Ok, here is one perennial problem that can now be put to bed permanently! Sloppy fitting neck joints!
Here is the working prototype of the adjustable neck pocket routing jig designed to either be used directly on the guitar body or to produce multiple working templates for different widths and tapers of neck, or even for parallel neck joint pockets if that's your preference.
Currently the jig is adjustable in width from about 43mm (uke territory) up to over 70mm but if anyone can see a use for adjustment above or below these dimensions then please let me know, it's not difficult for me to incorporate that change. The maximum angle is just over 88° and this considerably more than you'd normally need, even in the weirdest of instruments. The jig is made up from two layers of 12mm MR MDF and, if it is glued together then some of the screw holes can be redeployed as a means of holding the template to a new blank.
I would expect that the neck be machined to finished dimensions first and then the jig adjusted to fit tight to either side off it, with the neck either butted up to the end of the jig recess or aligned with a marked position on the jig, so that the jig adopts the precise angle of the neck. A test cut would then be carried out to check for the conformity of the cut to the template (cutter/bearing accuracy does vary a little) and any adjustment be made by way of lateral movement of the template relative to the body of the guitar, so as not to alter the angle of the template sides. Ultimately it is down to you guys to decide exactly how you prefer to use it but the key thing is that it is easy to change the angle to suit any required neck pocket.
Let me know what you think.
Cheers
Darren
@darrenking. Another great piece of engineering Darren. 👍😁
🎶🙂🎸🙏
🗝️ "Life's what you make it"🗝️
You're a very inventive man @darrenking, you see a problem and then you solve it, good work.
It looks great to me @darrenking, I‘ll definitely be ordering one.
Practice on scrap...
maybe you should lay off the imported candy paint, Mirka sanders, glitter sparkles, airbrush kits etc
@mattbeels Well, I kind of have to now. 🤣 No regrets though. ✊
Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸
Well then @boo maybe you should lay off the imported candy paint, Mirka sanders, glitter sparkles, airbrush kits etc
@mattbeels now you're just being silly.
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Take my money
Hey Boo,
I think you’ve probably more than paid up front for one on these with you review efforts on other recent Bagpress products! Many thanks and a big, manly, socially distanced hug to you! You are legend!
Cheers
Darren
Well then @boo maybe you should lay off the imported candy paint,
What are you talking about Matt?
To paraphrase the ‘Kingsmen’ ‘Glitter, sparkles and shiny shit maketh the man!’
Leave Boo be and get your Christmas card/tree decoration order in early, the demand will be great!😂😂😂
Darren
I think you’ve probably more than paid up front for one on these with you review efforts on other recent Bagpress products! Many thanks and a big, manly, socially distanced hug to you! You are legend!
@darrenking No probs, but I haven’t finished yet. I want to try polishing a couple more things with different parameters and comparing/contrasting etc. To do so, I need to spray more paint before I can polish it and the weather has turned too cold again. It was snowing here today, it’s supposed to be Spring. 😡
Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸
Hi peeps!
The first pic is a screen shot form the CNC tool path software (Vectric VCarve Pro) showing a preview of the machined 4'x4' MDF sheet. All the little tabs are because, with so many small components nested so tightly together, you just can't rely on the vacuum bed to hold them securely whilst they are being cut. This works very well but it does mean that there are load of little 0.75mm thick sections of MDF that have to cut through and trimmed off by hand after the router has done its work.
Anyway, three runs have been completed in order to iron out any little machining niggles and I have increased the adjustment range ever so slightly to accommodate all those forum members planning to make 6 string bases! Having cut, sanded, bevelled, glued and screwed 18 of them together today I now have a pretty good idea of the required machining/assembly time and so they will be priced at £45 inc. VAT (£37.50 ex VAT). I can also supply 12mm MR MDF template blanks for a couple of pounds each so that you can machine you own custom templates if that they way you want to use the jig (or you can just use the jig itself as the body routing template, the choice is yours).
I'm not sure how M&C are currently fixed for adding items to their shop and shipping stuff at the moment so if anybody wants to order directly from me in the meantime, for every three I sell I will ship one up to the Bailey Guitar Workshop & Luthier Supplies Superstore free of charge so that they will effectively get their margin on the sale in due course.
Any sloppy necks from now on will result in a visit to the headmistress's office, and we all know how scary she can be!
Cheers
Darren
Having cut, sanded, bevelled, glued and screwed 18 of them together today I now have a pretty good idea of the required machining/assembly time and so they will be priced at £45 inc. VAT (£37.50 ex VAT). I can also supply 12mm MR MDF template blanks for a couple of pounds each so that you can machine you own custom templates if that they way you want to use the jig (or you can just use the jig itself as the body routing template, the choice is yours).
@darrenking BOOM! 👊
Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸
Please put one on "my pile" Darren.
Will do TV.
Anyway, I thought I should probably make sure this thing actually works before I go selling them to all my forum friends!
The first thing I did was to make up a fake neck out of MDF and then adjust the master template to it, angling the two side pieces equally.
I then took another piece of 12mm MDF and marked the recess with pencil before band sawing the majority of it out. The Master template was then screwed to the blank and my little Makita cordless router fitted with a template trimming cutter. The cutter was brand new so I hoped there wouldn't be any problems with bearing wobble or diameter inaccuracies.
The Master/template blank were then clamped to the edge of bench (actually one of my vacuum tables, everything flat is a bench if it not being used for something else!) and the final 1mm of material trimmed away.
I took the fake neck and tried it in the recess and it was an extremely good fit, so much so that you could pick up the template using the wedged in neck.
So far, so good. Now to try the second generation cut using the newly made template. I cut the majority of the recess on the bandsaw as before and then just clamped the two pieces to the edge of the bench again and took another trim cut, adjusting the height of the cutter slightly so that the bearing was running towards the bottom of the 12mm MDF. Again I took the fake neck and pushed it home. Another superb fit, again just tight enough to require a gentle nudge to get it in and able to support the template with the neck.
If you find that your particular bearing cutter is producing a loser fit then you can run a piece of tap on the Master template, or the first cut template in order to tighten the dimensions up a bit. However, if you cutter is pretty much new, then you should find that the dimensions are perfectly reproduced. Having used it in anger, I think that utilising it to produce a secondary routing template is probably the way to go. Apart from anything else the Master jig is 24mm thick and so there may be some issues with the length of cutter/depth of cut.
So there you have it, a simple way to produce custom neck templates that perfectly match the geometry of your neck. Simples!
See you again soon guys
Darren