Starting on the Necks

OK as you might remember some time ago I laminated up the 5 piece necks for both guitars so now it is time to start making the straight stick into a neck..

First step is to cut & glue the scarf joint for the peghead. The cut is first made on the band saw then cleaned up with a hand plane before gluing back on to the remainder of the neck. Angle of the joint is 14 degrees.

Many people do this cut with some sort of jig on a table saw but in the interest of space and not having to store yet another jig this is a quick and simple method.

Also many people have elaborate gluing jigs to prevent the joint from slipping when clamping pressure is applied. I find some binding tale and a bit of care is all that is really needed.

Rough joint from the band saw

Cleaned up with a hand plane

Both Tenor and Parlour necks with the scarf joints clamped

The result, you can slide the cut piece back when gluing to
reduce the amount of thickness work with the plane
 you need to do after the fact

Different angle

Joints hand planed smooth and getting close to final peghead
thickness. The veneers need to be accounted for and then
the pegheads planed to final thickness. This also establishes
the final nut position

And the other angle again

Finishing the Rosette and Jointing the Back

The rosette is now finished and the top is planed and sanded to thickness, in this case looks like 2.6mm is it.. or at least as far as I have the guts to go..

Rosette installed in the guitar top

The inner & outer purfling lines added.

I've also got the back jointed tonight, and maybe I can get it down to thickness tomorrow..

Using a shooting board to get the joint smooth

I can never quite get it as smooth as I want with the hand plane
but a couple of passes with some 220 grit paper
on a framing square does the trick.

All clamped up the simple old fashioned way

So once the back is to thickness things can start coming together to look like a guitar....

Thicknessing and Jointing

Tonight I thicknessed the sides and jointed the back. Rough thickness is obtained using a Safety Planer and the final thickness is obtained using a home made drum sander.. Sides are about 2mm and the back right now is about 3mm which is a bit think bit I might try leaving it there, not sure. My idea is that the thicker = stiffer back might give a bit more projection from the small instrument.. Not sure if I will leave it at that thickness or not...

The Safety Planer, used by many Luthiers

I very simple jig to hold the far side of the wood down as it goes through

Back Jointed using a simple Jig

I'm also getting ready to route the dovetail mortise in the heel block, I'm doing this early on in the process as opposed when the box is closed, I'm thinking I prefer this but this will be the test.

Anyway here is the jig I made set up to route the dovetail using a template from LMI.