Finally starting the Walnut/Redwood and Koa OM.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Well I screwed up. I thought I'd get all smart and cut some of the heel away with my bandsaw before I started shaping it. The blade flexed, and cut a curved in area past my "do not pass this line" line, and just went in too far for me to use this neck.
I am already at 2 1/16" at the 14th fret with my fretboard. I would have to go down to 2" to make it work....no can do.
So I started prepping another neck blank. I should be as far along with it by next weekend as I was on this one. I can still use this neck, but I might have to use a slightly narrower string spacing at the bridge, like 2 1/8". I think I'll use it on the dred I'm making....the person getting that guitar will not notice the slight difference.
I took a few pictures making the fretboard today, but you have all seen that before!!

Kevin

[Darryl Young]

Oh no! I hate this happened Kevin.......but just a temporary setback.

[BEJ]

On the wrong side of the "do not pass line," think I've been there before. Maybe you can use it on a guitar that is going to someone who drives on the wrong side of the road( like the UK or downunder) they might not notice you were on the wrong side!

Or this could be another op to demostrate the 1st sign of craftsmanship, fixing your mistakes.

Bruce,

[tippie53]

This is an opportunity for design enhancement. Make some nice wood heel cover. It will come out nice.

[johnnparchem]

I am sorry about the neck. I nearly did the same thing on my second neck for the Koa parlor. I was using the bandsaw to cutout most of the waste on the heel, when I flipped the neck to get the other side, I got confused on the direction of the angle. I was just outside of my line.

Good luck with your new neck blank!

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Thanks guys, like Darryl said, just a set back.
I worked on the new neck today. I already had a blank cut out.
I started out making the fretboard. You see the pic of my clamping the binding on the fretboard. This really didn't work out very well. The binding was still pulled upward against the edge of the fretboard, even though I thought I had the boards on either side held down with that top board clamped. All is okay, I had to sand a little of the binding down to get a perpendicular edge which brought down from .085" to .060". This is fine, the board came out a teene bit narrower than my plan.
After laying out the scale length, planing surfaces flat, etc, I used my tenon cutting jig again and cut the tenon. This went much better, and I had filled in the the little routed in area on the template so I got a nice clean tenon. I lowered the bit to the final depth from the start and cut slow, this way my bearing was in the right place when I came up against the jig.
Used my router and pattern to shape the headstock...and I got some tearout down where the half moon near the nut area. Luckly this is oversized and I was able to use the drum sander and clean it up. Glued on a headstock veneer of Walnut. Nothing fancy.
Installed the inserts in the tenon for bolting and and fit the neck. It is a great fit with a couple of 1/32" shims in the mortise. I had cut the mortise into the neck block before assembly, not planning on having the tenon cutting jig, so it is a little wide, but I have a nice fit with no play, and my fretboard is on the centerline. I checked the action with a 3/8" thick bridge blank and I am about an 1/8" too high, so I'll have to bring that down a bit, but otherwise so far so good. I WILL NOT be using the bandsaw on this neck anymore other than to cut the length of the heel down.
Onward!

Kevin

[Kevin Sjostrand]

....and a couple more.

Kevin

[johnnparchem]

Great looking guitar I really like your headstock design. The walnut veneer on the head stock is striking. The Koa on the walnut looks good as well.

Good luck carving.

[nkwak]

Looks really good, Kevin. I like the bound fingerboard.

[David L]

I agree with Neil, nice contrast on the FB binding.

David L