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Just this past week, I've had to begin rethinking the way I build guitars. Up until now, I might have more than one build going on at once, but things have been spaced out enough where, when it came to a time-consuming or workbench consuming aspect of the process, I could go do something else. For example, the way I join tops eats up a big chunk of my bench space, which remains occupied until the top's glue has dried. Thus, I have enjoyed reading the timely discussion about using the rope and wedge method. I think this is the answer to being able to join multiple tops while still keeping my workbench free.

But when it comes to necks, I face a similar problem. I build necks using a scarf joint and a stacked heel. I don't have a lot of bench space to begin with, and the glue up process is such that I can only do about two necks at a time -- during which time almost all of my available work bench space is occupied while the glue is curing. So, I'm wondering if there is an equally clever method for gluing down the scarf joint and stacked heel as there is for joining plates?

Best,

Michael
Michael McBroom38667.4660185185

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Live to Play, Play to Live

Here is a Link to a Charles Fox shop tour conducted by Frank Ford and there are a couple of shots showing his method. The pictures are not real clear but I'm sure you could come up with something using this idea.

By the way, C Fox is a treasure trove of jigs and shop ideas. Here is a link to another of Franks visits to C Fox guitars. As far as I know it was C Fox who first used the rope and wedge method for joining guitar tops. That's were I learned it anyway. There is a fella from Australia that shows this method in a book he wrote but I have come to find out that he went to C Fox's school before he wrote the book.John How38667.481099537

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

John

It was in a book by Jim Williams the Australian builder.

Here's what I learned from Harry Fleishman's shop (pic is from my shop, not Harry's):


That type of building form lends itself well to this kind of storage, but seems like it could work well either way. This is shortly after I built it, so it's not full of stuff yet. The only thing I'd change is putting in twice as many shelf rails, since the sliding shelves just holding tops and backs don't need much height between them, and sometimes you need extra height for clamps when gluing up.

With this setup, I can pretty much store all the fixins for two in-progress guitars and still have a clear bench. Not great for longer pieces like unbent sides, purfling and binding... I'm thinking about attaching some cubbies just to store neck materials. Anyway, even as-is, it seems like a pretty efficient use of space.

When I finally get around to building a proper bench, I'll incorporate this type of storage, except double or triple wide. Right now I'm using a mdf 2'x4' clamped to a B&D Workmate.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Using a rope and wedge to join tops is the traditional way that tops have been joined for years in Spain. Charles Fox's use of that approach (going back to the GRD days) was in response to others that were trying to make guitar building more complicated. His opinion is that jigs should be a simple as needed to accomplish what is needed.

The photo of the gluing up headplate veneers is a great one...if you look just behind that you will see a ramp that ends in a clamp...that is how he aligns his scarf joint for clamping...simple and effective.