Easy Neck Pocket Angles?

[marksound]

[verhoevenc]

Here's an idea that I'm not sure if it will work or not, so I'll run it by you guys....

Technically you could, instead of ROUTING a neck pocket, use a press drill for the neck pocket?

So if you had one of those press drills where you could angle the table that the wood goes on, then you could angle the table to your desired neck pocket angle, set the depth stop, and press drill to your heart's content until you had a pocket? YES?

Chris

[balooka]

no that wont work, because you would be putting an angle on each cut, not on the whole surface of the pocket. you would just get a staggered surface, which is pretty much useless...

why dont you just make a simple template of the pocket out of some MDF or ply, one that fits your neck perfectly, line it up on your guitar and put two wedges at the back of your tempate, creating the desired angle, then route with a template bit and you will have an angled pocket that will hold your neck deadon.

well thats how I'm going to do it anyway. No gaps between the body that you'd need coverup with an overhanging fretboard.

Edited August 18, 2005 by balooka

[Guitarfrenzy]

why dont you just make a simple template of the pocket out of some MDF or ply, one that fits your neck perfectly, line it up on your guitar and put two wedges at the back of your tempate, creating the desired angle, then route with a template bit and you will have an angled pocket that will hold your neck deadon.

well thats how I'm going to do it anyway. No gaps between the body that you'd need coverup with an overhanging fretboard.

←

That's how I do it out of 3/4" ply. You want a nice tight fit for your guitar especially if it's going to be a glue in.

[frank falbo]

Here's an idea...not...work....use a press drill for the neck pocket?...angle the table to your desired neck pocket angle, set the depth stop, and press drill to your heart's content until you had a pocket? YES?

Chris

←

It's already been explained why that wouldn't work, but here's how it can work: (and does because I do a modified version)

Route your neck pocket to the desired depth. Then take it to the drill press, and wedge the body. Do not angle the table. Just shim or wedge the body from the underside to create the desired angle. Then use very shallow passes until you've routed all but the back 1/16" or so of the pocket. Sometimes I'll "final depth" the whole pocket. But on an existing factory guitar, if I need to maintain the neck height in the body, I'll just route the angle only. You have to go slow because you don't have even 1/2 the RPM's of a router. (mine's variable so it's set pretty fast for this) Use sharp bits and watch for tearout at the front of the cavity. If the guitar is already painted I'll use a Dremel sanding drum in the chuck to first sand away the finish, leaving a little rabbet all around the front of the pocket, then route only up the that point. You can use pattern bits too, but remember once the neck pocket starts to taper down, the bearings are useless.

Your table has to be big enough to accomodate the whole guitar body across the entire movement, otherwise the joint is compromised. If it's not, make a jig or a table extension. The jig can just be two sheets of MDF, with a wedge or a threaded insert to "dial in" your angle.

As for the gap at the back of the pocket, its eliminated when I'm building from scratch, because I also allow the drill press to make that slight undercut angle into the back of the pocket. It requires a couple more passes, and can be done with the pattern bit. On a factory guitar mod, it's irrelevant, because the screw holes are already in place. Removing wood to match the angles at the back of the pocket would only result in more of a gap. Then you wouldn't have contact anywhere along the back of the pocket.

[westhemann]

remember something else too...it is always great to shoot for that perfect fit...BUT if for some reason the fit is not so perfect(say your template moved whilst you were routing) 2 part epoxy is a great alternative to alphetic resin...and it REQUIRES a small gap to reach proper bond strength.

[verhoevenc]

Sorry to bring this thread back to life, but I think it answers alot of questions, and I've got one more issue to add to it. Earlier we were talking about just lying down your template, and then putting some small pieces to wedge up the back, and then TADA, you're good to go with your angled pocket. HOWEVER, what if the shape of the body above and below the center line are not symetrical (ie: a single cut, or ANY guitar where the upper horn is long than the lower, or the cut-aways on the top and bottom are not the same) cause then, when you add the shims to raise up the back of the jig, the FRONT of the jig will then be rotating a la where it hits the body, and since it's not symetrical, they'll be rotating wrong. Kinda like a door with hinges that are not on the same line/plane. So technically if you did this, you douldn't only get an angle in the direction of "back towards neck pocket", but you'd ALSO get an angle in the "top to bottom" reference. Making the neck sit tilted from both references?

Any thoughts? Or is there a picture needed?

Chris

[verhoevenc]

Also, just to add to the conversation about the "gap" that'd be there if you just angled the heel in a straight pocket. I don't think it'd really matter, because that gap would only be at the END of the pocket, which in most cases would be underniether where you've routed the neck pickup, meaning you'd only see this gap when you removed the pick, and the further down into the set neck's tennon you routed, the less and less the gap would become. So isn't hte point kinda moot?

Chris

[balooka]

what I did on a testbody (with 2 different horns): make 2 points, in my case two small pyramid shaped blocks just along the sides of the pocket, as close to the body-egde as i could. This made 2 straight 'swivel' points (sp?), on which i laid down the template and I raised the back of the template with a thin piece of wood to make the angle needed. All I did then was secure the template with a bunch of clamps, thats about it.

I hope you get what I mean, my explanatory skills arent all that, and I made scrap f the body I did it on :/

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About the gap, the neck im making has an angled fretboard/heel at the back, and because of that I'll need to leave some space between the neck and the pickup to get the cavities perpendicular to the centerline. So a gap will show.

[Marzocchi705]

Also, just to add to the conversation about the "gap" that'd be there if you just angled the heel in a straight pocket. I don't think it'd really matter, because that gap would only be at the END of the pocket, which in most cases would be underniether where you've routed the neck pickup, meaning you'd only see this gap when you removed the pick, and the further down into the set neck's tennon you routed, the less and less the gap would become. So isn't hte point kinda moot?

jees, if you build your own neck, angle the heel so the fret board is not parallel to the bottom, at the end where you think there will be a gap, instead of 90deg, add on how ever many degree's your angle is to the 90deg, ie, is its a 3degree tilt back, have a 93degree botom of neck to end of heel. It not that hard really, if you have a protracter you can do it.

Heres a pic.

Thats how i did it on my build, for the next one im building a jig simply because im going to use it again.

Also Drak, are you cutting your template in say 1/2" thick scrap (or any thickness scrap) and sanding the angle into the face of the template?