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routing the neck pocket about an hour ago the bit slipped and plunged into the body.
I was kinda scared to look to see if it had gone through the body completely. I got lucky, it didnt. But, it took out quite a bit of material that wont be visible when the neck is on. So, i packed the hole with mahogany sawdust and glue. do you suppose this will be alright? I still have to rout a little deeper. i forgot to take photos.

Been there. What kind of a guitar is it? I'm guessing an electric? How were you going to attach your neck? If you're doing a bolt on I'd probably be more prone to doing a full wood plug rather than sawdust and glue, especially if you need to bolt through that area. Otherwise you should be fine, just feel lucky it didn't go all the way through!

By the way did you identify why the bit slipped? It'd be good to find out so you don't have it happen again. I've had it happen from a worn out collet, forgetting to tighten the bit when I've been in a hurry and bottoming out the shaft of the bit so when I turned it on it loosened up the collet.

I feel your pain. I messed up two rosettes today!

It's a semi hollow electric that I'm building. Set neck, not bolt-on. I think it happened because I didn't have enough shank in the collet. I tried to get as much depth as I could while using my myka neck jig. It was one of those times when I was impatient and frustrated and should have walked away and waited to get a longer bit.

yep, I was in a hurry awhile back and set up to do my truss rod rout. About halfway down the length of the neck on the first pass the bit slipped and almost went through the back of the neck. It didn't but it put a ramp at the bottom of the rout and I really didn't want to take the whole thing down to that depth and glue in a fillet, so I cut the thing apart and started over. Painful lessons!

Sorry to hear the bad news - but glad to hear I'm not the only one this has happened to.

I've had it happen a couple of times, and it seems to be more likely when I'm using my long half-inch dia endmill...thinking the longer length increases the bending-moment at the collet. And probably changes the resonant freq of the cutter, in a negative way???

I'm using ER-25 collets, and as I'm torquing up the collet, I'm always second-guessing if the "collet cap" is tight enough. Wondering how much torque is optimum... if it's possible to over-tighten it... if I had enough Wheaties for breakfast, etc.

Regarding worn collets: Is there any obvious way to know that it's time to replace one? What aspect actually goes bad? The temper of the steel? The integrity of the bearing surfaces???

Any and all thoughts, conjectures, theories and facts appreciated.

Cheers,

Jeff
KOZM Guitars

So, I have finally finished the guitar. These two photos at the bottom are before I had put the tru-oil on. I still have to take some nice pics with a good camera. With the oil finish on, it kinda darkened it up a bit, as you can see in the first pic. I'm calling it my RootBeer Burst

Really like the sunburst one with the tailpiece!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Use a wide sharpie to draw a line down the shaft of the router bit, and have a go at a piece of scrap wood. Take the bit out, and see if the sharpie line is disturbed at all. If it is, the collet is likely worn. Nice guitars!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Can't see the photos to comment (work computer security) and I haven't had a bit slip yet but I did have a template move while cutting the neck pocket.

I was using the double stick tape as I'd always done- lesson learned- I screw the template down now.

I did save it- not as a reminder - I could laminate it or whatever...it's in the pile with a neck and other "lessons". I'm good with lessons as long as it's just the sick/stupid feeling and I'm not seeing red.

Oh...just noticed the timeline...it took 3 yrs ? Congrats! That's determination to admire.

Yes it took quite a while. During this build my wife and I had two children and I sold off all my luthier/wood working tools. It's been hanging on my wall in my music room 85% finished for about 2-3 years. On day a few months ago I decided it was time to either finish it or smash and burn it. I'm glad I chose the former. Now, I'm in the process of clearing out my basement to turn it into a woodworking shop where I can once again build guitars. One thing I forgot is how much $$$$ you can spend just buying the bare minimum tools. It feels good to be getting back into building again.