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Making A 15 Degree Jig For Angled Headstock


Trixie Cant Act

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I just looked at compound miter saws...sears has a 10" for $140 or so that cuts at 15 degrees...they also have a 12" sliding compound miter saw for $290 or so...both are laser guided...sounds like the perfect tool at the perfect price if you do allot of scarf joints...I am thinking of picking one up...

If you use a radial arm saw or miter box you will still need a jig to hold the neck tight against the fence. Otherwise its not going to work. A table saw is your best bet if you are going to machine the joint.

Wouldn't a couple clamps work, you might have to screw a piece of wood onto the fence to make it taller though.

I cant see how you will be able to clamp in the middle of a radial arm table unless you screw some wood to the table. I don't think there is a way to clamp anything to a miter saw base. You would have to make a fence 75 Deg (90-15), each edge would need a fence, one to clamp against the saws 90 and the other to clamp the neck. Either method involves a jig. maybe is slightly harder to build the table saw jig but I will bet you the results will be good enough to cut glue joints provided you have the correct blade for the job.

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I have no idea what you are going on about...Nobody said anything about a radial arm saw..at least I did not.

You do know the difference between a compound miter saw and a radial arm saw?

I have never used a radial arm saw....but I have used a compound miter saw many,many times for aluminum handrails...they DO have a fence.and you CAN stabilize the piece with a clamp,and with the right blade they WILL cut every bit as smooth as a table saw...

I don't know about the accuracy of a sliding compound miter saw...but the plain old compound miter is a pretty nice machine.Not to say you might not have to touch it up a hair with a sanding block...

but you know...that IS what they are made for....miters...that is why they call them miter saws...

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51F5OZvZSQL._SS400_.jpg

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but you know...that IS what they are made for....miters...that is why they call them miter saws...

Lets see, I want to make this clear "there is no way to cut a 15 deg scarf joint holding your neck against the built in miter saw fence".

Reality check:

Zero degrees is 90 deg to the cut not zero. Just because its marked that way on the saw dosent make it correct. So at 60 deg on my 12" Dewalt the cut is 30 deg, this is the tightest cut you can make using the fence. Yes they cut miters but I am lucky I can get a 30 deg cut using the built in fence, most miter saws are not this versatile. If I could use my Dewalt then I would not use a table saw sled for this operation.

So I would need a 15 deg wedge between the fence and the neck to cut a scarf joint. I would rather use my tablesaw, the miter slot and my scarf joint sled.

You do know the difference between a compound miter saw and a radial arm saw?

Yes; and it seems some people know more than others.

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>snip<

You do know the difference between a compound miter saw and a radial arm saw?

>snip<

It's funny that you ask that question Wes. The reason for my reply to this, is that many are mislead by the guy on DIY network, I think his name is Brad Johnson or something like that? He always refers to the Sliding Compound Miter saws as RADIAL ARM saws. So, if anyone is listening. There is a BIG difference between to two.

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Yeah, my pops had a compound miter saw like that, though not as nice and I tried several different ways to get a 15 degree angle for a scarf and couldn't get there. With a sliding one you could technically, but you'd still need to build a fence somehow that was perpendicular to the existing fence because that is how you'd need to set up the neck to cut it and doing that wouldn't be easy by any means. I ended up just cutting the scarf by hand with a japanese handsaw that had no backbone which would allow me to cut all the way through unhindered, worked well but took a while cutting through maple and jatoba. Cleaned it up with a plane and it worked out perfect. I still would have rather used a machine. J

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Well,nice response and all,Mr. woodenspoke...but are you telling me that with a 12" miter saw you can't turn the neck blank(while square wood) up tall side vertical,rotate the table to be the proper angle,and then slice through the 3" blank while vertical?

Because I am just sure you can...I was mitering 3" aluminum round stock with ours...and 4" square stock...

I will admit it is not something I do every day...but for the life of me I can not picture your problem...unless you are trying to scarf it while flat...

Maybe my post was a bit facetious in nature,but I assure you I am serious

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Anyway...If I hurt your feelings...get over it... :D

You didnt hurt my feeling you are just wrong as in dont know what the %^&* your talking about. :D

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  • 3 weeks later...

For Gibson style I just ruff out the angle on the band saw, then clean up the fretboard surface and front head stock surface on the edge sander laying flat. Get my crown points situated there then I thickness my headstock on the thickness sander.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have tried doing a 15 degree scarf on my Dewalt 12 inch sliding mitre saw and don't recommend it.

You cannot just set the saw to 15 degrees and start cutting.You would need a saw that would rotate to 75 degrees and they don't make one

You would have to set up an auxilliary fence that would increase the max setting on your saw to equal the desired angle.

Most saws don't rotate past 50-60 degrees.If you try this make sure it is securely clamped.I still believe you would need a slider to get the length of cut you will require.I found it too dangerous to attempt again and resort to my bandsaw and a plane.

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I just looked at compound miter saws...sears has a 10" for $140 or so that cuts at 15 degrees...they also have a 12" sliding compound miter saw for $290 or so...both are laser guided...sounds like the perfect tool at the perfect price if you do allot of scarf joints...I am thinking of picking one up...

Yeah, but you'd sill need to clean up the cut. I've tried this on the miter saw and its ok. I use it for the rough cut and then clean up with my router jig.

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I'm still 100% behind my router jig also. I've done the initial cut using bandsaws and handsaws before, and it depends on what you prefer I guess. The original title is "making a 15 degree jig for..." and I don't think mitre saws are ideal in this circumstance, although I guess they can work in as much as plenty of other methods could work (axes, frickin' lasers, etc). To get to the final hurdle, i'd put my money on a simple saw (perhaps with a guide), some elbow grease and cleaning up with the router and finally trueing with a plane or sandpaper taped to a piece of float glass.

Dial in a bit of loss from the initial cut and clean 'er up!

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Even though I have made the scarf Jig Pictured in this post for my table saw, I prefer to bandsaw out my neck from two mirror pieces and glue them together down the center line with the grain in opposite directions, with or without contrasting strips.

1. By offsetting the grain direction I feel the neck is stronger and able to withstand movement better.

2. I can use the same thickness of wood I use to Scarf joint a neck without the scarf joint.

3. I have a built in centerline

4. Using flatsawn boards gets a close to quartersawn neck blank.

I guess if you drop the guitar you have the same chances of cracking off the headstock any way you build your neck.

I would not use this method on a Fender style neck as I would not enjoy the line in my headstock.

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  • 1 month later...

I looked at the exact way of doing it on my dads miter saw as it was the only way to set the proper angle of degrees, however there was no way his would reach to cut a scarf, thats is why in my post I said with a sliding miter saw it is possible, but without I didn't see how it would work. Obviously the saw in the pictures is a lot bigger than what my dad had, but I don't know what the average is so maybe some people will be able to do this and some won't. Let us know how it works out for you. Best of luck. J

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I have one of these (or something similar - I know it's a Jorgensen) from years back. Does nice work. Was looking at it the other day - if I could get the rods out of the base (or purchase some same diameter steel rod) I could mount the new rods slightly farther apart in a sturdy plank of wood, adding a couple extra holes for clearance of the alignment assembly and rig something up that would cut 15 degrees. (The original setup won't go quite that far.) The saw itself does a very fast (although it'd be a bit slower since we'd lose a bit of the range of pull with the post set farther apart) and accurate job in the jig when the piece is well clamped.

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Back on this post again, Ugh

Just as was saying about needing a jig to hold the stock at 90Deg in order to get the correct angle.

Picture006.jpg

This is also not a sliding miter saw and you have to sacrafice wood as well or youll cut up your clamps.

By the time you set this thing up I could have done 40 necks on a table saw with a scarf jig. Does no one own a table saw and a good blade????

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I don't think we are getting anywhere with this. No one agrees with anyone else because everyone is cutting a different amount of scarf joints.

If someone is only making 1 guitar every year then cutting it with a hand saw and tidying with a plane would be fine(like i did).

If someone is making 20 guitar necks at a time then that way would be a little slow and they would have to find a faster way.

It also (as IPA or death said) depends on your situation with tools.

Anyway that's just my opinion. I'm sure someone elses is different.

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I don't think we are getting anywhere with this. No one agrees with anyone else because everyone is cutting a different amount of scarf joints.

If someone is only making 1 guitar every year then cutting it with a hand saw and tidying with a plane would be fine(like i did).

If someone is making 20 guitar necks at a time then that way would be a little slow and they would have to find a faster way.

It also (as IPA or death said) depends on your situation with tools.

Anyway that's just my opinion. I'm sure someone elses is different.

I agree. I dont even use scarf joints. I just have the table saw jig if the need ever arises.

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Picture006.jpg

Seems to me an easier way to address this would be to make a table that holds everything (the spacers and such in that photo) in position and can be clamped to the mitre saw.

A panel of plywood or what have you could form a base for everything else to be attached to.The bit on the right that the neck registers on would be attached there, but wouldn't have to be a large piece of wood - a big "L" attached to the base piece securely would give you clamping surface for both attaching the jig and the neck. The base piece of the jig could have holes to allow clamps to thread through to attach it to the base of the table. The piece touching the right side of the neck could be extended further to allow you to clamp the neck further down and clear from the saw blades, or the base could extend past the neck on the left hand side enough to allow you to use strategically placed toggle clamps or other hold-downs.

This makes the whole thing larger, so depending on how your mitre saw is set up, you may end up needing to support the side furthest from the fence of the saw.

Basically, I mean, a little tweaking the idea implemented in that photo, and you can make a jig that's easily set up and reused, and once secured, could do a series of neck blanks without having to reset the whole thing and replace pieces of wood.

Me, I'll stick to bandsaw and handplane, and move up to a tablesaw setup if I ever get a real shop going.

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