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You all know about my neck pains - I had made two V-Joint necks, then ruined them trying to cut slots with power tools. Enough! I have returned to slotting with hand tools, and my success has been better - not perfect, but better. I have, over the last few weeks, made some progress on guitars number 2 & 3. 2 will be a German Spruce / EIR with Mahogany V-Joint Neck, and 3 will be a Lutz Spruce / Bubinga with a Spanish Cedar Scarf Joint Neck. Both will be Romanillos 1973 copies similar to #1. My reason for staying with this plan is to see how they compare - same type of punch, balance, overtones, highs, and basses? Also, I have a Solera perfect for this plan, and I need to see if I can reproduce my work. Oh well, here goes.

#2 Neck Progress
I have completed my third V-Joint. Can't say it's any easier. I still have not figured out which way is best for the grain to run in the neck portion and the head portion. The orientation of the grain severely controls the ease of the chiseling process, when refining the V-joint. I didn't take pictures of the V-Joint process, as I have already posted that some time ago. If you read my Off Topic thread, you know why my progress has been slow on these two guitars.

Here is my Neck - roughed out, ready to slot.

Both Sides of the V-Joint (the Head is Spanish Cedar, not Mahogany)

Stacked Heel, cut to the right angles.

I used a hand saw to cut the slots approximately 10mm apart, and to a depth of 20mm(half the width of the bottom of the neck at the Spanish foot. Then I removed the waste with a chisel.
There is still some clean-up left to do, but, essentially it's going to be good enough to use.

More to come in the next post:

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Here are some pictures of the back fro #2 which I don't think I've posted. EIR I got from Brad Goodman in the first Swap Meet I attended here in the Spring of Last year. What Fun!

Getting it thicknessed.

Getting close . LOOK OUT, if that thing blows, We'll all be flabbed to death!

Prepping for glue-up. Trying the tape method - first time.

Waiting for the Glue to get hot enough!

The glue has dried. Still have some thicknessing work to do, so It'll get a good scraping anyway.

More to come: If you guys get tired of my progress posts, tell me. I started to do a poll of whether to post this stuff or not, but, apparently I don't have permission to do a poll. I guess you have to ask. Moving on!

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Where was I? Oh yeah! Back for #2 now joined, needs more prep.

Here it is rough cut. Still needs thinning a bit, but want to wait until I'm ready to go with assembly. It'll sit fine like this, even for months.

That's about it for where I am on # 2.

#3 Neck was scarfed some time ago, so I continued with preparing that neck.
Here is the neck after cutting the main shaft down to 2 1/2" (63.5mm) - the width at the body.

Setting up to cut the taper at the Heel on each side. I made a taper jig I tape to the neck and cut the taper in the band saw.

Here is the neck taped to the jig.

Cutting the taper to about the 9th fret location.

All done with the tapering.

Moving on to next post....

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Slots all cut! Same method as #2.

Here are the Necks for #2 & #3 ready for receiving head plates, back plates and shaping.

Top for #3 - Lutz from Shane. This thing is beautiful. Straight, close grain from edge to edge.

Rough thinning with the Safety Planer - Radial Arm Saw version - Super Safety Planer! Took some time to get the saw table leveled with the shaft, but it's close enough for government work. Here are a couple of passes with pretty good bites being taken out of the wood. Very smooth cutting. I was surprised.

First pass.

Second pass.

All glued up, and cut out - here are my two tops ready for rosettes and refinement. Lutz on the left, German on the right.

Thanks for looking guys. I'll get my links to the build albums in my signature before long, and you guys can follow along as I go.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Waddy bro....it pains me to think of the time you must have spent snapping all those photos and then putting the post's together for folks like me to see. Wow...I am working on a neck right now too.

...But man I am grateful!...wish I had the time to do that sort of stuff on my build. Good luck onya.

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

Great to see you off the chopping block duty bro......

Excellent progress, very neat and precise work, and great pics too!

Thanks for sharing!

Hey Waddy
Nice work. I have built a couple of classical guitars, but for the spanish heel, I have never used such a wide slot for the side. Is this a Romanillo's thing, or is it something you have come up with on your own. To me, it seems like a lot of material to come out, and then have to shim back in once the sides are ready to attach. Is there an advantage to doing this way?
David

Good to see you at it again, Waddy.

I wish I had made the necks for my ongoing set of 4 with deep enough neck blocks to try the double-wedged slots.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

It looks like it's going well Waddy.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Hi Waddy,

Keep those pics coming, they are a real pleasure to see.

Sen.

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Sen CL Goh
http://senguitar.blogspot.com

Thanks guys! I''m glad to be working on the guitars again. The kitchen cabinet thing really put a hitch in my get-along. The cutting boards were just an aggravation. I oiled the second one for the first time tonight. I have a couple of pics I'll post later.

David, the wide neck slot, is definitely a Romanillos thing. He says he did not invent the joint, but he believes it makes the strongest neck/side joint possible. The pair of opposing wedges are glued into place after being pressed into the slots against the sides which are placed in the slot. Originally he copied a joint he saw on an early guitar, but it only had one wedge. You had to cut the slot at a slope, and match the wedge to the slanted slot. The double wedge is much simpler. You can take the sides and neck out of the solera with the wedges in place even without any glue, the joint is so tight. The other nice thing is that there is no glue between the outside heel and the sides. This allows, if necessary, the neck to be removed without damaging the sides. Just chisel out the wedges and you are done, the neck will release, that is, of course after you remove the top and the back glue joints, but I suppose some heat in the right places would take care of that.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Looking good Waddy. You've been a busy man in the shop, eh?