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Unplugged neck carving at a festival
http://w-ww.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10123&t=36865		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Irving [ Wed Jun 20, 2012 3:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Unplugged neck carving at a festival
I am having a vendor booth in August at the American Folk Festival in Bangor Maine.

I am planning to carve a guitar neck each evening for a little showmanship.

I made a time lapse video yesterday that you can see here of my current technique: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUkieA6LH-A

I use a belt sander to help create the volute and I use an orbital sander to augment in final shaping of the heel and volute as well as cleaning up file marks.

I am looking to omit all of the power tools. I think that the volute will be the most challenging, as I use the shape of the belt sanding wheel to get the shape I want.

What might you do to carve an electric guitar neck completely unplugged?
Author:  Lincoln Goertzen [ Wed Jun 20, 2012 3:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Unplugged neck carving at a festival
My standard procedure is to cut off the square corners with a bandsaw, then shape with a rasp (maybe) and a spokeshave (definitely). I like my Veritas spokeshave very much, and I would hate to have to carve a neck without it.

I don't know exactly what you are starting with, or what exactly you will have available to you at the show, but what if you cut off the sharp corners with a coping saw, and started from there with a spokeshave and rasp?
Author:  Irving [ Wed Jun 20, 2012 4:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Unplugged neck carving at a festival
This is my standard arsenal at the moment.

Image
Author:  Irving [ Wed Jun 20, 2012 4:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Unplugged neck carving at a festival
I have never used a spokeshave. Perhaps I should try one out.
Author:  Chameleon [ Wed Jun 20, 2012 9:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Unplugged neck carving at a festival
Your video shows the slow way to carve a neck. Mark your ballpark neck thickness at the first fret and 12th or so fret, use a rasp to file those two points down to thickness, then use a spokeshave to blend the two together while also shaping the roundness. The spokeshave is much much faster than the rasp, I don't use that till I start to get a good feel with the spokeshave. Do keep in mind the spokeshave tends to eat more out of the middle so check with a ruler frequently for straightness.

I love carving necks by hand. Best way to do it if you ask me.
Author:  Irving [ Wed Jun 20, 2012 9:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Unplugged neck carving at a festival
Chameleon wrote:
Your video shows the slow way to carve a neck. Mark your ballpark neck thickness at the first fret and 12th or so fret, use a rasp to file those two points down to thickness, then use a spokeshave to blend the two together while also shaping the roundness. The spokeshave is much much faster than the rasp, I don't use that till I start to get a good feel with the spokeshave. Do keep in mind the spokeshave tends to eat more out of the middle so check with a ruler frequently for straightness.

I love carving necks by hand. Best way to do it if you ask me.



The neck was already just about at final thickness. Only needed about .060 removed from the nut end. So I just did it with the rasp. Normally, if the neck had tons of meat to remove, I would use a straight edge and mark the taper I want on the side with pencil and then bandsaw it all out and rasp/block sand with 40 grit to make it flat. Or sometimes I would do similar to what you suggested but I would dig into the 1st fret and 12th fret with the edge of a belt or spindle sander and then rasp the area between flat. So many ways to do this stuff.

My biggest concern about doing this totally unplugged is the volute.

I just ordered one of these that I think will help alot to eliminate a need for an orbital: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LE ... 00_s00_i01
Author:  DennisK [ Thu Jun 21, 2012 6:14 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Unplugged neck carving at a festival
It looks like your volute might be a little bit concave judging by the shape of your sander and the way you use it. Maybe not enough that you can't just shape it with a thin card scraper, which you can flex with your fingers to curve it and shave out a slight concave area. I use a gouge first and then switch to scraper to smooth it, because I like a fairly deep hollow behind the "lip".

For the rest, my main tools are a 3/4" violin knife, rasp, spokeshave, scraper, and sandpaper. That half round file ought to be helpful for smoothing out the rasp marks. I need to get one of those.
Author:  Irving [ Thu Jun 21, 2012 11:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Unplugged neck carving at a festival
Yeah I didn't really leave much of a volute at all on the neck in that video. Practically none in fact. Usually do but didn't have the meat required for one on that neck blank which was glued up from two thin pieces of cherry.
Author:  Mattia Valente [ Fri Jun 22, 2012 6:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Unplugged neck carving at a festival
I used to use a spokeshave. I may again, at some point, but using a rasp is just as fast. I do strongly recommend a good hand-cut rasp (Ariou, Herman Dick, and so on) as it will cut faster and leave a much smoother finish.

These days I do the back of the headstock with a power sander of some sort (smooth volute shape, usually the spindle sander with a belt before shaping the headstock fully), everything else with hand tools:

- Medium/fairly coarse grit cabinet/half-round rasp for the main shaft (shape ends, connect the dots)
- Finer grit cabinet rasp to fine-tune the carve
- Scraper (straight and french curve) to smooth and fair everything out
- Various straight edges and a strong light source (skew light, look at shadows) to make sure everything's even
- Cheap caliper to quickly check for thickness/consistency
- Strip of 80 grit cloth-backed paper for 'shoe shining' and some 120 and 220 grit to clean things up

I occasionally break out chisels or gouges as well, although usually only for acoustic guitar heels or set neck/neck through electrics.
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