Table Saw For Neck Angle

[woody]

I am new to guitar building but have done about 6 months worth of research on everything from electronics to Tonewoods.

My son and I are building a les paul style guitar...He's the guitarist...I'm the wood worker. I have calculated my neck angle at about 4.5 degrees and I was getting ready to cut the neck pocket. The Idea occured to me to attach the maple top to a board,screw the board to the Table saw fence. I would set the table saw blade at 4.5 and slowly raise the blade to create the angle. Then I would use that angle to route the neck pocket....Any Ideas on problems I might run into??

You know my kitchen cabnets never had problems with intonation....Wish me luck :-)

Thanks

Edited May 26, 2007 by woody

[Vinny]

Hi Woody and welcome, I dig Les Pauls myself and plan to build one (a goldtop) next year. Though I tried to grasp the method you described to get the neck angle, I honestly couldnt wrap my brain around it. Maybe its cause Ive seen simpler/safer methods posted here. I pulled up a batch of photos I saved that were posted here by a member. Im sorry to say I dont recall his name to give him credit. He posted pics of the build up along with some great jigs. Use the search tool and search 'Les Paul' in the Work in Progress section, you'll find some great stuff. Heres the pics I mentioned. take care, -Vinny

http://s69.photobucket.com/albums/i79/edadmartin/?start=all

[MiKro]

I am new to guitar building but have done about 6 months worth of research on everything from electronics to Tonewoods.

My son and I are building a les paul style guitar...He's the guitarist...I'm the wood worker. I have calculated my neck angle at about 4.5 degrees and I was getting ready to cut the neck pocket. The Idea occured to me to attach the maple top to a board,screw the board to the Table saw fence. I would set the table saw blade at 4.5 and slowly raise the blade to create the angle. Then I would use that angle to route the neck pocket....Any Ideas on problems I might run into??

You know my kitchen cabnets never had problems with intonation....Wish me luck :-)

Thanks

I agree that what you explain sounds somewhat risky. Do you have a router? I would assume so if you are a woodworker? I would make a neck template and shim it up at the rear/towards the bridge to make the 4.5 degree angle and then route it out. I'll try and find pic of what I'm descibing but may take a day.

Mike

[Southpa]

There are carved top and flat top LP's. Flat tops stay flat and carved tops DO follow the contour of the neck angle but that area is rounded overall. It would be convenient to use that angle as a platform for routing the angle in the pocket but the resulting cut would look like one big flat bevel. There is also the option of cutting your pocket flat and just cutting your angle into the heel of the neck if there is any extra wood.

Edited May 26, 2007 by Southpa

[Woodenspoke]

I am new to guitar building but have done about 6 months worth of research on everything from electronics to Tonewoods.

My son and I are building a les paul style guitar...He's the guitarist...I'm the wood worker. I have calculated my neck angle at about 4.5 degrees and I was getting ready to cut the neck pocket. The Idea occured to me to attach the maple top to a board,screw the board to the Table saw fence. I would set the table saw blade at 4.5 and slowly raise the blade to create the angle. Then I would use that angle to route the neck pocket....Any Ideas on problems I might run into??

You know my kitchen cabnets never had problems with intonation....Wish me luck :-)

Thanks

Woody

hopefully you didnt use a table saw to cut the neck pocket. Just make a template shim it or sand it down to the proper angle, you say 4.5 deg , use a router with a bottom guided pattern bit. I would gestimate 90% of a guitar is shaped with a router after the rough design has been cut out. You dont need fancy jigs just a piece of MDF will work and a few clamps or double stick pattern tape. This is one joint you dont want to have to repair. Same goes with the pickup holes and electronics cavity. Use a fostner bit to hog out some wood so you dont have to do it all with your router. You also would want to do a pocket like that before you carve a top so you are working on a flat surface

woodenspoke

[MartyM]

I am new to guitar building but have done about 6 months worth of research on everything from electronics to Tonewoods.

My son and I are building a les paul style guitar...He's the guitarist...I'm the wood worker. I have calculated my neck angle at about 4.5 degrees and I was getting ready to cut the neck pocket. The Idea occured to me to attach the maple top to a board,screw the board to the Table saw fence. I would set the table saw blade at 4.5 and slowly raise the blade to create the angle. Then I would use that angle to route the neck pocket....Any Ideas on problems I might run into??

You know my kitchen cabnets never had problems with intonation....Wish me luck :-)

Thanks

Woody

hopefully you didnt use a table saw to cut the neck pocket. Just make a template shim it or sand it down to the proper angle, you say 4.5 deg , use a router with a bottom guided pattern bit. I would gestimate 90% of a guitar is shaped with a router after the rough design has been cut out. You dont need fancy jigs just a piece of MDF will work and a few clamps or double stick pattern tape. This is one joint you dont want to have to repair. Same goes with the pickup holes and electronics cavity. Use a fostner bit to hog out some wood so you dont have to do it all with your router. You also would want to do a pocket like that before you carve a top so you are working on a flat surface

woodenspoke

[MartyM]

Are you going to cut the front angle of the LP top like a 4. 5 degree raised panel and then rout out the neck cavity from that? That sounds do-able but probably not the safest or most accurate approach you could take. The necks on carved top lp necks are glued into a flat that is angled from the top surface. I just made a router jig like this: I bolted my router to a long flat board about 24 inches long. The router moved front to back and left to right on 2 tapered side pc's ( the top edge was 4.5 degrees from horizontal) of wood. This was kind of like the cheapo approach to using a router to plane a board to true up a flat surface. This cheap approach did the trick. I then routed out the neck pocket from that flat section using a template for the mortise.

Edited June 2, 2007 by MartyM

[Setch]

Short answer - you can safely cut the neck angle on a LP syle guitar with a tablesaw. You can then use the resultng surface to route your neck pocket.

There are other ways to do it, and I've never tried doing it with a tablsaw, but it can be done.

[Woodenspoke]

Short answer - you can safely cut the neck angle on a LP syle guitar with a tablesaw. You can then use the resultng surface to route your neck pocket.

There are other ways to do it, and I've never tried doing it with a tablsaw, but it can be done.

Long answer.......

Well we are all assuming we are arching this guitar top ? To me LP style can mean anything.

For all its worth you can just cut the angle in the template on the table saw as I have suggested, why risk the body or top. Yes the technique you mention is the right one with regard to clamping (screwing) the top plate and raising the blade through the cut. You must also have a rock solid saw, a dam good blade, no runout and a real good fence. This is why people build jigs and use routers for operations like these since a good table saw is not in most PG members budgets.

If you want to use the table saw I would personally complete the body glue up first, thickness sand the blank flat then do the pocket angle, Just clamp the entire body to the fence and then use the table saw. Dont band saw out the shape until afterward and square off the face to your centerline so you have a flat surface resting against the top of the table saw. You also dont want the body using the blade insert as an alignment surface so dont clamp it to the fence over the blade.

I could bore you with alot more details but if you do cabinet work this should make perfect sense.

Woodenspoke

Edited June 3, 2007 by Woodenspoke