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Steve Brown and I have been PM'ing each other because he is at the point where he needs to plane his classical fretboard. After a discussion on how to hand plane it I told him I would send him some pics and an explanation of how to do it on a jointer. This is a method I use but here is the disclaimer. You need to remove the fence and guard of your planer. Extreme caution is necessary!! Also, things happen much quicker with power tools so you can screw up quicker if not careful. Keep your hands away from the blades! I use my left hand on top of the guitar and my right hand is holding one of those plastic "paddles" on the back of the neck as I run it through the jointer.
With that said, here are the pics.





These two pics are of a "shim" placed at the bridge location on the guitar. You will notice that the bass side is about 1/2mm. to 1mm. lower than the treble side. This is because I put a taper on the bass side of the fretboard. It will be lower than the treble side. The height of the shim is about 5mm at the first string location and about 4 1/2mm on the 6th string side.





Place the guitar on the jointer. Notice that the shim and bridge location are on the outfeed side of the table and the fretboard sits on the infeed side of the table. The shim being tapered will plane this taper into the fretboard and also make your fretboard the correct height. You may need to adjust the height of the shim depending on your specs for your guitar. In the picture the fretboard is not glued to the neck. This is because I didn't have one ready for this step yet. YOU ALWAYS WANT THE FRETBOARD ATTACHED TO THE NECK BEFORE DOING THIS STEP! To me it is self explanatory but you never know who might try it without the fretboard glued on. Slowly move the guitar across the knives. As the fretboard gets planed it will rest on the outfeed table and provide support for the part of the fretboard near the peghead. Make several passes removing a little material with each pass. Wear earplugs as well cause with the guitar body resonating this really makes some noise.
I do not teach this method in my guitar building classes. The last thing I need is 25 guys with little to no woodworking experience heading to a jointer with no guards on it! I also do not show this method in my classical guitar buidling DVD. With that said, it is a very effective way of planing a fretboard and takes less than a minute, a real plus!
BE SAFE!     

You got more cajhones than I do! I would have sucked it up and did it by
hand...

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

While I could see how that would work, I don't think I have would have the guts to put a guitar that close to a planer.....Murphy hangs out in my shop too often as it is.

On another note, I really like the sound port on that guitar.

I have a jointer but i will wait untill i have more experience in woodworking before i try this, i gotta admit that it's a brilliant idea though!

Thanks for sharing!

Gee, I don`t know... Sorry, Robbie

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Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,

Robbie,

Thanks for the info. Planers are safer than they look if you take the usual precautions. I think I will try it both ways just to have the experience and like most thing, choose the method I like best.

Thanks again for going to the trouble.

Steve

You people are nuts!

I realllllly like hand planing... lots   Way to many bad things can happen in this case. probably won't 99 out of 100 times.. but

Good stuff Robbie, but I think I'll leave that to you guys with the sure hands. What you do in two passes on the joiner will take me about 45 minutes on a sanding board.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

wow.....

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

WOW!!

If it looks unsafe, It probably is.

I thickness mine with the drill press sander, and will carry on doing so, I have done it on the 16-32 the same way, just double tape a shim on the end you want to reduce. If anything goes wrong all I lose is a fingerboard, not a whole guitar, or worse, my fingers!

Still if your confident.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

I have no interest in doing this myself, but, I assume you cut the fret slots after doing this operation, with the blank glued to the neck/body?

[QUOTE=rlabbe] I have no interest in doing this myself, but, I assume you cut the fret slots after doing this operation, with the blank glued to the neck/body?

[/QUOTE]

Nope, frets are cut before hand. You are only leveling the fretboard here. You will probably only remove a millimeter when all is said and done.

A classical face down on a jointer...scarey stuff!!! I just gotta go and find
my Valium. An interesting thread.

Good on ya Robbie. I builder friend of mine in Vancouver carved a compound curve into a piece of steel with his cnc machine and uses that for a vertical belt sander platten. He markes the bridge location on his guitar and has a block below the belt sander that he places the brodge area against and then tipps the near finished guitar into the belt sander. Again, it is how comfortable you are with your tools.

Shane

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Canada

Hey, when you seen Mario petting a porcupine with a Lancelot blade, the jointer/edger is a game for kids Just kiddin'

Wow, that takes some guts but I like your way of thinking. There's always an easier way to skin a cat! Now, what's next? Can you show us how to cut the binding channels with a table saw once the box is complete?    Just kidding. But, I'm gonna file your method away--who knows when I might need it someday.

Cheers!

John

This method is really not as scary as it looks and the best thing is that it thicknesses and tapers the fretboard in one easy step. Your hands are really no where near the jointer knives because they are on top of the instrument. I feel comfortable doing this but I would never take a jig saw to my guitar top. haha Now that is scary!