The neck, finally a guitar part!

At this point I have the solera made with its accompanying clamps, the plans and the mounted template. It's time to start making a guitar. This whole process is really taking a long time but I am in no hurry. The book that I have starts with the neck, although he states it doesn't really matter what you start with, ultimately it all has to get done. I had to make some decisions about wood and purchase that before I could begin. The book said the most common wood used for the neck was mahogany, but being different I decided that I wanted to use maple. Off to the lumber yard. I found a good piece of 6 quarter hard maple with straight grain. I also decided to make the back out of maple, so I looked for a 4 quarter piece that was at least 8" wide that I could resaw. This proved to be a bit harder. I found a piece that was just shy of 8". I got the wood thinking I could make it work. Back at the shop, following the plans and the book, I started cutting up the 6 quarter in preparation of gluing it up for the neck blank. After squaring up the 4 quarter piece for the back on the planer and checking with the plans I realized it would not be wide enough, ooops, not my first and surely not my last mistake. I'll address it later, let's get to making the neck!

The neck with the head and heel glued and clamped

Another angle showing the three stacked pieces at the heel or base of the neck

The glued up neck block

After reading my book and doing more research on the Internet, I decided to glue up two stacked pieces for the head and cut the angle on the band saw. The alternate method and it seems the most widely used method is to cut the angle and turn it over and glue it back on using a scarf joint. This seemed like a weaker joint to me. The disadvantage of the method I used is there will be a seam line on the sides but I don't think anyone will be able to see it after it is shaped and sanded. I printed out more copies of my plans and cut out the neck top and side views. I drew center lines on the neck blank and used spray adhesive to glue the prints on the top and side of the neck using the center lines as guides to make sure I got them straight. The plans would be my guide for rough cutting the shape on the band saw.

Rough cutting the shape of the neck on the band saw

I tried to cut leaving about 1/16" from the line

The neck after cutting the top and bottom shape. You can now see the angle of the head.

While the sides were still square I clamped the neck in the bench vise and planed the top of the head smooth. I used a hand plane rather than a sander to try and keep it flat and square.

Neck clamped in the vise with the plane on the bench

Trying to keep it flat and square. Patience grasshopper!

After planing, I took the neck back to the band saw and trimmed the sides, again trying to leave 1/16" outside the line.

Finished rough neck!

My first real guitar part

I admit it, I was pumped. Yes, I played a little air guitar.