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Necks white you carve them?
Nothing like stuff moving around while you try and work!
Gahhhhh
Clamp? Locator pins in the truss rod slit to keep it from going side to side ?
Sorry for so many posts lately.
Just venturing into territory I haven’t before


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A google search turns up a whole bunch of options. Here's a holding fixture from a random website, fourth or fifth picture down.
It's similar to mine and what many use to hold the neck while carving.
Ken

http://edge.cs.drexel.edu/GICL/people/s ... rving.html

Lots of good guitar building info on that website btw.

I screw them to a jig to rough them out with a router, and then use f body clamps to clamp them to the bench. It usually takes two clamps to secure them enough to keep them from moving. I'm sure there are better methods.

The few necks that I have carved I used something like what Ken posted. It doesn’t have to be super fancy, just enough to let you hit all the angles.


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Less ideal than having a dedicated carving fixture, but I just clamped my last one in my Stew Mac vise around the 12th fret and went to work. It worked fine.

Mostly use the stewmac vice for everything. Then, like many, I glue the fretboard on and carve the neck shaft on the edge of a 2x12 or similar clamped in the vice. One clamp holding the fretboard extension down and another holding the head down on a wedge screwed to the 2x12.

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Pat

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

After reading Safety Reminder #1472, my answer is "very carefully."

I use the same 2x12 thing most folks here seem to be using. You cut off a bit at the end, at a 15 degree angle, then glue the small cutoff piece onto the other side of the 2x12, creating a 15 degree incline. Drill some large holes for clamp heads at the headstock end and the fret extension end. Cut a notch where the nut would go, to deal with the transition from fingerboard to headstock. Clamp the whole shebang in something sturdy, but capable of being repositioned. It works very well.

If I’m just profiling the back of the neck I screw a padded backstop to the bench and push and pull my spokeshave. I do all my neck carving with the neck bolted to the body.


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I’ve seen several references to that stew mac vise.
Seems expensive...
Is it that good ?


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Yes. Although the price has gone up 60% in 10 years, but I guess it still worth it for how much it gets used. Woodcraft has a similar one a little cheaper.

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Pat

Yup. I have the same kind of setup. Like any jig, it only works if you actually use it. Wish I hadn't left it on the shelf the other day.

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George :-)

Here's what I'm doing.

The neck in the fixture is for my 27" scale baritone and it just fits....

@Michaeldc that is the nicest version of that jig I've seen. Super clean and elegant.

Here's my version, it works pretty well but is not nearly as rigid as it should be, in that respect the 2x12 version is probably far superior. I'm only a hobby builder so I don't have a standard length, so I went with something pretty adjustable. I use both barrel nuts and hanger bolts depending on the instrument, both work with the mounting end of this, it will also take the neck with or without fretboard.

For the heel I usually just clamp the neck flat to my bench, or upright in my bench vise

I really like the look of michaeldc's jig, that looks awesome


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This follows several other posters but there are two points: I am quite tall with a back problem, so raising the vice above normal bench level is useful, both for this and other tasks, and secondly it being a swivel vice it enables me to attack the work in the best direction and to get the light right for seeing where the curves have got to. I do the initial heavier carving with the neck clamped to the bench. This arrangement is better for the refining with spokeshaves and skew chisels. (This neck is not ready for carving but is there just to illustrate the technique.)

Mine is a rough and ready version of they typical fixture shown, with a couple of variations.

Since I do most of the shaping before the fretboard is on, I've screwed a truss-rod size strip of wood in the center where it fits into the truss rod slot, which makes it easier to clamp the neck securely. (This is not an original idea.) For any sanding or touch-up shaping after the fingerboard is on, I remove the strip and tape some thin cork strips to run up each side of the fixture, holding the radiused fretboard securely.

I'm another person with a tendency to back problems, and I've had painful back spasms caused by leaning over the bench. My fixture is made of a 2X 6, and it is attached to a kind of base, which is just another piece of 2 X 6 at an angle, with a kind of bracket to make an "L." The base screws to the front and side of one of the legs of my assembly table (wing nuts on to hanger bolts) so that the whole neck is held at a convenient angle above the bench. I can stand or sit at a high stool. I think I've seen something similar at the Martin factory. This arrangement helps prevent back issues, and I also find it's easier to control rasps and chisels when I'm standing up straight. I learned that I could play the guitar better if I didn't huddle over the guitar, and it's the same with tool use.

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

Nothing fancy, but functional...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

It’s fantastic, Brandon. It’s the kind of thing where you forget how much you had to pony up for he second you handle it. The accessory nut making vise is equally awesome.


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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Thanks James I’ll be looking into it


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