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I have got as far as fitting the neck on my martin kit but find the tenon too tight to fit all the way down into the mortise joint as you can see from the pics. So far I have done no sanding so i am being careful here and was wondering if someone could advise me if I should sand a little from the tenon first or is it better to widen the mortise to enable the tenon to fit.

If you already sure you are centered, and then have the correct neck angle, evenly sand only from the tenon (never the mortice) Until it almost drops all the way down. I would view John's you tube to see the whole process.

Starting with ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3YJh9OT4mw

ACE
ANGLE
CENTER LINE
ELEVATION
You may need to trim the neck tenon but your angle is off
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... vYGnbm2aLM
while this is a dovetail there really is no difference as the heel is the contact point that determines the angle and centerline. You need to establish that angle of the fretboard first , then you do the centerline. Once you have those 2 planes set you then establish the point so the plane of the fretboard is as flat as you can get it onto the body

If you have to trim the tenon , then do that . You want the plane of the fretboard to match the bridge , if the frets are on you want to be about 1/16 of an inch off the top of the bridge in the center, If the tenon bottoms out on the neck block you may have to shorten that a bit. I can see you need to set the heel angle more so that the fretboard flattens out on the top.
if you have skype , we can do a skype call and I can help with visual aid for you

tippie53 wrote:If you have to trim the tenon , then do that . You want the plane of the fretboard to match the bridge , if the frets are on you want to be about 1/16 of an inch off the top of the bridge in the center, If the tenon bottoms out on the neck block you may have to shorten that a bit. I can see you need to set the heel angle more so that the fretboard flattens out on the top.
if you have skype , we can do a skype call and I can help with visual aid for you

Thanks a million John, I had just come to the conclusion that I might have to shorten the tenon a little bit sure enough as i think it has bottomed out.
I will do that tomorrow and see how it looks --its 1 am morning here now--and if I get stuck again I will indeed welcome a chat with you on skype

Thanks again
Rusty

You may need to lengthen the mortise look at how much you have to take off , You also want to be sure the hole for the screw , that may need to get lengthened as well and you can do that with a rat tail file. Let us know and sent pic. Again we can do a skype call and that may be the best avenue for you .

tippie53 wrote:You may need to lengthen the mortise look at how much you have to take off , You also want to be sure the hole for the screw , that may need to get lengthened as well and you can do that with a rat tail file. Let us know and sent pic. Again we can do a skype call and that may be the best avenue for you .

I have to get a booster for my internet so that it works in my workshop John and should have it by the weekend and Can use Skype then

In the meantime heres a few pics

If I put a straight edge on top of the frets running it along the body then the straight edge is practically sitting on the body at the bridge position so the neck needs to be pulled back

The joint itself is quite loose so far and i would have been expecting it tighter by now.

I followed most of the steps in your you tube videos and sanded the top/side level around the mortise. I removed a little wood from the inside of the tenon

To an inexperienced eye like mine it looks like the bottom of the heel needs to have some wood removed to allow the neck pull back?

Last few pics John

this link is a good start

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... lvJFThg47c

tippie53 wrote:this link is a good start

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... lvJFThg47c

Yes I watched all of them John and very good they are too. I only wish mine would fit as well as the one you did there but I have a long way to go and I know that. I am beginning to think my problem could be related to the actually assembly of the back and sides and their relationship with the neck block and i'm just wondering if mine is a square as it should be.