jay5

Bump, $45 shipped obo

I have 2 Stewmac offset diamond fret crowning files. They are the 150 grit files with one side for small/medium wire and one side for wide. These are used but are still in great shape. We switched to the 300 grit files at work so we don't need these anymore. I was using them up until two days ago and they still cut great. These things have a ton of life left in them, I promise. New they run about $95 from Stewmac plus shipping. I'd like to get $50 each shipped. These are the files if you need any more info. Thanks!!!

Sorry about the pics. I put them on photobucket but I must have mooved them or my account expired or somthing. Search "jaysguitarpics" on photobucket, they might be there.

A router is typically two pieces, the motor and the base. Most decent routers can be removed from the base to switch from plunging to fixed opperations. Some lower end units do not seperate and generally only operate as fixed base routers. My advice would be to buy a good router as they are so very versetile. A good router and a good router table will allow you to do anything a guitar would demand. I would certainly opt for a "kit" with both plunge and fixed bases. I keep my fixed base in the router table and use the plunge base for all hand routing opperations. If you ever see yourself wanting both bases it's best to buy them as a "kit" as you will save a bunch of money in the long run. A second plunge base for my Bosch cost about $100 while the router and both bases as the kit only cost me $200. I used a jigsaw to cut out my first few bodies, it's a bit of a chore but it works.

bump

I was thinking about trying some of the LMI branded "Instrument makers glue" but was curious as to whether anyone has any experience with it. They advertise it as having several advantages over Titebond, particularly a harder setup. I checked over at the MIMF and read a statement that someone reported failure of this glue but couldnt locate said report in the library. So does anyone have any experience or know where on the MIMF that this stuff is talked about?

Make an offer.

Ahh, forgot to meention that they are unradiused.

I have 3 fingerboards I don't need. They have all been thickness sanded to .250-.260" and slotted for 22 frets. They are all 1st grade Indian rosewood boards from LMI and are straight and dry. 2 of the boards (pictured together) are slotted to 25" cut off at the nut slot and 23rd fret while the third is for a 25.5" scale also cut at the nut and 23rd fret. All three taper from 2.25"+ at the nut to 2.60"+ at the last fret. 12$ each shipped. 25.5" board I also have a 10' and 12' radius brass fret caul for use with Stewmac's fret press. $8 for both shipped. I accept paypal. Thanks!

Kammo, for the tele neck I simply ran the guide bearing against the neck. I did reattach the neck template that I used to rout the neck profile to the top. On the last two passes only about half of the bearing contacts the neck (the fretboard at that point) so the template just acts a a little more support on those last passes. One thing this method doesnt give me is a thickness taper but since this neck is gonna' be a bigun' it works out perfectly. If you look at the G&L shop tour you can see their "neck carver" which is essentially a long routertable with stops front and back and a big roter bit, exactly how I did it. I imagine that theyre are many other builders who do fender style necks that take a similar approach. I will try to get some pics up for you guys. Thanks again!

Kammo, search Jimmy Foster on Youtube and you'll find a few videos. The jig he uses can be seen in part one and is exactly like David's. Cherokee, I think the 690 router is a 1.75HP unit, no? Also, regarding your question about using the jig for fender style necks, as long as youre headstock support caould adjust to the right angle I see no reason why not. That being said, I used the same bit to do the back of a tele neck today but opted simply to use it in my router table, worked great! The grizzly bit cut very well in the maple, still ran it about 25% below full speed though. I'll try to get a pic or two before monday. Thanks again!

Yeah, I think that variable speed is the key.

The bit I bought was a cheap ($30) Grizzly bit, mainly to make sure that everything actually worked out. I will definately buy a Whiteside bit after this one has a few more necks on it. The whiteside is about $70 but so worth it, all my other bits are whiteside cutters and are all phenominal. I was really hesitant to go with the Grizzly but it cut the mahogany well. Being that carving is at the tail end of the build you would hate to trash a neck with several hours already into it. So, good bits are a must. Now, about the router. I have a bosch 1617EVS which is listed at 2.25HP and is variable speed. It adjusts from 1 to 6 and I run this bit at about 4. The idea of that big thing whirling at 22K rps scares me. The 690 is a fine router. The only thing I would have reservations about would be the single speed. I imagine that a real good bit and several light passes would work fine.

Ok, Ive got a few minutes to answer some questions about this thing and hopefully clear up some stuff. I don't have time to draw up a scale diagram quite yet but lets see where we can get without it for the time being. In addition, I will inevitably answer a few questions I already addressed before, but bear with me. So Kammo, the "oversized sled" is actually very simple. My router is set up like a very small pin rouer in this jig. The bit sits directly above a 1/2" pin in the table. I decided that if I was going to take the time to make this jig I wanted it to do as good a job as I could engineer. I did several drawings and found that if I let the bearing of a 7'8" R cutter run against the neck itself, I would have a nice shape at the nut end of the shaft but would leave about a 1/4" of "flat" at the 12th where the cutter would finish. My drawings also showed me that doing the same thing with a 1"R cutter would give me a perfect cut at the 12th but the nut end would suffer. What would happen is that since my nut width is under 2", the cutter would cut past the centerline and make the neck thinner than my desired specs, see the stellar diagram below. The "overcutting" looks minor in the drawing but again, I wanted the thing to work as well as I could make it. OK, so what I did was simply build the sled (the template) 2" wide the whole way down. What this does is allow the cutter (at is full depth, the final pass) to cut right to the centerline of the neck, the whole way down. This way the two radii meet at the center of the neck and give an even carve the whole way while not affecting the already thicknessed neck. You can see how the template keeps the bit off the neck in the 2nd drawing (the red is the template). This diagram is NOT to scale. As a result, it appears that a large flat is left on the side of the neck at the nut end but this isnt accurate, it actually follows the fingerboard seam quite well. So, as I said in my original post, this is probably a bit overkill for the hobbiest. In addition, I certainly imagine that others have come up with far simpler (and far more complicated) ways of doing this. Part of the enjoyment I get from building guitars is finding different ways to do things, hence this jig. As a result, designing and building it was just as enjoyable as seeing it work. So, I hope that I answered some questions and didnt confuse anyone else more.

Sorry, I will try to get you some specs this weekend, I've been pretty busy lately.

That would render the rod useless as it needs to be able to move to work. A little silicone and a proper sized rout are the answer.

Theyre's no real reason to slow down an angle grinder. We use those crappy Harbor Freight angle grinders ($15) for carving tops and tummy cuts at work. For the amount of time it actually gets used in guitar building, I agree that the cheapest is probably fine. We still have the same one they had when I got there over a year ago and I have put many hours on it.

What was your method for planing the angle into the top? How thick is the top? Looks great BTW!!!

Not to beat this to death, but I imagine you are here to learn so I'll chime in again. When you say that you tested the rod and it worked, what actually happened? Not to be negative but I don't see how that rod could adjust the neck in any way in that straight rout. Another thing to remember when building a neck is to take out just enough material to make room for what you need to put in. Leaving large open spaces in a neck is never a good thing, both for stablilty and tone. Just my 2 cents. Good luck with the project.

Well, the rod should work, but not with that rout. The rout will probably work, but not with that rod. You have built a traditional compression rod which needs a slightly curved slot that is he same width as the rod itself as well as a filler strip over the top. You have a slot that looks straight and WAY too wide. The rod is not going to break, but it isnt going to serve any purpose the way you are trying to use it. If you procede with that rod and rout you are gonna' have a huge void in the neck and a rod thats gonna' rattle like hell, no to mention be worthless. I would seriously invest in a Martin style rod. It fits in a 1/2" rout and only costs about $15.

How did you plane the angle into the top? What is the neck angle?

I am worried about that truss rod swimming around in that rout, not to mention the fact that you look like you need a curved slot. I would look to see if one of the martin style rods would fit that rout, looks about .5" wide.

Hahahaha, this is too funny. I too bought an SG body from that seller as well as a neck and some other parts. Everything came and other than the neck bolting to the body, nothing else went together right. Bridge wouldnt fit, pickup routs were a mess, etc.. Long story short, I thought "I can do better than this", relisted the stuff and bought my first body blank and router with the $$$. True story.

10 a day!? We do 6-8 a week at work and I would LOVE to have a gang saw. Hell, it takes me 3-4 minutes a piece to do them on the tablesaw, I cant imagine that I could do 3 boards in 5 minutes by hand. I guess if you are doing one or two at a time you might save some setup time by doing it by hand. The slotting blades in a setup like you are proposing would work just fine. The LMI blade is just a 6" HSS slotting blade. now get to work!

Nice find! Thanks for sharing!