ArieBombarie

I looked into vibration problem... First I tried to use locking nuts (see picture on the left), but they didn't work as they fit to tight, it turned the bolt when I tried to put them on... I removed some of the plastic ring, but that didn't work either..

So I put on thread-tape (which you use on gas fittings) and added an extra nut and this seems to be the answer. The nuts won't slide up and down easily because of the tape and the extra nut keeps the first one in it's place.... (see picture on the right)

Maybe there will be some wear and tear of the tape over time, but it is replaced in about 15 seconds, so no worries there....

Grz Arjan

When I was removing the frets from the nasty cheapo fretboard I kind of ended up scratching and bending a couple of the frets so I'm going to use the lower frets to replace the ones that I trashed.

Won't that look kinda funny, with the three last frets missing... I think it will look like just that, that they are missing, not as a cool design feature...Why not buy some new fretwire and replace them (or use new fretwire for all the frets for that matter)?

Love the topwood by the way....

Grz Arjan

Cyco,

Although I'm not the worlds biggest telecaster fan, I like this set-up... especially the neck-pick... I'm not to crazy about the normal dots on the fretboard.. Did you build it from stratch (if so please post building pics) or did you use kit-parts?

Grz Arjan

Looks good. Keep an eye on the nuts and bolts whilst using it though - this kind of jig is very likely to suffer from vibration, and the nuts may creep loose and allow the angle or height to change whilst you're working.

Yep, I see vibration as a potential problem too. So I will either add a second nut. or I will add some tape (the one you use on gas- or water-pipes) on the tread of the bolts, or I will use self thightning nuts (the ones with a rubber ring in it)... I will have to test this out... I'll be posting my findings on the vibration issue..

If you want those parts to glide apply a coat of butchers wax on the metal (or two or four or seven) and buff it (by hand or machine) a long, long time. I hate to be over promoting the stuff but it is really useful stuff.

I considered that, and I could use it on the side rails, but I don't want to use it on the router carriage as it will probably leave stains on my routerbase which can be transfered to the wood when I use the router without this jig....

Grz Arjan

FYI, David Myka's neck angle jig is very similar to this, just made with wood, and would be a cool add-on for yours in terms of addition functionality. I may incorporate a few aspects of this design into the one I'm planning/building. Thanks for posting!

Re: sliding, you can get HDPE slick slidey plastic stuff from places like WOodcraft and Axminster (only sure about Axminster), some with self-adhesive backing, that's designed to slide along nicely.

Mattia,

Yes it's similar, but it's made for making the neckpocket and not for planing level... but more functionallity is always welcome ... So it got me thinking, I'm building a Les-Paul style guitar with a neck tenon, so it's a little bit different as far as the neck-pocket goes... But mayby I could use the jig (with some alterations) for lining up the neck and holding the neck-tenon template in place... so thanks for tip!

Grz Arjan

Hi there....

I needed a router planning Jig, not only to plane level, but especially at an angle (for the tenon area)... so I read some posts and did some research but most of the planning jigs I found where for planning level or at an angle but not both. Most of them sre made of MDF which has a problem that it flexes when you put pressure on the router.

I came up with the following solution, which gives me all the flexibility I need and non of the problems I saw with other jigs...

I made the base out of thick (2,3 cm; about 1 inch) wood (MDF) of 50x60cm ( approx 20x23 inch). In the corners I put in M12 bolts of about 10cm (approx 0,5 x 4 inch) and put a nut on every bolt. I used aluminum L profiles to put over the bolts (resting on the nut). I made the holes in the L-profile wide enough so the L profile can be put over the bolts at an angle..

From the same L Profiles I made a router carriage... and it doesn't flex at all!!! On all the parts that glide I put on the smoothest tape I could find....

In the picture below the jig is set to plane level.

By moving the nuts up or down I can either plane level or at an angle...(the angle in the picture is about 3 degrees... ) great thing is that I can just measure the angle and make the necessary adjustments, or I can calculate the height difference between the left and right side of the L profile for a given angle and make the adjustments accordingly....

It took me about 1,5 hours to make and I'm pretty pleased with the end-result... !! What do you guys think of this set-up?

Grz Arjan

Any pointers on how best to clamp the headstock when gluing it?

Grz Arjan

Gil,

True, routing a binding channel can be tricky especially when you have a carved top. But I think that routing the bindingchannel before you cut the body shape won't work. Mainly because the bodyshape should be cut/routed/sanded very very accurate in order to get a consistant whith of your binding. There is always a spot that you should sand just a little bit more in order to get is smooth, at that spot your bindingcahnnel won't be wide enough.

If you want, you can add stabillity by using a routing table, you can make this yourself, just by mounting your router underneath a board with a hole in it.

If you have a carved top however, this will still be an unstable constructing, so with a carved top you route the binding channel before you carve the top, it's a lot easier. Nick form nmguitars routes two channels in the top before carving. The first is the bindingchannel, routed with a special binding routingbit from stew mac. Then he routes a second `dummy´ channel above the binding channel. This ledge indicates to which point you must carve the top (simple but brilliant).

When routing a bindingchannel always use multiple passes in order to reduce the risk of tear-out....

Grz Arjan

© the pictures are from www.nmguitars.com

Thanks guys for all the feedback...

I made a sawing jig for sawing the headstock angle...

I think I'll go for gluing option 2 as I will be laminating the headstock with the same wood as the topwood of the body (zebrawood)

I'll be posting some pics of the neck soon..

Arjan

i would not do it like that either. what you do is you cut your angle on the headstock, and use the same piece you cut off and flip it upside down. hold on a minute while i take some pics.

ok, this is how you should do it.

<< pictures >>

Thanks Killemall8 ! its perfectly clear to me now...

Grz Arjan

Alright,

so the scarf joint should be something like this:

So what you guys are saying is that having the graindirection in the neck qutersawn, is more important then having a single piece neck-head... right?

AJ

He there, yet another question from me...

for my Les Paul style guitar, I buidling the neck out of mahogany. The piece of mahogany I have is quater-sawn, but it is not thick enough (about 4,4 cm that's about 1.7 inch) to get the entire neck out of it including the (angled) head. So my question is, what to do?

1) Do I cut the wood and make a laminated neck so the neck and headstock are made out of the same piece of wood? Note the wood-grain in set-up won't be perpendicular to the fretboard.

2) Make the neck out of the mahogany and keep it quatersawn and attach an extra piece of wood for the headstock to be cut out off?

I guess the question is, what is more important, quatersawn wood or a one-piece head?

Grz Arjan

Just a quick question...

I'm buidling a Les Paul type guitar. I finished the mahogany body and the next step is to attach the top (zebrawood). Now before I glue the top on, I was thinking about pre-routing the wiring holes (from pick-up selector switch to the pickup cavities to the controls) in the mahogany body. I guess this will be easier then drilling the holes between the cavities after the top is glued on and the cavities are routed in the body.

The reason why I'm asking this is, that it seems like a obvious thing to do, but I can't seem to find builds where this is done this way. Am I missing something? Is there any reason why I shouldn't do this?

Let me know what you think...

Grz Arjan

Well I can't remember ever seeing Titebond in my local DYI store here in the Neterlands... but I'm sure I can get my hands on it somewhere...

Anyways, I tried to sum up al your remarks and put it on my website, hopefully it will be usefull for someone who has the same question.

So thanx again..

Grz Arjan

Well, that's pretty clear... i'll be sticking with wood-glue for now... thanx for the advise on this!!

Grz Arjan

Hi there,

I've just started building my own Les Paul Inspired guitar. I'm at the point where I need to glue two pieces of mahogany together to form the body. Í'm thinking about using an Epoxy Resin voor glueing the pieces togehter. I've searched the forum and there seam to be some different view-ponts on using Epoxy Resin.

My question is: what's your experience with using an epoxy resin as an adhesive instead of regular wood-glue?

I would really appreciate if someone could point out the pros and cons on this one....

Grz Arjan