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I've been trying various bits and burrs on a manual duplicator carver and not found any that are particularly good for necks. There are a lot of choices out there and I don't want to end up buying them all to try. .Just wondering if anyone might have recommendations. Thanks, Bob

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

Have you tried a ball end bit that is about the same dimension as the probe that traces the model? I bought one of those duplicarvers years ago from someone who made wooden signs, but never found a project to use it on. One of those things that's on "the list".

Clay- I have several of those carbide ball and round nose cutters on order. I'll let you know if they work.The cutters that Marlin duplicarvers sell don't work well at all on necks. From the looks of them, I can tell they were just hand ground, so I'm going to try reshaping some. Nothing to lose.

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

Played with a machine like this and found that you can't expect a finished product out of the duplicutter. I used a number of different cutters. Make sure your cutter does match the stylus for the best result.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

John- Not expecting or looking for a finished product, or even making the job faster. After 40+ years of doing repetitive shaping/sanding/filing operations I have some physical issues beginning and I'm just looking for different ways to see they don't go further.

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

Hi Bob,
Are you talking about Ukulele necks, and are you willing to make any design changes? What style of neck are you making now (one piece or scarfed peghead, etc)?

Clay- I do both uke and guitar necks and I've always used a scarf joint at the head.

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

Hi Bob,
Lately I have been doing a hidden scarf joint the allows the peghead and neck shaft to be worked separately. The neck shaft can be shaped with a roundover or ovolo bit in a router and the peghead shaped and attached later. This allows much of the initial shaping to be done by powertools and saves some handwork. It also allows you to save on materials as the neck components can be cut to near finished dimensions.
I have done a couple of variations on the joint. One way to do it has the "chin" join the neck below its lowest point. For thinner pegheads you can either have the neck shaft wrap around the peghead (as shown) or profile the peghead similar to what many banjos use similar to the one linked here:

http://www.hicklerbanjo.com/production_necks.html

I use a tenoning jig and angle the blade on the tablesaw to make the cuts on the neck shaft (before routing it to shape) For the peghead "ramp" I made a simple router jig that holds the blank and creates the matching angle to the one cut on the face of the neck shaft.
One of these days I will try to do a photo essay of the whole neck making process.