RVA Posted June 6, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2022 2 hours ago, mistermikev said: I tell you this not to say "yer doing it wrong" or anything, but more so that in case you are in doubt about it at all... this might be another option. That you very much for the input. I am at the investigation stage and all ideas are welcome. I did toy with some scrap wood and my non-sliding miter saw today, and the concept was not as easy as I would have liked. I have a $ 100 table saw, and while it have a lot of limitations, the fence stays square to the blade, so maybe I could create a rig from the miter slot. I also have a 14" bandsaw as an option, which may yield a decent cut with a miter slot jig and a resaw blade. Could I trouble you to put up a pic of your jig? I am having trouble understanding the diagram you posted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 6, 2022 Report Share Posted June 6, 2022 35 minutes ago, RVA said: That you very much for the input. I am at the investigation stage and all ideas are welcome. I did toy with some scrap wood and my non-sliding miter saw today, and the concept was not as easy as I would have liked. I have a $ 100 table saw, and while it have a lot of limitations, the fence stays square to the blade, so maybe I could create a rig from the miter slot. I also have a 14" bandsaw as an option, which may yield a decent cut with a miter slot jig and a resaw blade. Could I trouble you to put up a pic of your jig? I am having trouble understanding the diagram you posted well... afa my rig... I had built an early version of the design posted above - a while back. Unfortunately I used mdf which was a mistake. the mdf wasn't flat so once it wasn't being held down by clamps and I went to assemble it, I wasn't satisfied with it and tossed it. right about that time my friend kevin asked me about building him a tele and it's now a year and a half later as I'm getting back to this! (I will be building this jig probably next weekend so will post pics in my "fish on" bass thread) my jig design above - it's basically almost the same as the jig in the video below. the key to this method is 2 things... 1) is a very good saw blade. at least for me.... I don't want to have to sand it and risk putting in irregularities. 2) is the zero play rail. they expand outward via some set screws... allowing you to adust how wide the rail is... so it sits in your miter slot with "zero play". not expensive and really great! (amazon.com) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RVA Posted June 6, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2022 2 "cooked" flame maple necks have arrived 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 7, 2022 Report Share Posted June 7, 2022 On 6/6/2022 at 1:22 PM, RVA said: 2 "cooked" flame maple necks have arrived wow, those are really dark. thought it was figured ebony at first. cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RVA Posted June 7, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2022 1 hour ago, mistermikev said: wow, those are really dark. thought it was figured ebony at first. cool. Yes, darker than it appeared in the pictures and more than I would have ever expected. Definitely different, which is OK by me. Now if I can make it into a working neck, that would be really cool! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 7, 2022 Report Share Posted June 7, 2022 3 minutes ago, RVA said: Yes, darker than it appeared in the pictures and more than I would have ever expected. Definitely different, which is OK by me. Now if I can make it into a working neck, that would be really cool! i dissagree... it WILL be really cool. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RVA Posted June 8, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2022 3 hours ago, mistermikev said: i dissagree... it WILL be really cool. Thank you for the vote of confidence! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RVA Posted June 14, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2022 More wood. I got a great price on these three boards. 15/16 x 5 1/2 x 30. About $ 25 each with shipping and sales tax. Now I have plenty of room for error. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 14, 2022 Report Share Posted June 14, 2022 looks like some nice flame. perhaps thick enough for resaw or are you doing slip matched? always nice to have more than you need... I have a local spot that would have decent flame from time to time. haven't visited them in a while because I've got so much wood I feel like I should get to building things b4 I buy any more! that said... you don't snap it up when it's available and you'll regret later. Not to mention the place is literally about 4 blocks from my work so I figure it's therapy during lunch hour. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RVA Posted June 14, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2022 36 minutes ago, mistermikev said: perhaps thick enough for resaw or are you doing slip matched? I thought 15/16 x 30" would be just adequate as a neck blank. The width is a bit much, but offcuts are always useful! I do enjoy sourcing wood. My main concern is actually being able to create a neck out of one. I am stalled in my first start, which did not happen with bodies. I guess step 1 is the scarf joint, right? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 14, 2022 Report Share Posted June 14, 2022 9 minutes ago, RVA said: I thought 15/16 x 30" would be just adequate as a neck blank. The width is a bit much, but offcuts are always useful! I do enjoy sourcing wood. My main concern is actually being able to create a neck out of one. I am stalled in my first start, which did not happen with bodies. I guess step 1 is the scarf joint, right? well... taking on a scarf joint for your very first neck is pretty brave. that said... what one man can do - another can do. my first neck was a bolt on bass neck. as I recall the hardest part was fretwork but that is still the hardest part mostly because - no matter how good you are - it's a lot of work. I bought a slotted fretboard so that took that difficulty out of it. there's always something! getting the truss rod dead center and to the exact depth takes some precision... but I didn't really struggle with that. some do so ymmv. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 14, 2022 Report Share Posted June 14, 2022 afa order... for me... the very first thing would be making a template and getting that perfect. after that, if you are doing a scarf I suppose that has to be next. next in my mind would be flattening the face of that blank. then doing truss rod channel. then glue on fretboard, then routing the shape. then doing the profile. that said there are lots of schools of thought on that. I've read that some do the profile before the flattening/fretboard (terry mcinturf) because you potentially get rid of any tension in the wood prior to glueing on the fretboard. The prob with that is it's going to leave some very delicate edges. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RVA Posted June 14, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2022 4 minutes ago, mistermikev said: well... taking on a scarf joint for your very first neck is pretty brave I will create the jig and practice on a bunch of 2x4 fist! Thanks for the advice on the build order. That makes sense to me. I will use a Tele template for the nut down and a Gibson headstock template. I have a jointer and planer for flattening. Now all I need is some time and some nerve! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 14, 2022 Report Share Posted June 14, 2022 1 minute ago, RVA said: I will create the jig and practice on a bunch of 2x4 fist! Thanks for the advice on the build order. That makes sense to me. I will use a Tele template for the nut down and a Gibson headstock template. I have a jointer and planer for flattening. Now all I need is some time and some nerve! something I def don't do enough is a prototype/mockup. that's def something that will increase your likelihood of success dramatically. you got this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RVA Posted June 14, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2022 As your sig line says: "We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 14, 2022 Report Share Posted June 14, 2022 hehe, yeah, bukowski really knew how to put words together! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RVA Posted June 27, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2022 (edited) Thanks to all the helpful advice here, I was able to wrap my head around the measurements for my scarf joint cut. I will have 1" on the headstock side and about 2 inches on the FB side for error. I realize that my miter saw is too shallow to make the cut in this location. So it is either the table saw with a jig like Mike suggested or the band saw. I am more comfortable with the band saw, and my table saw is not great, but it does square well. Decisions! Here is my first victim. FB side Cut line Back of neck Edited June 27, 2022 by RVA 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 27, 2022 Report Share Posted June 27, 2022 7 hours ago, RVA said: Thanks to all the helpful advice here, I was able to wrap my head around the measurements for my scarf joint cut. I will have 1" on the headstock side and about 2 inches on the FB side for error. I realize that my miter saw is too shallow to make the cut in this location. So it is either the table saw with a jig like Mike suggested or the band saw. I am more comfortable with the band saw, and my table saw is not great, but it does square well. Decisions! Here is my first victim. FB side Cut line Back of neck well that's a lovely piece of maple. afa bandsaw... it is certainly a do-able proposition. lots of folks do it that way... but some sanding it going to happen. if you have some sort of disk sander or belt sander that can clean it up afterwards - would make things a lot easier. another alternative... since you no doubt have a router... is to create a jig for doing it via router. i used to do angled headstocks with such a jig. use a protractor to draw the angle on two pieces of scrap, use a straight edge piece of scrap to router off the angle. then use some straight scrap to connect the two pieces. put a big chunk of plexiglass on your router and it should allow you to place it on that angled surface and move it around. just a thought. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RVA Posted July 4, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2022 So, since my 10" table saw gave me limited cutting height, I decided to go with the bandsaw. I got a zero zeroplay miter slot bar thanks to @mistermikev suggestion I made 10 degree angle stops from both directions so I could choose which side I want front/back and top/bottom. I then picked the worst possible piece of wood I could find. I am not really sure why I kept it around, but I hate wasting wood. Anyway, it worked! I need to try with a clean piece of hardwood to see if this 3/8 blade is sufficient or if I should get a high TPI resaw blade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted July 4, 2022 Report Share Posted July 4, 2022 hadn't realized you have such a nice bandsaw... might put mine to work more if it was as nice as that. it looks like it's going to need sanding, but pretty minimal. nice work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RVA Posted July 4, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2022 14 minutes ago, mistermikev said: hadn't realized you have such a nice bandsaw... might put mine to work more if it was as nice as that. it looks like it's going to need sanding, but pretty minimal. nice work. Thanks! Yes, there will most certainly be sanding. Maybe a deeper and finer blade would help I am getting a ledge, but I a subsequent attempt indicates that I was likely forcing the cut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted July 4, 2022 Report Share Posted July 4, 2022 I'm guessing you started from the ledge side... you could start from the other side to prevent it... but honestly given that it's on the top of the guitar... a little sanding and fine. I'm no bandsaw expert but when you are trying to make a straight cut generally a wider bade is the ticket... and lots of tension. I don't think a fine blade would be best because it's going to cut slower and you will be more likely to pull things out of wack. I'd go for a coarse cut and plan on some sanding... but ymmv. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RVA Posted July 4, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2022 21 minutes ago, mistermikev said: I'm guessing you started from the ledge side... you could start from the other side to prevent it... but honestly given that it's on the top of the guitar... a little sanding and fine. I'm no bandsaw expert but when you are trying to make a straight cut generally a wider bade is the ticket... and lots of tension. I don't think a fine blade would be best because it's going to cut slower and you will be more likely to pull things out of wack. I'd go for a coarse cut and plan on some sanding... but ymmv. Good advice, thank you! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted July 4, 2022 Report Share Posted July 4, 2022 3 minutes ago, RVA said: Good advice, thank you! Happy to help. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted July 4, 2022 Report Share Posted July 4, 2022 Lower your blade guides too. You'll get better results if the upper blade guide is only just tall enough to allow the workpiece to pass underneath. You only need to expose as much the blade teeth as is necessary to complete the cut. The more the length of the blade is unsupported the more chance there is for the blade to flex and deflect as the cut is made. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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