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Hi, I was curious about the best way to prep the gluing surfaces on a muiltpiece neck. I'm thinking of a 5 piece neck, two wider outside pieces of maple, with two walnut strips, and another strip of maple in the center. I'll cut the strips with my table saw (as I just have a small and fairly wimpy bandsaw) and I assumed clean up the saw marks with my plane. For planing the surfaces I'll be gluing I thought I'd use double sided tape to stick the piece I'll be working with onto my bench. Is there anything I'm not anticipating here? I'm a little concerned with how thin the strips for the center will be and getting a good uniform thickness.

Sounds about right to me. You have to work with the tools you have. I would just run them through my planer. Sometimes I hand plane them becasue it's just as easy too. I've always preferred using back stops or dogs over double stick tape but it will work. Just make the tape even so that you don't have the piece rocking back and forth on the thickness of the tape.

^ ^ ^ ^ Agreed on all accounts. Unless you are going thinner than 1/4" you should be able to clean them up with a hand plane and bench stop. I made one that is a strip of wood with two wooden dowels that are spaced to fit in the front and back rows of dog holes on my bench. Basically a planing stop that's as wide as my bench and very secure.

I've got a 80 tooth carbide rip blade on my table saw and with care and featherboards the cuts have come out glue ready, no planing necessary.

Hi Connor, I just put together a couple of 5 piece necks over the weekend.
My typical neck is 2 pieces at 7/8”, 2 pieces at 1/8” and 1 at 1/4”. Add the ears for the headstock later.
A planing stop on your workbench will be a little easier than mounting tape, because you will be moving it around and measuring regularly. 1/8” pieces could get tricky.
If you have access to a thickness sander, that will be the easiest.
Happy gluing,
B

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My memory is so good, sometimes I remember things that never happened.

If you want to stick your pieces down to the bench for planing try the “masking tape and superglue trick”. Much better than double sided tape.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ub6PsY4cgwg
(Jump ahead to the 7 minute mark of this video and you will quickly get the idea, and this will change your life). But if you can make friends with someone who has a thickness sander you will never go back to planing for this prep.