Hi. This is my first post here. I'm a fledgling building from Eastern Connecticut. I have a question, and apologies if it's been covered before.
Is there any reason in particular that people tend to angle the neck pocket as opposed to the tenon. I do this too, but for the life of me I can't figure out why except that I still have doubt in the back of my mind that all of my measurements and design work is correct and that I may have to make a "tweak" after I see everything in one piece. This is starting to seem silly. I work to a precise top thickness, precise neck dimensions, etc etc.
It seems like the most straight forward way of doing it is angling the tenon, and then routing the body to fit before the top is even glued on. At this point, it's now easy to establish a centerline based off the neck, locate all of my other routes, and come back after the top is glued on and route the neck pocket and pickup cavities with a bearing bit in my pin router (guided by the previously routed cavities). It's also just easier to work with stuff while it's still flat plus it seems easier to establish a centerline off the neck as opposed to aligning the neck to a centerline. The latter for me is an exercise in awkwardness because it seems like I need 4 hands to do it easily...I'm not the most graceful woodworker on the planet. LOL.
Anyhow, I still do it the more traditional way too, and I shamelessly copied Myka's jig to do it, but I'm wondering if anyone does it an alternative way and any downsides or advantage to doing it like that. I'm planning to try it my way on the next few unless someone talks me out of it
I've been lurking here for quite some time and have learned an awful lot. I tell people I'm self taught because I never apprenticed with anyone, but the reality is I've sneakily apprenticed with many hundreds of folks like you over the years...you just didn't know it
Many thanks for any insights you may have to offer.