Yikes! that's a lot of work, @Wayne_F  on yer shoulder, no doubt. I was fortunate to find a 

couple of guitar builders whom sent me a couple of neck blanks at a fantastic price...2 3/8" x 4 1/4" Quarter-sawn Mahogany. These guys build custom guitars, here in Oregon - Breedlove, and they basically thought it was neat that i'm adventuring into a guitar build - to their credit!

I'm not making a whole  lot of sawdust...yet - but i have found a 'tool library' where i can

rent an appropriate bandsaw. So, next weekend i will practice on cutting out some patterns, then I'll

cut my body blank - that is, if I can secure the bandsaw; it's first come - first serve.

My design plan is finished, and i have pretty much all my parts. 

Moving along, like a herd of turtles...

@poco7 That's awesome that you found someone not too far who could cut you a blank that's more than big enough. The one I ordered was advertised as 4X4 but it's actually 4-1/16 thick X 3-7/8 wide. Oh well. It's close enough. Enjoy cutting, dude. It's a really good feeling once you're able to see things physically take shape. I cut my headstock template about a month ago and the body template today. Both felt pretty good to finally hold.

@robin Yikes! That must have been a lot of work to cut through. I'm envious of your 6" blank haha

@Wayne_F

Yikes! That must have been a lot of work to cut through. I'm envious of your 6" blank haha

It wasn't as hard work as it looks, I had cut 2" deep from each side with a circular saw before hand sawing the 2" that was left.

On Monday, I started working on leveling the neck blank but had to stop. Then yesterday I was busy all day. It started raining yesterday evening, rained all night and it's supposed to rain all day today and tomorrow. Now I'm getting worried about the humidity level out in the shed- it's probably already 90% from the overnight rain. I may have to go and rescue the wood. It may be a few days before I can do any more work on it. Saturday evening may be the earliest I can get back at it. 

Here's a short update on progress. More will be happening very shortly.

Here's a short update on progress. More will be happening very shortly.

@wayne_f Yeah, I offset the hole in my router base plate to avoid that happening. It’s no big deal, you can just cut some excess off or make the hole bigger and redrill the screw holes. I like the short neck, it’s good to practice first if you have any hangups, it’s good for confidence. Looking good. 👍

@Wayne_F

That little practice neck was worth doing, and I like the shape of the headstock. Would it be an option to make your headstock routing jig just a little deeper, so that your router base would be higher than the neck.

Making a mock-up neck seems like a great idea to me...a little practice...I bought some cherry wood that

I had to cut & clamp, for a neck, then decided I would save that for a Mandolin build later I've got

some beautiful Mahogany for my guitar I've decided to get some rough-sawn "something"  and practice first; I appreciated your video. 

<>< Poco7

@boo Cutting a recess in the plate was pretty much the first thing I thought. Although, I want to keep the size of it in case I need to use it for a bigger project. 

@robin Somehow that never occurred to me. I could add maybe 1/4" of height and that would probably take care of it. Thank you.

@Wayne_F

@robinSomehow that never occurred to me. I could add maybe 1/4" of height and that would probably take care of it. Thank you.

I've had a lot of help and advice from this group, I'm glad to be able to contribute something useful. We're all here to help and encourage each other.

Routing the headstock angle revealed a defect exactly at the edge of where the headtock will be. Maybe I can get some grain filler to fix it.

@wayne_f 

Routing the headstock angle revealed a defect exactly at the edge of where the headtock will be. Maybe I can get some grain filler to fix it.

What finish are you intending to put on your headstock?  If you're painting, then filler will be fine. If you want a natural finish, then it would be a good idea to put a veneer on it.

Routing the headstock angle revealed a defect exactly at the edge of where the headtock will be. Maybe I can get some grain filler to fix it.

@wayne_f It may not be a problem, just keep going and see what happens. If it looks like it will be a problem, you could always reinforce it by filling it will epoxy resin. 

It’s looking good from here. 👍

@robin I was planning on doing an oil finish. 

Hey there @wayne_f! Welcome to the forum and great job so far on all you’ve done. 👍

Not much got done today but did I manage to do the rough cut of the neck shape and a fillet for the truss rod slot. That defect I mentioned before (which was the very tip of a shake and only few mm deep) has been filled using a tip I found on Youtube. Also, I made a mahogany insert for my bandsaw table using an offcut from the headstock angle. I think it looks better than the plastic piece that came with it. 

The fillet doesn't fit snug- in fact, it wiggles a little. I'll have to try again. 

Looks good @wayne_f. On the next fillet just get it close but not fitting in the slot. Then sand it to the final thickness with a sanding block to get the snug fit you want. 

A whole new fillet has been cut, fitted and glued!

@wayne_f looks good! Nice progress and thanks for the vid:-)