Dovetail Joint
Posted: Wed May 12, 2021 7:05 pm
I’ve been doing dovetail joint neck adjustments over for the last week. Spent a lot of time watching and re-watching John’s videos before getting up the nerve to work on it, and then watched the videos some more.
Here’s a summary of where I am now. I could use some encouragement. I don’t want to over tinker, but I don’t want to stop and move on when more work should be done first.
angle:
about 7/64” difference between neck and bridge area
measurement: straight edge along neck to bridge area
centering:
about 1/16” off
measurement: straight edge along neck to the lower bout
depth
tenon is about 0.035” above the top with modest C-clamping pressure
measurement: feeler gauge
joint fit
Even just seating the joint by hand it feels snug with no wobbling.
Seating with C-clamp, it seems solid.
I put chalk in mortise then seated neck and looked at chalk on neck.
Chalk transfer to tenon is not perfect, but it shows up mostly in the right place. That is, it is not along the outer edge of the tenon, and is mostly along the inner third of the tenon face.
side fit
Looks ok, but not perfect. No gaps I can measure. I haven’t yet tried scribe sanding.
level
The top of the neck and top of guitar are in the same plane as far as I can tell.
measurement:
1) The height of the neck above the top is the same on both sides (0.035”).
2) I placed a straight edge on the top and on the far end of the neck and as
far as I can tell they are parallel.
Should I drop the neck anymore? I haven’t really cranked down with the C-clamp yet. (Partly because I’m scared.) Should I and more to take it down less than the 0.035” it is currently above the top? If so, how far down should I take it?
What do you think of the angle and centering? Should I try to reduce these values?
Holy cow! It’s starting to look like a guitar!
Here’s a summary of where I am now. I could use some encouragement. I don’t want to over tinker, but I don’t want to stop and move on when more work should be done first.
angle:
about 7/64” difference between neck and bridge area
measurement: straight edge along neck to bridge area
centering:
about 1/16” off
measurement: straight edge along neck to the lower bout
depth
tenon is about 0.035” above the top with modest C-clamping pressure
measurement: feeler gauge
joint fit
Even just seating the joint by hand it feels snug with no wobbling.
Seating with C-clamp, it seems solid.
I put chalk in mortise then seated neck and looked at chalk on neck.
Chalk transfer to tenon is not perfect, but it shows up mostly in the right place. That is, it is not along the outer edge of the tenon, and is mostly along the inner third of the tenon face.
side fit
Looks ok, but not perfect. No gaps I can measure. I haven’t yet tried scribe sanding.
level
The top of the neck and top of guitar are in the same plane as far as I can tell.
measurement:
1) The height of the neck above the top is the same on both sides (0.035”).
2) I placed a straight edge on the top and on the far end of the neck and as
far as I can tell they are parallel.
Should I drop the neck anymore? I haven’t really cranked down with the C-clamp yet. (Partly because I’m scared.) Should I and more to take it down less than the 0.035” it is currently above the top? If so, how far down should I take it?
What do you think of the angle and centering? Should I try to reduce these values?
Holy cow! It’s starting to look like a guitar!