Shaping a walnut neck with my neck contour jig
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- My interpretation of a neck contour jig inspired by the original idea of Bill Scheltema. I wanted to have a version which is easily adaptable for different scale lengths and also one which does not take too much space in my shop if it is not needed. Using a carriage which supports a plunge router, the depth of the router bit can be adjusted easily and - even more important - precisely.
The main idea is built around a 40 x 40 mm Aluminium Construction Profile as center beam holding the guitar neck. If you need different scale lengths, you only have to make the center part and the sides which are used as rails for the cartridge.
The profiles which are guiding the rotation of the center beam just slide into the Construction Profile and can be easily exchanged. The recess in the center of the profile which follows the aluminium profile keeps it safely in place and does not allow movement.
I use a Festool OF 1400 router together with a 3 flute 12mm router bit. The router bit has a full length of 100 mm which is needed to reach the final depth of the profile.
The plans for this jig are publicly available. Just head over to my blog to find more details about the build and downloads:
www.on-guitars...
If you have access to a Shaper Origin, you can alo find this jig in ShaperHub:
hub.shapertool...
#guitarbuilder #luthier #luthiertools
Congrats. Clever design. May it be easy.
Thank you 😊
Nice jig !
Love this design and I plan to build one. One question I have is about the centre of rotation. I like to radius my fretboards first so I plan to add a small matching radius piece for the neck to sit on, that is on top of the aluminium profile. Say this is 3mm and thus raises the whole neck up 3mm from the aluminium profile, am I right in thinking that I would just need to drill the top holes in the neck support piece 3mm higher to match? Or am I missing something about the mechanics of this. Thanks!
I never tried it that way but my gut feeling says, that you strategy should work fine. The important part is that you match the rotation axis with the highest point on you radiused fretboard which is exactly what you described. Good luck and let us know if it worked out for you!
@@onguitars great stuff, thanks for the reply! I will report back once i've tried it. I'm 3D printing the smaller parts so it's taking me some time!
That is awesome 🤘🏻
Thank you 🙏
o my F&*&¨CK is this perfetct congratulations for idea
Thank you so much!
Nice job
Thank you!
Excellent design. Please explain how you securely fastened the guitar neck to the aluminium bar during routing?
Bass Mark thanks so much. I attach a long strip of painters tape on both the neck and the aluminum bar and then glue them together with some drops of super glue. It is a common technique a lot of CNC people use to secure parts during milling. If you search for it, you will find some good tutorials how to do it. Sure this only works if you do the fretboard radius afterwards because you need perfectly flat surfaces. Another way would be to use the T-slot of the aluminum bar together with machine screws and some kind of custom clamp to hold the neck. It is still on my todo list to design such clamps.
Thanks for the plans and video. Some things are still not clear to me. Does the size (thickness of the cutter) determine how much offset from the original size of the neck contour profile must be? It used to happen to me that the cutter (router bit) did not catch the sides of the guitar neck blank (I was use 11mm straight bit)....Some people charge for this kind of information and you give it away for free. Very generous from you. Thank you
You are welcome. I learned so much from different people online so this is my way to give some of my experiences back to the guitar building community. I use a 12mm bit on my jig and it works quite well to also catch the sides although I always test upfront if the sides are touching the bit. If so, I lift the router up a tiny bit to ensure not to cut material from the fretboard edge. Sure, the angle of the router bit in respect to the neck has an effect on the result so normally the sides will have more traces from the edge of the bit but to me it is not a big issue and with a bit of sanding it will be gone. I hope this helps.
Excellent looking jig! I'm trying to access the plans that you've made available, however, I keep receiving a "error establishing a database connection" message by using the provided link. Is there perhaps a pdf file that is accessible via email, or a different link to try?
Many thanks!
Thank you for the info. I’ll check that later today. I’ll keep you updated.
Please check again. The link should be working again.
Hello On Guitars. Beautiful design and thanks for the plans. Can you tell us how do you determinate center line on aluminium construction profile where neck is placed? Guitar blank neck center line must be parallel with router bit, right?
You are welcome. Exactly, the necke center line has to be parallel with the travel axis of the router. To ensure this, I draw a reference drawing along the centerline with the thickness of the router bit. When you move the router you can clearly see, if the neck is perfectly centered. When glueing the neck onto the aluminium profile with the "painters tape" trick, I use a CA glue which has a bit of open time to be able to adjust the neck position. I use a Shinwa metal ruler with a depth stop to set up the correct distance from the outer edge of the neck heel to the outer edge of the aluminium beam. On the position where the nut is it is a little bit tricky. Because the ruler does not work that well because of the headstock transition. To be honest, at this spot I feel the distance with my fingers. Sometimes I need a second try to get it right but then it's normally good enough. It's really important to check if the distance from the router bit to the neck is the same everywhere especially when turning the aluminium beam with the neck on it to the side.
@@onguitars Thank you for the replay. I will try make one but with wood board, not aluminium beam, only because on wood board I can draw center line. I think I finally figured out (thanks to your drawing) how to properly design neck contour templates :-)
@@onguitars When designing neck contour templates do you also consider the thickness of the fingerboard? Do you put him on contour templates?
Yes, my profiles include the fretboard thickness. They orient on a total neck neck thickness of 25mm.
Keep me updated. I'm really interested how you interpret the design. It depends on the type of truss rod you use. Most of the times, I use MM-style with the access at the end of the heel. So even if there would be a center line, it would not help that much in this case.
Sehr schönes Video. Danke
Hab ich was übersehen ?
Wie befestigst du den Hals am Aluprofil. Der Griffbrettradius ist wohl noch nicht gemacht ??
HAst du schon mal ausprobiert ob ein am ende runder Fräser besser ist ?? Da wäre doch am Übergang dann weniger Arbeit, oder hab ich da einen Gedankenfehler.
Gruß Otto
Hallo Otto. Genau, das Griffbrett hat noch keinen Radius. Dann klebe ich ein 40mm breites Tape aufs Griffbrett und auf das Aluprofil. Paar Tropfen Sekundenkleber hält das dann perfekt. Doppelseitiges Klebeband würde natürlich auch gehen. Ich finde, dass das Profil mit einem flachen Fräser schöner wird als mit einem abgerundeten.
Hi, I'm following your plans to build your jig. But something is missing about the fretboard. What is the thickness of the fretboad? I try to make my own profiles. I will 3d printed them. Did you use Fusion 360 for the projection? Any advices for the placement/calculation of the profiles on the aluminium profile? By the way, amazing job!
Thank you 🤗
The fretboard thickness is 6mm but the total thickness of the neck including the fretboard is more important for defining the profiles. It is 25mm. I modeled the profiles in Fusion 360, right. So my profiles are based on these 25mm.
In my case, the position of the ball bearings together with the length of the aluminum profile determined the placement of the profiles. I just measured that distance. Then I placed the neck so that the ends on the heel and the headstock have equal distance to the profiles.
In Fusion you start drawing the target neck profile on the 0 fret and around the 16th fret. Then extent the lines of the fretboard edged so they intersect the position of the profiles. I also draw a line from the centers of the profile arcs and exten this as well.
The result will be that you have intersection points on the projection plane defining the width on one defining the depth. Use these as starting points to draw a manual interpolation of the two profiles.
I hope this helps. Keep me updated on your progress.
@@onguitars Thanks for the response. It's clearer :)
What shape cutter? a Ball cutter?
I would not recommend a cutter with a ball end. I use a bit with 12mm diameter, 2-flute, spiral up-cut with a flat end.
So sick!
How far apart are the neck profiles?
Did you make the neck contour jig or buy it somewhere ?
I made it completely from scratch. You can visit the link to the blogpost from the description to get more insights.
I just use a spokeshave.
I also used a spokeshave before changing my workflow. I like the repeatability of different neck shapes I can achieve with this jig more easily. I think when doing a couple of necks in a row it really is a time-saver. But it's totally fine if you prefer hand tools for this task. Works great as well and I know many builders doing it exactly that way.
How to get the thickness neck difference from the first fret neck area (21.8) to the end (23.9)?
By using two different profiles on each sides of the jig. This causes the aluminum extrusion to be slightly angled. The result is a tapered neck profile.
@@onguitars you mean there are two different neck profiles guide on each side? oh wow, i wish you could upload the process when you built that jig..
@@oscardarrell exactly. I tried to give a rough guide in an blog article I linked in the description of the video but I know it is lacking a lot of information. Maybe someday I will make a full build video of this jig.
@@onguitars yes, please please please! it'd be cool and helpful.. i am just a new kid on guitar building. This jig is very interesting.
Woooooooooow
Thank you!
So what is the skunk stripe grown from?
It is made of bog oak.
Why walnut for the neck?
I like walnut for building necks. Weight and hardness is very similar to maple but it has a very different feel with more grip. And I love the look of walnut wood.
@@onguitars +1 on that. i have been building walnut necks for 10 years now and they have something else beautiful than standard maple etc. Nice jig mate!
@@novacordaguitars-metecemkuzu thanks so much, Mete!
Nice copy of Bill Scheltema's design