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I am in need of a little clever thinking. I was cooking up a batch of telecaster style necks tonight. I inlaid the carbon fiber, truss rods, drilled the access hole, trimmed and profiled them and was cooking along nice.

I usually work with really thick stock then remove stock from the back with my sander and 36 grit to bring me into the neighborhood where I can begin to carve the shaft of the necks.

Everything was working out fine until I stuck one of the necks in the sander face up!!! (Shows you what I get for working late....)

Now the truss rod channel is too shallow by about 1/32 of an inch. Any idea how I can deepen that channel now that I have the neck profiled to its final shape? And ... to top it off I use the SM hot rods and they use an unusual size bit...

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I made a narrow scraper out of a piece of .042" band saw blade just a hair narrower than the slot. After rounding the business end on the bench grinder, there was a nice wire edge around the tip that made material removal at the bottom of the slot quick & easy. I rounded the edges of the tool, so it wouldn't damage the slot sides.
Any stiff piece of steel should do if you don't have heavy band saw blades.
I have an old set of rusty feeler guages I find useful for making special scrapers & all kinds of other tools. The forty or fifty thou one would probably make a great slot scraper.
If you make full length passes, the bottom should stay very flat, but it's good idea to do a check with a straight edge after a couple of passes & work down the high spots if they develop.Daniel M38793.0827662037

Brock, is the back of the neck profiled? If not, you could make a tapered piece, same as the taper on one side of the neck to create a reference edge parallel with the centerline of the neck, "tack" it in place, re-route your channel than cut the ledge off. That should work, if the back of the neck is still "squarish".

If not, who knows

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the neck is still flat, but profiled to shape.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I used to route channels with a long slotted jig - take a 1x3, route a 3/8 slot down the centre on your router table - not all the length - you need to leave a couple inches at each end. Now you can clamp this to the neck, use a 3/8 template guide in a router base and the proper bit in the router. You will likely have to route it in sections as you move the clamps holding it to the neck.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

I did something just like this last week. What I did was to stick a 1/4" piece of plywood to the top of the neck with double sided tape. The existing truss rod slot was lined up parallel with the edge of the plywood. The edge of the plywood then ran along the fence of my routher table

Double sided tape is more than strong enough to hold the neck firmly to the board. See crude drawing.

How bout some pics Brock?

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

You could also just use a different type of trussrod for that neck. Make yourself a Gibson-style single rod, and then you'll have room.

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

Thanks guys.... solution found.

I use a cochran base to install these in the raw stock, so neck stuck to the board trick will work beautifully. I just need to match the centerlines and presto...

Thanks.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Or you could do this, some what similar to Tony K's idea

Use a piece of MDF or Plywood as thick as you can get it, say 5" wide by the length of the neck plus 5-6 inches. On one side, mark out the exact taper of the neck (both sides) and cut out a channel (say 1/4" deep) to the taper, Now route out a section down the middle, leaving the ends solid of course, flip it over and double side tape to the neck, route away.

What you need is a reference to the centerline of the neck right.

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Brock, What I did for this was I made a short square wooden bar that just fit the slot and glued it to a temporary wooden base double back taped to the base of the router with the bar in line with the bit.Drop it in the slot and route as deep as needed.

Good luck with it Brock!

I made up a board as discussed and it worked like a champ. I am back in action on these necks.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Way to go Champ!

Well done, like they always say, a good woodworker makes few mistakes, a great one knows how to fix em'.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

I would have been tempted to rout a 1/32 inch channel in the bottom of the fingerboard. Keeps that truss rod channel from getting so close to the bottom of the neck. I always worry about not having enough material in that region, especially with those SM hotshot truss rods, they are so deep.

John

Brock, after my fingerboard disaster I know exactly how you feel sometimes its like you said "2 steps forward and 3 backwards"

buty with your skills I'm sure you'll make it right!

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Brock, glad it worked out for you. What I was going to suggest is gluing on some layers of black and white (or whatever color you choose) veneer. Then use a patttern bit to cut out the channel in the veneer. That would give you some height back and add a decorative perfling below the fingerboard.

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA