Setting the neck

[Haggis]

Hi.
I´m ready to glue the neck to the body. But
when I installed the frets in the slots there was a wedging effect which created a downward curve on the FB extension. The force in the downward curve is so strong so that the neck jumps out of the dovetail. My neck was not flush to the body after pre set. I read that it could be good to force it in when gluing in the neck. I started to shave of material of the dove tail to get it down, cause it was not possible to force it down....the gap between the body and FB was to big. Initially I had a god tight joint, but as I made the gap smaller I also lost the tight joint. I ended up gluing some shims to the dove tail to build it up and start all over again. I wonder if there is something I can do about the downward force?
/Häggis

[tippie53]

The spring back is common , Once you glue and clamp it down that will be fine. Keep an eye on the corner of the joint where the fretboard comes on the top as long as that is tight you should be fine. If you shimmed it to see a slight gap then work is so you clamp it and the pressure closes that you will be fine. It won't spring once the glue sets

[Ben-Had]

The spring back is common , Once you glue and clamp it down that will be fine. Keep an eye on the corner of the joint where the fretboard comes on the top as long as that is tight you should be fine. If you shimmed it to see a slight gap then work is so you clamp it and the pressure closes that you will be fine. It won't spring once the glue sets

John, which joint in the pic are you talking about? 1 & 3 or 2 & 4?

[tippie53]

flip 90 degrees you would want to see the corner of the body where the fret board come from the neck. As long as that is tight and the doevtail is also tight the glue will freeze that joint. Sometimes the springback releases . You can clamp that flat to help get the barbs to bottom and that will help relieve that downward fall off some

[Ben-Had]

OK, I'm dense. Let's try this again with another pic. Which joints are you talking about 1 & 3 or 2 & 4? Sorry for my confusion. But I think I'm having the same problem when I do dovetails.

[tippie53]

If you shim 1/2 or 3/4 this should lift the joint so you have about .010 above the top , Then if you can use a clamp and close that up you won't have any trouble

We are going to redo the dovetail video in a few weeks . Let me know what details you think needs to be made clearer? We can address them at that time

[Winston_S]

The biggest issue I faced in setting the neck was a rocking of the neck from side to side as I was getting close to having it set. Had to shim three times before I got it right. I still don't know how I resolved the problem after shimming but I did get it eventually. So, some troubleshooting tips on any issues like this that might arise would be nice John.

[tippie53]

have you seen the video on you tube ? . Using chalk to show the joint footprint will help you see what you are touching and where you are not. Often you get the angle off the neck tenon and you loose the angle .
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... 99l0.1l1l0
this may help let me know

[johnnparchem]

It took me awhile to set the dovetail properly when I made one. The few points I got from the video that really helped were, work on one adjustment angle at a time. Use chalk. I put chalk on the sides of the mortise and made sure that I had a good swipe on the tenon. It is too easy to change the angle of the dovetail or sand a slight radius if using sandpaper. Make sure as you are setting the angle on the cheeks that you keep the area between the cheeks and the tenon recessed (it is in the video) but while my focus was on the angle it was easy to forget to do this. One result of not doing this was to go from too tight to too loose when finally setting the joint without the joint ever setting properly. I put shims on and sanded them off a few times before I caught this.

[tippie53]

Of all the issues learning this joint , most often it is over thinking it . Follow the simple steps and you will soon become a master of it . NOTE : Beware of the male/female areas of the joint. Often the male sharp corner may hold off the joint from seating . This can be where you for from ok to awful .
ACE
Angle Center Elevation