asgeirogm

Well the neck blank I have is much closer to being quartersawn than flatsawn, so I don't think this option applies for this particular blank. the problem is more that the grain just isn't as straight through out the length of the board as one would like. @Prostheta Thanks for all this knowledge, this is really useful info! Nice, sounds like you have a knack for supply chain management I enjoyed that anecdote a lot btw.

I 3d printed it I actually need to make a V2 some day, the base is not quite stiff enough so I need to add some braces on top to prevent flexing

Somehow missed the notification and only saw this now. I'm in Denmark (i.e. EU), and think the limit for orders outside the EU was something like to $12, but as far as I understand, the rules were recently changed so now there is no minimum amount, I need to pay import tax and VAT on everything, regardless of the price. As if that wasn't bad enough, the Danish postal office charges a fixed fee of something like $20 for every order they need to process from outside the EU regardless of the price, so ordering from outside the EU now has pretty much become a non starter unless no other option. That's at least my understanding of the situation. I will take a look at tuners though, I know what I want for my next build so I can compare prices on Thomann and StewMac

I bought the router as a part of a set and it had these kind of spanners, and I always use them to tighten, so I'm good, but I appreciate the tip regardless

Thanks for the thorough response on wood movement @Prostheta, I really appreciate it. Seeing as I've come this far on the neck before realizing I wasn't as selective as I should have been, I'm keen to explore magnitude of the risks I'm facing here so I can make an informed decision on whether to chuck this neck and start over or continue with it. I've done some cutting on it myself to get to this point, namely thicknessing and tapering, and I've gotten a slight twist on it, so I know there is (or was) some tension in the wood. What I'm really wondering about now is this: Let's say I finish doing a couple more rounds of faceting, let it sit for a few days, straighten everything up from the twist and then finish the carve up and let it sit for a while (days, weeks?) and it doesn't move any more. How much of a risk am I taking that it might twist more down the road (weeks, months, years)? Is it unlikely, likely, impossible to say, etc? For humidity background, I live in Denmark.

I would probably say that my favorite thing in the world is to solve problems in creative and efficient ways, so I'm very happy that you think this was good as I hadn't seen other people do these things before (even though many definitely have before me, I just haven't seen it), it just made sense to me.

Makes sense. After I sawed up the beam into two neck blanks and thicknessed the one I'm using now, it stood inside for a few weeks before I did the first facet, and it had twisted a little in that time, about 1 mm or so from corner to corner. Judging by what I've read (which isn't that much but it's something), I wouldn't expect (hope ) it to move too much from now on. I hope I'm not wrong on that front, let's see

I have a question regarding attempting to prevent twist in a less-than-perfectly-straight neck blank. Consider this diagram: I expect that #2 is better than #1 as it gives a better balance, but I'm wondering how much of a difference #2 compares to #1 and #3? I ask because I already have the other piece of the neck blank like this, so it's not really feasible to do method #2 (or variations thereof): I guess then you could optimize all of these methods by possibly also rotating each piece instead of just flipping them, but with my blank, I don't have that luxury. I just wanted to see if you guys thought that method #1 or #3 would be enough for my second neck blank? And if so, which of the two would you go for (I know the grain on the actual piece of wood will matter here, I'm just wondering in general). My feeling is that #3 gives better balance than #1

Good idea, likely a bit late for me on this current build but good food for thought on the next one for sure

My first problem was that when I was picking out the wood for the guitar (i,e. looking at these different parts of the table I bought), I saw a long beam that would be quite convenient to use for a neck. I checked the end grain and it looked pretty straight and that was the end of my inspections and considerations. Today I know more about what ideal neck wood looks like, it's not enough that it's quartersawn, the grain should also be straight throughout the blank, which this one just isn't. So, I already know more today than I did then that will help me going forward. Another thing that was pointed out to me in this thread (probably by Prostheta) was to laminate the neck. I have the other neck piece I got from the same long beam that I can see has straighter grain than the one I'm using now, but I will look into sawing that up and adding some nice stiff wood in between for a 3-piece laminate neck at some point.

@Prostheta You summed up what I've been thinking on the subject quite nicely. It will probably take me (and people in general) some time to figure out what I like, in terms of all these different aspects that play a part in how it feels to play the guitar.

Yeah I sanded a little bit with a straight piece of wood, but had 180 grit so I didn't take enough and then ran out of time. Didn't stick the sandpaper to the board though, alhough I know I should. I will do that when I continue Thanks for the tips

@mistermikev I've seen so many people say that their favorite part of a build is carving the neck, and I can understand what they mean just from the first facet. Just holding the neck in my hand with the first couple of facets is already such a huge step into making this feel like a guitar neck, and it's very satisfying! I really look forward to continuing working on it and getting it closer and closer to the final shape. I just really hope I don't have to scrap this neck due to twist, that would suck big time. I find it kind of funny in a way that I haven't really played a lot in the last 15 years or so, I have an Seagull acoustic that I love that I play on occasion, and a Squire Strat that I never play. What I'm trying to say is that I have no idea what kind of neck carve I like, so I just went with something/anything. It looks like it will end up being pretty thinish, it's a little under 15 mm at the first fret right now (+6 mm fretboard), and I will have to remove some from the top to get rid of the twist, so it will end up thinner, but I have no idea if I will like a thin neck or not. I went for a some sort of C profile along the entire neck, also don't know if I will like that or would prefer something like C->D or V, baseball or what. Of course I will try to make changes if I can feel that I would like it a bit more like this or like that, but if I would like it thicker somewhere, then I'm just out of luck That was a lot of mumbling, but I've been thinking I should go into a guitar store before my next build and just try all kinds of guitars to find what I like

That would be some concept

Just did the first facet. A dirt cheap, coarse rasp made easy work of removing the bulk of it, and then a finer file for smoothing it out a bit. It's not dead straight right now, it has very small hills and valleys as I didn't have time to finish, I will do that before I start the next facet in the next couple of days (provided the neck doesn't turn into a propeller. I also started working on the mini cnc router again as I will soon need to do the inlays, but no picture worthy progress on that yet. I still haven't totally decided on the inlays, I was thinking of doing some orangutans from padauk and other woods but I'm having second thoughts about whether it will make sense on this guitar, I'll need to do a mockup.

I just realized something annoying/tragic/funny, I can already see the neck is slightly twisted, ca 1mm from corner to corner, so I will have to sand the top of the neck down a bit regardless, maybe it will twist even more once I start carving the facets. This means that in order to have the headstock break in the correct place I might have to plane the entire top plate I added off the front of the headstock.. Sigh...

Hey, I have family going to the US in the next few days and I thought I might take advantage and buy some luthier supplies that are hard to come by in Europe. I was thinking I would get the StewMac original Z crowning file as I've read good things about that (if someone has other suggestions, I would love to hear then). Is there anything else that fellow Europeans have had a difficult time acquiring that is widely available in the US? It could be tools, finishing supplies, dyes, hardware, etc...

It looks kind of toxic with that color and the beautiful grain, I like it!

Wow thanks, that comment made my night!

Thanks! I'm also using PLA right now (have ABS but haven't fine tuned it my printer for it yet). For these sort of templates, the tolerances on my printer are fine, I used 5 parameters (walls) so I can sand the templates a bit, but I really love being able to model and print something in an hour or two and have it ready for the router. I will also model and 3d print templates soon for the control cavity and cover.

I then thicknessed the headstock so that the headstock break was again in the correct place. Tuner holes drilled on the drill press Decided to try the tuners on for fun. I think they look good, but man they are heavier than I thought. I've read that Explorers sometimes tend to be neck divers, and with a 37mm thick body, this one might also become a neck diver. "Luckily" I rarely play, and if I do, I'm sitting, so not such a problem. I then cut the heel to the correctish length and routed the neck angle into the heel by putting a 10mm hex key at the right length from the heel end to give me a 2 degree angle Next I wanted to route the neck pocket, so I needed to make sure it was straight through the center. Removed the bulk of the material using a forstner bit, but left some at the bottom for the router to take Routed with some tape on the template to make sure the pocket was not too loose, but then realized my pattern bit is so long that this the deepest I could get with the MDF template things on, and without them, the pocked would be way to deep. Decided just to take 3 millimeters (the diff missing from the pocket) off the heel to make everything correct. 3d printed a template for the 8mm radius filets (to match my 16mm pattern bit) Sanded the pocket until I could fit the neck into it. It's still a little too snug on the end of the body, will loosen ever so slightly later. Hangs with no problem, but there is also a taper on the pocket, so that also helps Will work on the transition after the neck is roughly carved Centerline check: passed!

So, back with some progress pics. Found my pattern router bit and routed the headstock with my 3d printed template Finishing up and a moment of lost concentration caused a bump into the headstock and template Used the offcut Made a small sanding jig thing for sanding the joint square Glued Turns out the repair failed as during glueing/clamping, the piece moved away from the front face of the headstock. I should have just cut it off and glued a new piece in, but instead of sanded the front face flush with the glued piece, which was a mistake, like I've covered earlier in the thread. Decided to glue a thin plate on top of the headstock to get the nut to the correct place again While planing the plate, a screw came loose from the depth thing and it fell into the bit. On the plus side, the screw/bit didn't go flying into my stomach, but on the not-so-plus side, the cutter took a beating. It can still be used for planing, but I have since used my 16mm pattern bit for all my planing needs. Two plates planed to a few millimeters over. I created two as I was thinking about putting a plate on the back as well, but ended up bailing on that Planed the front of the headstock and standed to prepare for gluing the plate on Rough cut and glued Routed flush So many pics, time for a new post

Well that sucks, sorry to hear about that mate.

I realized I cannot use splines as I glued the cap on á couple of days ago, so I can't hide the splines

I had decided not to do the volute anyway, but I like that idea, I have seen someone do that on here (maybe it was Blackdog) but I didn't think of it. Now the question becomes what wood to use for that, I don't really have much or any hardwood lying around (besides mahogany). I did just get a new bed and I kept the legs from the old one, which seem to be hardwood, at least I couldn't dent it with my fingernail, it seems very hard , so maybe that's a candidate