Expletive, expletive dovetail neck joint

Ok, this was tough.  Probably one of the most challenging things I’ve done so far.

The hand cut dove tail neck joint.

Started my making templates to lay out the pieces.

Marked the mortise on the body first.

Then cut and chiseled it out.

Other than the trepidation of taking a saw to a newly finished guitar body, this went pretty smoothly.

The neck then has to be cut at a slight angle to match the angle of the top, in this case about 2 degrees.  Then, using the templates, I marked out the tail on the end of the neck. Cutting to these lines at two different angles is a bit tricky, but luckily they are supposed to be cut oversize and trimmed down to fit.

Then the fitting.  This was the difficult part.  Lots of different things to look for and consider before removing material anywhere.  Dovetail needs to slide in tight and (1)the top of the neck must be flush with the body.  (2)The neck has to be flat to the soundboard top and not twisted in either direction.  (3)Neck has to be centered on the joint and the (4)center line from the neck must be aligned to the center line on the body, no angle left to right.  (5)Then the shoulders, where the neck meets the body, must be flat with no gaps underneath.  Shaving something in one spot could very well change what happens in 1 or more of the other critical areas.

So, got that, most of it went fine with a bit of thought.  The flat shoulders were my real issue.  Once I got the dovetail in and all the angles right, my shoulders needed to be improved.  Got those touched up and the neck ended up down too far into the body.  Ok, glued veneer to the tail, let it dry, then started fitting all over again.

 

Finally got it.

Not the cleanest thing, but I think it will work.  For a first time, it went OK.  I did learn a lot, which I should help on the next ones… make the shoulders perfectly flat first!

 

Days of wine and roses.

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Actually it was only one day.  No wine.  And rosettes, not roses.  Oh well. Lots done on the tops today.  To make a long story short… I’ll use bullets. – thicknessed all my purfling – made a test rosette channel. … Continue reading →

Bridge building

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Where’s that confounded bridge? Working on it.  Commence bridge making sequence- Planed to dimension.  The grain in these pieces was really nice, it planed really easily.  Cut the ends square. Marked and scribed the cut lines. Cut depth of wings with … Continue reading →

Results of hand chiseled binding a purfling ledges

Here are the hand chiseled binding and purfling ledges on the back of guitar number one. I had to take a few days off and get my head back in a good space to do this detail work. It was not easy. Still some clean up to do.
Overall, I’m not super happy with the binding on this one. Hope to improve on the next.
As much as I’m not a fan of routers, if I make more guitars I will definitely fabricate a nice fixture and go that route.

First shot- binding

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Modified my rosette cutter so I could use it to scribe my binding channels on the back. Used my wheeled marking gauge to scribe the sides. Started chiseling them out on guitar number one. It’s a bit intimidating but similar … Continue reading →

First rosette in first soundboard

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Phew!  One rosette in.  Just a bit more to clean up, mostly with the scraper.  A couple little chips in the mosaic I need to fill.  Pretty pleased so far.  I was a bit worried as my purfling is cut … Continue reading →

A workout… with chisels

My god!  Hours of sharpening.  Now I know why I was procrastinating.  These are all antique shop finds.  So I went from grinding wheel, to diamond plate, to 1000 & 3000 water stones.  Flattening the backs of these was a bitch!  But hopefully I won’t have to do that again for a long, long time.  Only did 5.  But I worked on the others before, so hopefully they won’t be as bad.  Not sure how old these are, but I would guess they’ve never been this sharp.

Damn my arms are sore!

Tools and froe

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Made a few quick tools while working on my shop setup.  Kind of thinking I may start to build a guitar soon, so I made some things I might or might not need. Hand held riving froe from mild steel … Continue reading →

Chisels got rack! Yeah baby!

 

Sorry for the sir mix-a-lot reference.  Built racks for my chisels out of old cedar fence boards.  Practiced my dovetails, which are still rough.  Not easy in cedar thats for sure.  Also attempted sliding dovetails for the walnut racks so I can remove them if I need to modify them at all.  Not pretty, but they function   A lot of work for chisels, but I have fun with things like this.  When I move into my new shop at the house, I’ll mount these to runners on the wall.

Look at that lonely Stanley 750 with the red handle.  The only one that wasn’t loose, in fact I couldn’t get it out.  If it ever comes out I’ll make a locust one to match.  Plus I made room for a few more, just in case.

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I may not be able to handle the truth, but I’m getting better at handling a chisel! Or re-handle may be more appropriate.  Anyhew, Just finished turning handles for the old chisels I picked up a couple weeks ago.  I … Continue reading →