verhoevenc Posted August 13, 2010 Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 So, it seems to be the ONE time you're not paying FULL attention... you screw something up! So this week's dumb mistake of the week award goes to... drum roll... ME! (*the crowd goes wild*) Set up to resaw the headstock to thickness to put the backstrap on. Went through the motions. Bam, comes out at like .42" thick at the E-tuner holes, and like .38" at the headstock tip. And that's WITH .080" worth of headplate material! Now I've had to throw on .1" worth of backstrap (that's a hefty thick backstrap to bend in gaboon ebony!)!!! So yeah... .52-.48 which, admittedly, is on the thin side... but what worries me is whether this neck will hold up, not because of the thinness, but because .18" of it's .5" thickness is frickin' headplate material! I'm queesy about only .32" of the originally scarfed material being left What do you guys think? Care to vent some frustrations of your own? This is the place! Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted August 13, 2010 Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 So, it seems to be the ONE time you're not paying FULL attention... you screw something up! So this week's dumb mistake of the week award goes to... drum roll... ME! (*the crowd goes wild*) Set up to resaw the headstock to thickness to put the backstrap on. Went through the motions. Bam, comes out at like .42" thick at the E-tuner holes, and like .38" at the headstock tip. And that's WITH .080" worth of headplate material! Now I've had to throw on .1" worth of backstrap (that's a hefty thick backstrap to bend in gaboon ebony!)!!! So yeah... .52-.48 which, admittedly, is on the thin side... but what worries me is whether this neck will hold up, not because of the thinness, but because .18" of it's .5" thickness is frickin' headplate material! I'm queesy about only .32" of the originally scarfed material being left What do you guys think? Care to vent some frustrations of your own? This is the place! Chris First off. On the S907 #1 and #2 I didn't have enough material left to do the headstock with a piece of wood from the neck blank and had to cut them from new pieces of wood. I HATE WASTING WOOD. HATE HATE HATE Wasting wood. Secondly. Chris... trust your skills and build the stupid thing anyway. If you used titebond and got a solid joint between the headplate/backstrap and the original headstock the combined results are stronger than the original piece of wood. I know I have hit a few with the hammer to test them... Also the tapered headstock should flex a little more allowing the joint to survive better (according to Benedetto). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted August 13, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 Well in the time between the first post and this post... the HEADSTOCK has become a potato chip. Cupped so much that it broke open the bookmatch of the back strap. Strangest part... the backstrap is the SAME material as the headplate... from the same billet, literally from the same slices, and when I put the headplate on a couple days ago... NOTHING... not an inch of movement. Now there's a 1/16" cup across the 3.5" wide headstock. I've never seen anything like it. I'm baffled. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug Posted August 13, 2010 Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 Sometimes we all do stuff that makes us wonder what we were thinking... :o) Don't beat yourself up too much, wood grows on trees... Not sure what your process is for constructing a neck, but if that had happened to me I would cut the neck off at the scarf and add a new headstock. Oh yeah, a big pain for sure. My jigs are set up for an unshaped neck so for me it means this has to be done manually. The cupping concerns me though. With all reasons why that can happen maybe you should toss that one and start again before you go too much further. If it's bolt on then if it goes all squirrely later on it's not such a big deal to replace. Maybe consider starting over before you get too much more time into it... In my opinion, less than 1/2" thick is pretty risky. -Doug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodenspoke Posted August 14, 2010 Report Share Posted August 14, 2010 I stooped resawing the back of my headstock's and now use a Oscillating drum sander and a 4" aluminum angle as a fence. Sort of an open drum sander. Still needs to be cleaned up afterwords but less risky than a bandsaw once the headstock is close to final dimension. It also makes a nice curve for a back strap option next to the neck if you use a drum with the proper diameter for your look. As for thickness it depends on how it was buit and how far the tuners will stick up. A top plate and backstrap will add considerable strenght. So Im not worried? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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