Need ideas for neck jigs

[ClayGuitars]

Hello all! I've decided to try my hand at building necks. I know there are multiple ways of doing it and a ton of different jigs. What are your favorite jigs to build necks?

[guitarbuilder]

Here's mine...we've been discussing it in another thread.
http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewt...+radiusing+jig

[OpenG Capo4]

ill post some of mine tomorrow. i use a box with straight and curved rails to slot truss rods. And i have another jig that has a pair of rails and a sled with a pair of radiused slats on it for radiusing.

got a couple jigs for gibson style necks too. one for cutting the peghead angle, and one for tapering the back of the neck.

[ClayGuitars]

Thanks OpenG. The description of your jig is kinda what I had in mind, I look forward to the photos.

[ClayGuitars]

Does anyone know how PRS does theirs?

[kwerk]

PRS uses CNC.

[CapnCrunch]

Originally Posted by ClayGuitars

Does anyone know how PRS does theirs?

You mean their neck angle? If so, they put the angle on the bottom of the neck heel rather than the bottom of the mortise. There have been one or two PRS style build threads here, they also put the angle on the neck.

For PRS, I think this is purely a function of using CNC to mill their parts. For a DYI'er, I think it is easier to put the angle on the bottom of the mortise. They both do the same thing though.........

[Bentley]

Originally Posted by guitarbuilder

Here's mine...we've been discussing it in another thread.
http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewt...+radiusing+jig

Probably my favourite one.

[ClayGuitars]

I've seen people routing a downward curve when routing for a truss rod channel, and using a single action truss rod. One guy told me it sounds a lot better this was, he really couldn't explain why, maybe more wood in the route channel? What do you guys think?

Also, what are some jigs you would use for routing a curve like that?

[crazydave911]

Originally Posted by ClayGuitars

I've seen people routing a downward curve when routing for a truss rod channel, and using a single action truss rod. One guy told me it sounds a lot better this was, he really couldn't explain why, maybe more wood in the route channel? What do you guys think?

Also, what are some jigs you would use for routing a curve like that?

That's basically the opposite of how a so-called one piece neck is made, both require a filler strip be glued in. Doing one this way as near as I can tell simply makes using a separate fretboard easier. Easier over-all, it isn't IMO

[whodatpat]

Originally Posted by guitarbuilder

Here's mine...we've been discussing it in another thread.
http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewt...+radiusing+jig

Is this the one you built? If so do you have a better mechanical drawing?

[guitarbuilder]

No, that is somebody's variation of it. I had this posted over on Mimf a decade or so ago, and a guy named Todd Stock took the concept and built it was a couple minor mods. The link is in post number 2 up above in this thread.

[whodatpat]

All links point to the same place.

I will check out this MIMF you speak of. Its only one letter off from one of my favorite forums.

[guitarbuilder]

Originally Posted by whodatpat

All links point to the same place.

I will check out this MIMF you speak of. Its only one letter off from one of my favorite forums.

That link is OLF and that is where the tutorial and sketch that Todd made is to be found. You should be able to access it without joining. The Mimf one is in the mimf archive. No sketches there, maybe just a picture if I recall.

[motor_city_tele]

varieties to choose from. It all depends on what tools you have, What your order of assembly, what might be easy to build that can determine what jig you can come up with. I can tell you one thing. my neck jig from the 2010 build challenge has served me well over the past few years. a couple dozen necks so far.

[flatfive]

Originally Posted by whodatpat

Is this the one you built? If so do you have a better mechanical drawing?

An alternative is the jig posted by Scatter Lee.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home...ml#post1651970

What I like about this design is that the radius is put on
the router sled only. In contrast, the design above
requires matching curves on the sled and on the base.
If nothing else, this seems to make construction a bit
trickier.

[tklaavo]

I used this one today first time seriously:
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home...adius-jig.html

[guitarbuilder]

Originally Posted by flatfive

An alternative is the jig posted by Scatter Lee.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home...ml#post1651970

What I like about this design is that the radius is put on
the router sled only. In contrast, the design above
requires matching curves on the sled and on the base.
If nothing else, this seems to make construction a bit
trickier.

The matching curves occur by having your pivot point the distance of the diameter of your router bit on the trammel jig. Two pivot holes 1/2" apart will produce mating curves if using a 1/2 radius bit to cut them out, so it isn't any real work to do that while you are doing the curves for the top section

[flatfive]

Originally Posted by guitarbuilder

The matching curves occur by having your pivot point the distance of the diameter of your router bit on the trammel jig. Two pivot holes 1/2" apart will produce mating curves if using a 1/2 radius bit to cut them out, so it isn't any real work to do that while you are doing the curves for the top section

Thanks for explaining that. Still, it seems that having two mating
curves means twice the chance of problems arising from little
problems in cutting (or routing) the curves.

Is there any advantage to having mated curves?

[guitarbuilder]

Originally Posted by flatfive

Thanks for explaining that. Still, it seems that having two mating
curves means twice the chance of problems arising from little
problems in cutting (or routing) the curves.

Is there any advantage to having mated curves?

I tried to mimic the trunions on a bandsaw table. I think the rigidity is a plus and the inside and outside guides keep everything from shifting.

Note the early scatter jig... and then the later scatter jig.:-)

Here is where it all started.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home...templates.html