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Took another tour of the Martin factory on Thursday, and kept seeing a great tool being used. They are basically gauges for necks, w the profiles of the 1st fret area,10th or 11th fret, and the heel profile. Nobody could tell me where they were available, so I figured I'd just make my own and also added the heelcap shape. This is just a template that I am either having my stepdad bring to his machine shop and make me one of aluminum, or will cut one out of a sheet of polycarbonate.

And here is the poly version that I just cut up.

Jeff
How did you get the profile? I can see tracing the heel cap, but what method did you use for transferring the shape? John Hall has a method that I just used on my latest kit - he had me bend 1/8" lead solder around the neck and mark where it passes the fretboard. First and 10th fret. Once you have this piece of information, your gauge piece seems like a good idea. What advantage does acrylic have over the thin plywood piece??

Good idea

Ed Minch

I use a contour gauge to get the profile. It holds the shape nicely, and allows me to trace it onto whatever I am using. The poly really offers no advantage aside from not swelling at all with moisture issues. The wood will be just fine and I think that's what I'm sticking with.

Likes it.
I also found plumbers solder good to get the profile off a neck you may have

The plumbers solder makes perfect sense, and cheap too. Nice! Here is a pic of the contour gauge that I use. Both the 1st and 10th fret fit side by side.