Rynooo

A colleague just sent me this: https://shapertools.com/ - could defo useful for guitar building. According to their FAQ it's accurate to 1/100 of an inch. Would be amazing for making templates and maybe even cutting inlays. Shame it doesn't do reliefs/profiling (though they do say "not yet"). I totally want one!

Yeah I tried that but as the bit has sheared at quite a sharp angle, the nail kept slipping off (hence the wider hole). I stopped as I was afraid of doing much more damage to the fretboard. I've rough radiused the board (there's still a bit more material to come at the upper end) and there's very little clearance in the slot, so I'm going to have to do something. Thinking about attacking it with a soldering iron (to loosen the glue) and some tweezers. I saw someone on a woodworking forum suggest dissolving broken HSS bits with a mild acid but that's bonkers IMO.

I like DraftSight. It's virtually identical to AutoCAD if you've ever used that. Powerful, accurate and easy to use once you get the knack. There's a bit of a learning curve but there are good tutorials available, and pretty much all the AutoCAD tutorials on YouTube are transferrable.

One of the drill bits I was using to stop the fretboard move during gluing sheared off when I tried to remove it. I was careful but glue had seeped up the thread and set the bit in place. You can see some of the remnants of the glue in the fret slot either side. The bit sheared straight away with very little torque (I was using a hand drill). There's not much clearance between the top of the bit and the fretboard, and that's prior to radiusing. Hoping I can just nip off some of the fret tang in that area but I have a feeling it's going to cause me problems.

Made me think of this:

In this video of the Carvin manufacturing process, they soak a maple top with a wet rag overnight before clamping to bend it to match the arm curve: http://youtu.be/-Rxc67NDaA4?t=6m13s It looks like a 1/4" top to me, yet they manage to bend it okay without any kerfing. Has anyone done this without any problems? I'm a bit concerned about possible warping or shrinkage of the top from soaking.

Hi everyone, I'm planning my first build at the moment and have a question about the neck tenon. I have a quartersawn mahogany neck blank that's 1" thick, and I'm wondering how thick I need to make the tenon. It's going to be a set neck with a full width tenon going as far as the back of the neck pickup cavity, and I want to contour the heel into the body. I've seen some builds where people double the thickness of the blank to create a big heel then cut it back down to size. Is there any benefit in doing that? Obviously 2" is going to be way too thick, but is there a standard or recommended thickness I should be aiming for? (I'm aiming for a 1 3/4" body). Thanks, Ryan