Norris Posted May 21, 2018 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2018 Routed Corners squared off with a chisel (first cut across the grain to try to avoid any grain splits) First trial fit - out by 1mm on one shoulder Bit of fettling... ...we're within approx 0.25mm. A bit more fettling and it should be a good snug fit. The levels worked out beautifully, the planes of the body and neck meeting at the join. All in all I'm quite chuffed at a first attempt at a set neck. Just enough "slop" for glue too A couple of weeks off class now, and other things are taking priority of my spare time unfortunately. We'll be back soon with final adjustments and glue-up clamp shots hopefully 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted May 22, 2018 Report Share Posted May 22, 2018 Exemplary work Norris. You can also make things a little easier for yourself by easing the internal face of the heel by cutting a light slope in from the edges up to the shoulders of the tenon. Mark a margin around 3-4mm and leave a "big square U" shaped flat around the show edges and chisel in about a mm or less. It makes final fettling to achieve a razor-thin seam a lot easier. That surface has absolutely zero contribution to sound or stability so you might as well tip the scales in your favour for the reason of cosmetic perfection. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted May 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2018 2 hours ago, Prostheta said: Exemplary work Norris. You can also make things a little easier for yourself by easing the internal face of the heel by cutting a light slope in from the edges up to the shoulders of the tenon. Mark a margin around 3-4mm and leave a "big square U" shaped flat around the show edges and chisel in about a mm or less. It makes final fettling to achieve a razor-thin seam a lot easier. That surface has absolutely zero contribution to sound or stability so you might as well tip the scales in your favour for the reason of cosmetic perfection. I tried to like that, but apparently I've exceeded the number of times I can react in one day 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted May 22, 2018 Report Share Posted May 22, 2018 I can't like it for you either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
komodo Posted May 22, 2018 Report Share Posted May 22, 2018 3 hours ago, Prostheta said: Exemplary work Norris. You can also make things a little easier for yourself by easing the internal face of the heel by cutting a light slope in from the edges up to the shoulders of the tenon. Mark a margin around 3-4mm and leave a "big square U" shaped flat around the show edges and chisel in about a mm or less. It makes final fettling to achieve a razor-thin seam a lot easier. That surface has absolutely zero contribution to sound or stability so you might as well tip the scales in your favour for the reason of cosmetic perfection. @Prostheta I'm having a hard time visualizing what you are saying here, which is nobody's fault but my late afternoon dull mind. One trick I picked up was to put a strip or two of tape on the inside of the router pattern so that your route ends up JUST a hair smaller than the tenon. Then you can get it tight enough to be held by friction alone, and with a couple light passes of sandpaper you can make room for glue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted May 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2018 What @Prostheta is suggesting is to back carve away the shoulder around the tenon to leave just the external edges, which are easier to shape precisely. In other words leave a 3mm border around the outer edge where it joins the body, and angle down from there towards the tenon Please excuse the bad sketch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted May 23, 2018 Report Share Posted May 23, 2018 Ah, you beat me to it Norris! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
komodo Posted May 24, 2018 Report Share Posted May 24, 2018 Oh of course, that makes perfect sense. Thank you gentlemen! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted June 25, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2018 Yes it's been some time since the last update. I'm still only putting in 2 hours a week. Progress has been understandably slow. Having carefully carved the tenon, the neck alignment was out just a bit too much to pass my QC standards. So more fettling ensued to get the neck into alignment. That of course meant that the tenon was too sloppy a fit. So tonight I glued maple veneer on the sides of the tenon and got busy with the cabinet scraper. Once I had a snug fit, another check for alignment and... ... glue up time! So the next thing will be to cut the fretboard to length and route the pickup cavities 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted June 26, 2018 Report Share Posted June 26, 2018 My first attempt at an acoustic with a dovetail joint has a similar sliver of scraped veneer The precision in your work, @Norris, is impressive and enviable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted June 26, 2018 Report Share Posted June 26, 2018 It's a valid fix. Purists can be overly picky, however pragmatism is key when it comes to a good neck joint. The right fit, amount of mating area and stability. This checks all of those, the rest is nothing but a bonus if you can manage it in my book. Did you end up needing to relieve the shoulders or did flossing with sandpaper yield the sort of fit you wanted? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted June 26, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2018 1 hour ago, Prostheta said: It's a valid fix. Purists can be overly picky, however pragmatism is key when it comes to a good neck joint. The right fit, amount of mating area and stability. This checks all of those, the rest is nothing but a bonus if you can manage it in my book. Did you end up needing to relieve the shoulders or did flossing with sandpaper yield the sort of fit you wanted? It's not something I'm going to worry about. My instructor says he sometimes has to do it himself when he's having an off day The shoulders were done with chisel, file and scraper - mainly the scraper. It's not a completely seamless join, but using the sash clamp helped get it close enough. I'll see when I unclamp it and start scraping away the squeeze out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted June 26, 2018 Report Share Posted June 26, 2018 It'll be fun however it ends up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted June 26, 2018 Report Share Posted June 26, 2018 13 hours ago, Norris said: So tonight I glued maple veneer on the sides of the tenon and got busy with the cabinet scraper. been there done that! its a totally valid fix 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted June 26, 2018 Report Share Posted June 26, 2018 5 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said: The precision in your work, @Norris, is impressive and enviable. Yes. SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted June 26, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2018 9 hours ago, Mr Natural said: been there done that! its a totally valid fix I'm comfortable with the fix. The key is to make the joint as stable as possible. As I think @Andyjr1515 once posted (or it could have been @ScottR), as long as you have absolute stability between nut and bridge, the rest is just ergonomics and aesthetics I like to post everything, warts and all. You never know who it might help. There are a lot of lurkers as well as the active posters 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted July 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2018 There's not much to update this week. Basically trimming the fretboard to length and marking out the fret slots to start cutting next week. My instructor does them a bit more "old-skool" than most of the techniques shown on here, so I'll try to snap a few photos. It's the last class of term next week, so progress could slow even more. Especially so if this heatwave continues - lack of sleep and energy doesn't make for accurate guitar building. Apparently I'm meant to shower for only 4 minutes to save water. The hosepipe ban isn't in force yet, but I think it's only a matter of weeks if not days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted July 3, 2018 Report Share Posted July 3, 2018 Always good to see how people make things work in their own way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted July 3, 2018 Report Share Posted July 3, 2018 5 hours ago, Norris said: so progress could slow even more. How old is Dan? Just kidding. He obviously believes the old saw that if something is worth having, it is worth waiting for. You give a whole new level of meaning to - take your time and get it right. And the level of precision you achieved in your first build proves that to be a very worthwhile thing. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted July 4, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 21 hours ago, ScottR said: How old is Dan? Just kidding. He obviously believes the old saw that if something is worth having, it is worth waiting for. You give a whole new level of meaning to - take your time and get it right. And the level of precision you achieved in your first build proves that to be a very worthwhile thing. SR I'm hoping he gets to play it before he retires! Thanks, you're too kind 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted July 9, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2018 Tonight was onto slotting the board. I took a few snaps of the old-skool process. First of all we have a jig with a tapered slot in the middle, that just happens to be the taper of the majority of fretboards. If using a different taper, then a bit of packing is required to align along the centre line. As you can see, mine fits nice and snuggly. I then clamped it in place. You'll also probably notice that the jig has been used a few times before! Then we have a couple of knives: an xacto-style scalpel and a thicker bladed knife. Also a Japanese pull saw First off we use a set square against the side of the jig and score a few times with the scalpel ...until we have a fine cut Then draw the thicker bladed knife, gently at first and then with increasing pressure to widen the cut Then finally we can use the pull saw In two hours I managed to cut 14 slots. That's probably a lot slower than most of you! This ebony seems to really grab the blade after the first mm - that's my excuse! Anyway the other 8 slots will have to wait until September because my classes are over for this term. I might try to find time to do some inlays over the summer 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 10, 2018 Report Share Posted July 10, 2018 How are you measuring the slots, @Norris ? You're right about ebony grabbing the fret saw. The last one I did was terrible for that. Does anyone use wax or similar on the blades? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted July 10, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2018 18 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said: How are you measuring the slots, @Norris ? You're right about ebony grabbing the fret saw. The last one I did was terrible for that. Does anyone use wax or similar on the blades? The end of the fretboard butts up against the nut, so the fret positions are measured from there, having clamped a long rule along the centre line. You may be able to see the pencil marks I made last week after trimming the ends of the board - also the reason I covered the board in masking tape, so I'd be able to see them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 10, 2018 Report Share Posted July 10, 2018 8 hours ago, Norris said: The end of the fretboard butts up against the nut, so the fret positions are measured from there, having clamped a long rule along the centre line. You may be able to see the pencil marks I made last week after trimming the ends of the board - also the reason I covered the board in masking tape, so I'd be able to see them Ah - yes, got them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted July 11, 2018 Report Share Posted July 11, 2018 17 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said: Does anyone use wax or similar on the blades? Yes! Most definitely! I have an old parafin wax candle I keep with the fret slotting saw that has dozens of little slices all over it where I've run the blade through every few slots precisely for this purpose. Also good for nut slotting too, particularly for the skinny meedly-meedly strings where the narrower files have a tendency to grab in the slot while being worked. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.