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These carved top bodies taper from a high point at the bridge, down to the thickness at the neck. How do you guys accomplish this? Seems like a lot of work with a plane. Wondering if anyone uses their thickness sander or planer to do this. I was thinking a tapered jig, double side taped to the bottom, would allow it to go through and let the machine do this for you. What say you????

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Rob

I just taper mine from the neck/body joint to the end of the fingerboard, and do it with a handplane. Anyway, I think your idea of a sled with a shim would work fine. Maybe some wooden stops on both ends, glued or nailed in place, instead of just double sided tape.

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Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

Well, kind of answered my own question. Tried to thin the cut off for my scarf joint in the planer and that didn't work. I think because there's really no place for the drive rollers to hold to, it bounced around and made a mess of it. I think the same thing would happen with a piece that was fed through with the angled shims underneath. Good news is I was able to salvage it. It's all clamped up and drying now. So I guess I'll have to do it by hand. Shouldn't be too bad. Thanks for the reply.

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Rob

I made a table saw sled and clamped the body to it. Set the angle of the blade and to max height and let it rip through. I then completed the ramp with a hand plane. Works like a charm.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Google Myka Guitars Neck jig (or look it up on ProjectGuitar.com's forums) for a router jig setup that's usable for anything from fitting set necks at the right angle easily (what it was designed for) to routing the reference angle into a top (what I do when the wood's too figured/is fighting my handplane too much).

I just use a router to go around the edge of the body to set a uniform depth then hit it with a grinder and abrasive wheel to hog off the meat and finish off with planes and sandpaper. The grinder is messy but it works fast.

Rob…I use two tapered wedges cut from ¾” stock and tape them to the bottom of the body. Then I run it through my drum sander. The sander takes longer than my planner but it eliminates tear-out on figured maple. It’s real simple and easy.

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Rich S

"The inconvenience of poor quality will linger long after the thrill of a bargain has been forgotten"

+1 build a sled and run it through the thickness sander. You'll need to keep your hands on the body to prevent it from sliding around on the sled, but a little double-stick tape helps. Trig is your friend to calculate the thickness of the shim propping it up, to get you the neck angle you need. Here I am sanding only just enough to get me to the end of the fretboard (white outline).

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The member formerly known as erikbojerik....