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I've got a simple woodworking question. I'm planning a guitar build. It's a solid body electric, it'll have a mahogany body with a maple cap, but I won't be carving the top. I'd like the body thickness to be 1.75" at the strap button end, and 1.625" at the neck pocket. I'm thinking I'll mill the wedge into the mahogany, and leave the, maple cap a consistent thickness.

Will it work to get my mahogany to a final thickness at its thickest point, and then put an appropriate riser under the neck pocket end and run it through my planer, gradually removing material? Or is there another, better way?

Conor

I reckon you are creating a wedge to match the neck angle so the fretboard sits flat?
I would work it down with a sanding block - Mahogany is soft enough.
Or, I could use a router sled to knock it down.
Personally, I’d be to scared to run it through my planer, considering the rollers are not going to be clamping down on the work piece.

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You are essentially correct about the reason why. I don't know. It might be awkward and balance strange, but I drew it all up and I like the way it looks.

I was wondering how the planer would like getting wood fed through it that way. I feel like if I take small enough passes, and I'm careful with a push stick it should be okay. Eventually there should be enough surface area that it is clamping down. I think. But I like the hand tool option as well.

That's only 1/8"! Mark a line on the neck end 1 5/8'' up, and knock it down with a hand plane. Sand it smooth with sandpaper on a flat table.
But maybe you don't have a joining plane. Even a block plane would do it. I'd go cross grain with that, working my way down to the line, and over to the bottom end.

If the form isn't cut out, you could clamp it between two 1 3/4 cutoffs, and put an 1/8" shim under the body blank. Plane until it is flat to the cutoffs.

But like Dan said; with mahogany, even just the sandpaper would work.

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Why be normal?

Out of curiosity what size of joining plane would be most useful for guitar making?

I found a 18" long Craftsman at a garage sale. It has a 2 3/8 blade. I put a Lie-Neilson blade and a homemade Hock chipbreaker on it. It is solid. But with the blade now, the adjuster screw is too short!
It is long enough for guitars. I used it for a cello.
Mine has a corrugated edge and bottom. Makes it slide easy, but can be a problem on thin stock. Archtops and Cellos are no problem. An angled set up for joining eliminates the problem; or finding a solid bottom. I looked for a long time and finally found one.

I guess they call this a fore plane, and they run about 300 bucks or so.

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Why be normal?

I've got an old Stanley #6 that I got on eBay about 10 years ago for $70. It is a beauty and is plenty long enough. Might be longer than needed but it does a great job on planing plate joints.

I love planes. I started jointing with an 22” transition plane. I was hard to keep flat (the Beech body moved with humidity) but I could eventually get a good joint. Then, I acquired a Stanley #4 that I was able to set up really well. It did a good job of jointing. I then acquired an old Stanley #6. It did a better job (i.e., it took less time) than the #4. When I had the opportunity, I bought a Woodriver #4. It required some setup, but it did a great job on jointing plates. It was a bit heavier than the Stanley and had a better adjuster. Both features made it easier to use. Yielding to temptation, I bought a Woodriver #6. Again, the increased weight and better adjuster made quicker work of jointing than any of its predecessors. All of the planes I acquired required flattening the sole and adjustment of all of the adjustable parts. Each one of the ones I described was adequate for jointing. If I could keep only one, it would be the Woodriver #4 because I can use it for many things. But, I use them all. Having all of them, I use the Woodriver #6 for jointing. When it doesn’t go well, I’m reminded to sharpen it.

Eventually, I had so many planes that I didn’t use (looking for planes made antique stores fun), that I sold them on ebay, keeping only the ones that I used. I now stay out of antique stores and buy no more planes. Discipline is hard.

Jointing guitar plates takes a little effort to get right. Jointing thicker boards with a #6 is amazingly easy and often pleasurable.

Connor my first thought was very similar to what you described, although I’d put the whole thing on a sled you send through with the 1/8” riser glued in place and some kind of backstop on the tail end. But now I’m second guessing whether or not the planer would feed it through. I’m sure your familiar, but the rollers grip the workpiece in front of and behind to cutter to feed it through, and in this case I don’t know if there’d be enough meat for the in-feed roller to grip and feed through until the out-fees roller grips and takes over.

The below would still work with a safety planer in a drill press.

Please forgive my crude finger drawing here.




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