Cutting A Neck/body Angle On Through Necks

[rhoads56]

Ok, so you should now be able to work out the neck angle to the body, headstock angle (by using the same theory), etc etc, because of THIS THREAD

Now, because your neck blank is longer than you need it, you'll have a section at the end we can use to attach 'things' to that will help us cut the neck angle.

Ive determined i need a certain angle to work with the desired fretboard, fret height, and bridge that i wish to use. Using the diagram we drew in THIS THREAD, ive worked out that at the END of the neck blank, i have a measurement of "x" between the neck blank plain, and the neck angle plain. Lets just assume this measurement is Xmm. Make sure you mark on the neck blank, the "end of fretboard" line.

Knowning that that measurement is Xmm, all we need to do is find something the correct thickness, to attach to the end of the neck blank. Im using a dome head screw with a course wide shank and thread. The head just HAPPENS to be the correct height, so i can screw it straigh in, but it is was too small, i could simply unscrew the screw the desired amount.

Now all you have to do, it turn the neck blank upside down, and pass the neck end over a jointer (surface planer) until the timber has been shaved away to the line we previously drew as the "end of fretboard" mark.

This image is a little deceiving, but its the best i could get, sorry.

[WezV]

god damn thats simple . . . now if only i had a jointer

[GregP]

Awesome. I had thoughts of doing a similar thing with a table saw that would require a different approach but follows a similar premise. This looks much cleaner, much less full of risk of burn, tearout, etc., and overall more efficient. Thanks for sharing! Now I just gotta find friends with a jointer...

Greg

[JOAMdude]

awesome, now i need a jointer

[Prostheta]

Awesome. Now I need some wood.

[erikbojerik]

Cool!

One issue I see here is that you need a jointer with a bed on each side that is longer than the neck-thru blank. If your jointer is too short (like mine is for a bass), one solution would be to sink the screw (shim) into the body where a pickup rout will go, then plane the neck. Or sink the screw into where the truss rod rout will go, then plane the body.

[rhoads56]

Thats right Erik. I wanted to show how I do it, to maybe provoke some thought on how you can adapt it to suit your situation.

[Prostheta]

I'm a little fearful of the amount of waste that an angled neck-through would create...I guess when you're working customs, the customers pays for what they get! Thanks for the great illustration of the principle Perry.

I agree with Wes' comment. Damn, it IS simple! I really do wish my planer bed was larger though :-(

[Setch]

I always though angling the body portion of neck throughs made more sense, due to the run out introduced by angling the neck portion - presumably this runout is very minimal, so it makes little or no difference, and this way lets you use thinner stock.... right?

[rhoads56]

Setch, i change my mind depending on my mood, and my mood was to leave the body area straight this time. Run out is less than 3mm over 500mm, so its not an issue. Of course, you could flip the screw to the other end, just as easily. Id written the job details on the body end of all 15 neck blanks, to i didnt like the idea of cutting that section off so quickly

[Bainzy]

Wouldn't it be easier and safer using a hand plane?

[erikbojerik]

Wouldn't it be easier and safer using a hand plane?

If you are experienced with the plane and have a good long one, you could do "as good" as you could with a jointer with sharp knives. But the plane would need to be very long to get you the uniform accuracy you get with a jointer.

And as long as you're paying attention, the jointer is as safe as any other power tool. I find it keeps me on my toes, which is where I should be!

Edited June 6, 2007 by erikbojerik

[rhoads56]

Wouldn't it be easier and safer using a hand plane?

What do you suggest is unsafe about this technique?

Its no unsafer that planing the neck blank to begin with. Its also a damn lot quicker, which means im focused on the job rather than day dreaming. Repetative work is one of the main causes of accidents... people's minds and concentration start drifting. If i only have one neck to do, i generally use hand planes etc, but the last run i did was 15 necks. That would be a good day, or maybe two with a hand plane, versus a couple hours tops.

[WezV]

Wouldn't it be easier and safer using a hand plane?

Bainzy, you are one overly plane obsessed,,, forumite!!! ( i couldnt think of a good enough word for it, sorry)

I like my planes - but you have it on another level!!

[Prostheta]

Ha, but those planes are SOOOO good! :-D

I agree with Perry's logic, but he does have to work on a different level to most hobbyists who would indeed use a hand plane rather than a long bed planer!

[Bainzy]

Wouldn't it be easier and safer using a hand plane?

What do you suggest is unsafe about this technique?

Its no unsafer that planing the neck blank to begin with. Its also a damn lot quicker, which means im focused on the job rather than day dreaming. Repetative work is one of the main causes of accidents... people's minds and concentration start drifting. If i only have one neck to do, i generally use hand planes etc, but the last run i did was 15 necks. That would be a good day, or maybe two with a hand plane, versus a couple hours tops.

Only safer in the respect that a hand plane can't lop your fingers off like a jointer - I didn't mean doing this was any more dangerous than anything else on a jointer. I agree it's definately quicker, and I can't imagine spending all day using hand planes if I was doing your job, it would make the cost of labour for the guitars so high that either I'd be making a lot less money or the guitars wouldn't be competetively priced.

The reason I'd say using a plane is easier, particuarly for a beginner at building guitars, is that if you've got the technique down on how to use either a hand plane or jointer, then you have to think a lot less hard about actually doing the job with a plane (even though the labour takes longer). With working out the angles on the jointer you have to think carefully and prepare it so you know the jointer will cut in the right place, whereas with a hand plane you'd just draw it out on the sides of the blank and plane to those lines.

I know I'm probably overly plane obsessed, but I do feel like some people starting out building guitars on this forum go into it with the aim of building guitars first and maybe learning any woodwork skills second, which is a shame as it's so much more rewarding and easier going into learning to be good at carpentry first and then applying what you learn to guitars - because that's all guitar building is, a form of carpentry, and some would rather spend hundreds or even thousands on power tools to make building guitars easier and as little like woodworking as possible when they'd be so much better off starting small and learning how to use power tools to replace their hand tools when they start working on a bigger scale in the way that luthiers like Perry do.

[rhoads56]

I know I'm probably overly plane obsessed, but I do feel like some people starting out building guitars on this forum go into it with the aim of building guitars first and maybe learning any woodwork skills second, which is a shame as it's so much more rewarding and easier going into learning to be good at carpentry first and then applying what you learn to guitars - because that's all guitar building is, a form of carpentry, and some would rather spend hundreds or even thousands on power tools to make building guitars easier and as little like woodworking as possible when they'd be so much better off starting small and learning how to use power tools to replace their hand tools when they start working on a bigger scale in the way that luthiers like Perry do.

BEST newb paragraph EVER.

For the record, i might have been making 15 necks, and using a jointer, etc, but i still drilled the holes for the "angle" with a hand drill... no, not a cordless or power drill, but one of these:

http://www.oldtools.co.uk/images/tools/mis...isc282.list.jpg

Kinda slow, but cool too.

Up until this year, all my neck angles where done with a hand plane. Some still are actually.

[Southpa]

+1 on that paragraph, well said. There is nothing wrong with learning how to do it the hard way. I also tend to take things a little further and do them the unusual way! I cut a 3 deg. neck angle for an SG neckthru with my Skilsaw, then handplaned it flat. When I worked at a boat building shop for a few months I used their 6 ft. horizontal belt sander to angle a mahogany neck for my first guitar. I just drew the lines on the sides and sanded down to them, it only took a couple minutes and came out sharp and square. There is definitely more than one way.

[Prostheta]

I'm still at the stage where I have to balance out "ways" to do jobs against how many fingers I might lose with each method :-D

Nothing like a finely tuned plane.

[Mitch]

That is so simple its clever. Unfortunately I'm a bit to far in my build to do that but I will try it when i get a chance. Putting a neck angle on a through neck is a nightmare, especially when i have a bridge higher than a TOM and I need a 3-4 degrees neck angle.

Thanks for posting this.

[paulinnc]

I feel like an idiot for just seeing ths now. I could have been making progress a lot sooner. Thank you, this is VERY helpful and so simple.

[guitar2005]

Seems like this would be an awesome thread but all the pictures show a question mark.

Is it just me or are the pics completely gone?

[Prostheta]

Yes, it would seem so. Whilst the entire PG site and forums and in the process of being transitioned to a content management system, articles such as these will be pinned or sorted in the main site and the images stored localled rather than remotely (with author permission of course).

This happens a lot, even on sites like Photobucket. Damn the dreaded red crosses!

[rhoads56]

The server that hosted these pics has been wiped. All good, I can re-upload, but I gotta get time to do it.

[Prostheta]

That would be fantastic Perry. Do you want us to host them and to pin as an article?