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Neck shaping


daveq

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Have any of you used a router for shaping the back of a neck? I haven't tried it yet (I do mine with a scraper and sand paper) but one of my books has a brief description of it. I think it's the Kotch book? Anyway, he builds a set of rails for the router to glide along and makes a bunch of passes over the back of the neck to shape it.

I like the idea of this for consistency. Now that I'm not just building for myself, I'd really like to have the contour be repeatable for each neck that I build. Any other ideas (other than just checking with a radius template at various fret positions)?

Thanks,

Dave

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you can get large roundover profile bits and put your router in a router table essentially making it into a shaper. put masking tape on the router table fence to mark your start and finish points and all you'll have left to do is some final sanding for really consistant profiles from neck to neck. Hope this helps

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I think I have seen those somewhere before. Are they called roundover bits or is that just the category they fall into?

Would you change the thickness by placing the neck on an angled caul? Maybe take some thickness off first with a belt sander before going to the routing table?

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i'm not to sure about getting the right kind of bit for neck profiles the radius seems to change as you go over and down the neck from round to flat...... i think i just need to see some pics along with a good explination an shot of the bit it's self...

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ya i guess that makes sense.... and depending on how flat you want the neck at the 1st fret ( or the entire neck for that matter) you just select the appropriate smaller radius cutter.... so what radius are you guys thinking about using??? think we can do this on neck thru's wes?? won't it be a bit a bit harder to set up?

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but.... i just can't find an upside down router bit... all the curved or round over ones i have would only work on bolt ons.... they wouldn't be high enough to do neck thrus...

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ok well i've only found one round under bit that you could use to do neck thru's easily by laying the neck on it's fingerboard... you can also do bolt on's this way but you only need this bit if you'll be doing neck thru's unless you had something else in mind wes... for bolt on/ set neck..... you could probably get away with regular round over bits that are much more common from what i've seen browsing router bits for the past hour..

the only place i saw a round UNDER so far was at routerbits.com

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I wouldn't want to use any of those under round bits on a router table that's for sure. The other thing is, if you use one of those, you have to have your neck blank exactly the same thickness all the way, if you use a panel cutting bit you can cut the taper into your neck blank thickness wise and route it that way. The panel cutting bit is the closest so far, I'm going to have a bit custom made for me, if anyone else is interested I might be able to get a discount if a few bits are made.

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I wouldn't want to use any of those under round bits on a router table that's for sure. The other thing is, if you use one of those, you have to have your neck blank exactly the same thickness all the way, if you use a panel cutting bit you can cut the taper into your neck blank thickness wise and route it that way.

why not? caues it's a bit more dangerous? i plan to set up som 1/2" thick plexi glass guards to keep my digits safe, or would i just need a realy powerfull router? And as for the thickness, i was thinking about just putting a 0.050 shim on the 1st fret and the corresponding one (0.20-ish) on the 12th fret before i turn it over and shape it.. i'm thinking 1&¼" radius looks about right for a wizard neck? And 1" R for rounder necks like fender....

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it's dangerous because you are putting your piece of wood into a situation where if the router bit hits a hard section of grain, or you slip, or the wood moves more into the blade, it will fire it back out in the direction you are feeding (into the cutter I HOPE is how you are feeding it) When you are cutting with the router bit UNDER the piece with nothing but hand pressure holding it down, should it kick back it has the opportunity to go up. When the cutter is up above the wood it is jammed between the table and the cutter. The shim is one idea, but if the shim isn't secured so that it's impossible for it to move you could end up with an uneven cut. Personally, I like knowing that my cutting tool is under the work piece where I can't accidentally hit it with a hand or something.

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hmmm, those are some good points, but i can't think of any other way to do neck thru's :(unless you can find a round over bit with a really long shank... but having a bit like that sticking out of a router table by 1" is more dangerous in my opinion, but it sounds like you don't like the entire router idea at all lgm??

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I think the router idea is a horrific accident waiting to happen for most people. Unless you have a big automated setup like those illustrated in 'Make your Own Electric Guitar' you stand far to great a chance of destroying the wood, or something far more irreplaceable.

Add to that the fact that necks *do* change radius along their length, so you'll only be applying a preliminary shape to the neck anyway, unless you want a crest at the head end, or a flat by the body. You might get a very repeatable radius, but I think it would be at the expense of a 'good' radius.

I think you're better off practicing your neck carving with handtools, and getting in the habbit of regular checking against profile templates. That way you can easily offer a variety of profiles to suit you or your customers needs.

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Let me first say, that I, in no way, am an athourity. Considering I'm working on my first guitar.

But, I wanted to do this all from scratch, excluding the hardware.

I bought my wood and considered the best way to make a neck. After many many hours of contiplating how, I came up with a JIG to use a router. I just couldn't picture myself hand sanding and scraping wood, to shape the neck with no reference neck to compare to.

After a few trials the JIG resembles a shoe horn. I use a round over bit with start and stop points.

First piece of wood was just a try out. Came out great, except for the headstock being too short. NEEWB mistake. Also, lack of the tuners to layout the length needed.

Second piece was a complete success.

The round over bit I used was a 1/2" set down a bit to leave a flat wood rim to make the radius profile by the headstock base and heel base. Alittle belt sanding for the overall length and BINGO.

I will show pics of the guitar in a few days, Tomorrow is the big paint day.

When it's unveiled, please keep in mind I learned everything from THIS SITE.

Oh, and by the way, a guitar playing friend asked me who I bought the GREAT neck from. Must be ok.

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