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This will be the cap for the back of the headstock. I sliced a couple of thin layers off a piece of the scrap from cutting the neck out of the blank, and glued them together. It's sanded down to about 0.90". In theory they should be bookmatched, but because the scrap was cut at an angle the two pieces would have to shift relative to each other to line up properly, and they aren't long enough to do that. If that nags at me too much I may do it again, but I think I can live with this. Nobody looks at the back of a headstock, anyway.

I got the fingerboard slotted and profiled, except for blending in the 5trh string jog.

My sawblade had a bit of a wobble, so a couple of the slots are a bit wide. I hope judicious application of CA glue will be sufficient to hold those frets.

I've got the caps glued on the headstock, and I set up my CNC to cut the fancy profile. It was going along great (see photo). A couple of minutes after I took the picture, it shut down. The router turned off and the program closed, leaving the router bit in mid-cut. I have no idea why.
I've decided I'm done for the day. I think I'll probably finish the cut by hand, as the CNC has lost its reference to the work and I doubt my ability to pick up the cut exactly. Oh well. At least I have the outline of the profile cut, so I just have to follow that.

This turned out better than I expected. The CNC cut was deep enough to server as a guide for a router bit. I sawed out the general outline with a coping saw to get rid of most of the waste material, then finished it off with a 1/8" diameter router bit, letting the straight shank above the cutting flutes ride on the CNC cutout to control the depth of cut. There is some amount of burning where the shank rubbed, but that should go away with final sanding.

Now I've started to think about the neck-to-rim joint. It is fairly complex, with three steps at three different radii and two different angles. It may help if I focus on what really matters: the neck needs to be lined up properly and have a 3 degree back-tilt. Here are a couple sketches of the end of the neck.

Here is something from a pretty famous uke builder on how he cuts the curved part of the neck joint

http://ukulele-innovation.tripod.com

Ed

Thanks Ed. I'll take a look.

I've glued the fingerboard to the neck, installed the frets, cut the frailing scoop, and made some test cuts on the end to see if I could get the profile to be anywhere close to fitting the rim. It came out pretty well, but there was a feeling of Dumb Luck about it that I would rather not rely on when I cut it to final dimensions. Maybe I can get some ideas from Ed's link so I feel more confident about it.

I also need to drill for the two hanger bolts that attach the neck to the rim. That would be relatively simple, except they have to be at a 3 degree angle to the plane of the fingerboard. I think I will quit work for the day and Ponder the situation. Maybe Inspiration will come along and clout me up 'side the head.

'

Things are progressing. Yesterday afternoon I went through the "Take an axe to it and heave it in the fireplace" phase of the project, I've had that at some point with all my other builds, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to have that feeling during this project, too.
This morning things looked a bit less bleak, and today has gone pretty well.

I installed the threaded inserts and threaded rods in the heel, so the neck can now be properly test-fit to the rim. It needs a fairly thick shim to get the neck angle approximately where it should be. I wish I had been able to cut the end of the neck closer to what it should be, but this will do for now. I shim my guitar necks, so why should a banjo neck be any different.

The neck from the nut to the 5th string jog is very close to final dimensions. The heel still needs a lot of work.

As you can see in the photo, the wood figure should be spectacular.

Looks awesome!

love watching your work