Cut the channel for the truss rod nut, with a 1/2″ bit. When fitted the truss rod is not 100% central, but need to find a better way to align that for next timeThey say the sign of a good neck pocket is it will hold without screws, well here is putting it to the test!
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Cut the neck template into 12mm MDF, using a chisel to square up the ends. Body join will be around the 17th fret, however it’s useful to extend the template to keep the router stable.Target is to have the top of the fretboard (pre radius) 8-9mm above the top. Pocket seems to have come out well. Note on the high E side, I left room to sand to this neck line. I played very safe, as it’s easier to remove but not really possible to add material back again!Quick test fit. “Seems” good, however until I do the cutout for the bottom of the truss rod, hard to be sure.Quick mockup of how the guitar might look. The padauk is said to lose its redness as it ages and look more like mahogany. We shall see.
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Time to start the body. I’ve traced the body shape on in pencil. I did some cuts to remove as much wood as I could with straight cuts. This can be used for making control cavity covers and wood for other project. The significant figuring in the top right was lost, as while stunning, has a big crack running through it.First pass after the bandsaw. I have a fairly thick blade on the bandsaw, hence the rough cutting inside the horns (well with my ability level with a bandsaw).Second pass, cutting around 1mm to line.How it looks after the initial sanding pass. The bottom curve needs work as it isn’t that flowing, however the wood grain is stunning. Next step is cutting the neck pocket and routing / drilling it in general. This is the point it’s most likely to pickup marks. Once the pickups are cut, along with the controls and bridge, I’ll do a second pass of the outer shape.
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Side holes were drilled *before* shaping the neck. However I didn’t notice the bottom of the neck blank has a distinct flick from the infeed of the planer. This means the last dot isn’t well aligned. One to look out for on the next neck build.
After the dots, I rough cut the back of the neck on the bandsaw to around 25mm thick including the fretboard, to reduce the amount of stock to remove with hand tools. Target is around 23mm deep at the nut and take it from there.Starting at the heckstock end, pencil line shows the desires start of the tranisition. I tend to start at both transitions and then blend between themMid point of the roughing out. As you can see, still quite uneven but it’s starting to take shape.A little further into the process, starting to get a nice flow into the headstock. The back of the neck is now close enough to start thinking about the body. I need to take a break and then return to the neck carve to get it really nice. At this point it feels enough like a guitar neck, to let touch guide.
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The same template I used for the headstock shape, which has also has the tuner holes marked. I used doubled sided sticky tape to hold it in place.
Tuner holes are 10mm in diamater, 25mm apart, 12mm from the edge (from centre points)The top edge of the headstock needs tidying, but after the tear out I’ll use a belt sander to sand to line. Fretboard aligned (though need to figure out a way to use pins from the top to stop it sliding on the glue), glued and clamped for 24 hoursAfter a wide test run, I found minimal chipping on the fretboard from the bandsaw, so I did a second pass close to the edge16mm headstock thickness. Didn’t take any off the back, as trying to work around the tear out. The padauk cut a lot easier than the birds eye maple neck, felt softer (even though a hardness chart has it the other way).Quick tidy on the sander. Hard to see, but the tear out is almost entirely sanded away. Very lucky.
Fretboard is 7mm thick, neck blank around 25mm
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While routing (using the 1/2″ x 1″ template bit), I had the a very nasty tear out. I never climb cut and probably never will with a hand held router. I don’t feel I was trying to take too much material in one pass, but maybe a shorter bit is required. I’ll invest in a new template bit for the next build.The end result isn’t pretty. I put some glue in it to stabilize it so I can sand it and see how it turns out. I don’t think trying to back fill it will work well.
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Roughed out the 12mm MDF on a bandsaw, then double sided taped on the CNC’d headstock template. CNC template has 0.5mm added all around for sanding.
Target is 41.3mm at nut, 54.5mm at 22nd. Body join at 16.th fret (or there abouts) Routed the 12mm template to match the CNC’d one. The transition from the CNC template to the straight edge was no perfect.Bandsaw most of the wayI went pretty close on the bandsaw. It’s quite a wide blade, so couldn’t get in as close on the inner curves (well with my talent level)
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