laminations. Normally I would do the laminations before I do the scarf joint. I was not too cautious about aligning the prices when I clamped them back up either. I knew I was goi g to have to rework the fretboard and peghead edges anyway.

Sometimes we spend a lot of effort doing something very precisely even though it will all get cut away in subsiquent steps. As long as your gluing surfaces are sound and any other part is going to be used to register on something for a later step, you can use some pretty roughly prepared parts. The neck is the perfect example. Once you get the blank prepped, you have some leeway. If you use up too much real estate getting the angled surfaces right, you can lengthen the fretboard side by planing it down (which moves the scarf angle back a bit. . .

Things like that really apply to people don g necks one at a time. If you are batching out blanks to be more or less interchangeable it might be a different story.

I've used a jig very much like Todd's to prep the joint on a power jointer. (Blasphemy I know!)
I now do them on the milling machine using a face mill where I incorporate a very shallow keyway/ tenon so that the headstock is locked on straight while glueing.

These are all great suggestions. Please pay particular attention to Todd Stock's schematic drawing which shows how to plane the mating surfaces. On the first two necks I ever made, I was in your position: Not enough capacity on my small table saw and no band saw at that time. I made my cuts very carefully with a back saw. This got me closely in the neighborhood. Then I used Todd's method to clean up and prepare for glueing. A good, small try square is very helpful to check the squareness and flatness of your surfaces as you go. One other thing: It is also possible to sand your mating surfaces using Todd's set-up and a large, flat sanding block. I've done that, too. But most people prefer a planed surface for glueing on a critical joint like this. If you sand, just be fastidious about cleaning all dust and sanding residue from the surfaces. Sweep it, blow it or vacuum it and wash it with naphtha or alcohol, too. All that said, I believe you'd prefer a sharp, well-tuned plane. Best of luck!

I use a hand-saw or a friend bandsaw, then I clean up the joint with an angled sanding jig

I use one similar to this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6zvz0huvAU and hold the everything with some C clamps.

mine isn't as perfect as his, my 10° jig is like 10.5, but I always get the same angle everytime, which is ok for me, the headstock angle isn't that critical for me, I have some building threads that have pictures of this.

also compared to other techniques, I don't quite trust my planes quality, so a sanding jig leaves quite a perfect surface, I usually clamp both pieces in the jig and sand them evenly, after gluing some passes on the jointer and voalá, a perfect joint most of the time.