Neck Dovtail Shims

[mdutko]

Whats the best way to glue shims to the neck dovetail joint. My neck is sitting to low but with some veneer shims that I have made it much better. Its just a tough angle to clamp. Or should I glue the shims inside the mortise on the body.
Thanks for your help
-Marc

[Ben-Had]

Make some DT go-bars.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5737

[tippie53]

I was trained at Martin , the shims are glued in at the same time the neck goes in but If you glue in before , the little go bars that BenHad speaks of looks like a good technique

[Dan Bombliss]

I've had a couple painful dovetail experiences, which really weren't all that bad, but definitely annoying. When I had learned the "right" way of doing dovetails, with essentially zero tolerance for (neck angle, centerline, twist, and flush to the top) obviously it's painstaking to get all of those perfect.

Two times, I made the mistake of a dry joint. Others may argue it, but I've followed this since and have had no issues... If anything overglue a dovetail, because the glue acts more like a lubricant to get it to full set where it should be. When it's a dry joint, or starved, when you put the neck in the pocket, the glue may start setting up or balling up and the neck won't set all the way.

Anyways, I say this for this topic, because the first instance of this mistake was a dry joint and despite the perfect fit with out glue, when I went to clamp it up, the neck stopped short of flush, and sat about 1/8" above the soundboard, and wouldn't budge. Then I removed it (frustrated) spent the time cleaning out all the glue I just contaminated the perfect joint with, and get ready to do it again. That time I glued the shim in first, and then went to glue the neck in. The problem is that it's a little easier to accidentally add a few .001" when you have dried glue in the joint.

When it's all fresh and pliable, it will squeeze out, and fill, and even out. So long story short, I glue the neck on with the shim at the same time, and use plenty of glue for "lubrication".

-Dan

[tippie53]

The way I was taught was glue the shim at the time of the set but glue the shim first and we used a metal bar and just held it for a few minutes. Then glue and clamp the neck. Been doing it that way for a long time. I can see a benefit to the dovetail wedges and glue in the shim.
Many ways to make this work isn't there?

[Ben-Had]

Interesting, I've tried it the other way (all at the same time) and can't seem to get it right. If the neck neck sits high after gluing in the shims, a few swipes of sandpaper and it's right back in place. Best to at least have different options to try. The subtle differences we do when we "think" we're doing it the "same" as someone else can lead to very different results. As I learned when I went to John's shop to learn how to get my DT's right.