Neck Making

#3 Neck Making: V-joint
I was busy making lots of jigs and mould recently so haven't really got time to post any pictures.

Anyway I started on another neck for my #3 guitar though I haven't decide on the back and sides material.
I am thinking of a cypress with an Torres FE17 plantilla.

After seeing many people making a neck with a Romanillos V-joint (mortise and tenon), I decide to attempt it.
There are lots of valuable resource on the forum which I participated

• 
  Covered/Fussen V-joint (Hauser) by David Schramm (A luthier who build great Smallman style guitars and did his research on Hauser guitars) on the Delcamp forum
  
• 
  V-joint tutorial by Waddy Thomson (An amateur luthier who build in the Romanillos style) on the OLF
  
• 
  V-joint tutorial by Joshua French (A Houston-based luthier who builds in the Romanillos / Torres style with Tornavoz) on the OLF
  

These great resources helped me a lot on how to build a V-joint.
So I did just that.

The scribing and sawing part was easy but the fitting part was tedious.
In the end I had to saw away the 1st V tenon i did and redo it again.

Here are my steps:

Marking the head angle 9 degrees (as per David Schramm). I choose a lesser head angle than my scarf joint is because my neck black was just about 1" thick.
If I choose a steeper angle I would need a thicke neck blank.


Making the triangle 1st with pencil.
After that I went through the making with a scribing knife.


The side view. You can see the 9 degree angle on the V.

Then I use my 1" paring chisel to chisel the marking to make it more prominent and easier to saw.


Using the chisel to make the marking more prominent


Fully scribed, ready to saw.

Then I proceed to saw away the wasted area.
I use a douzuki saw (Japanased backed pull saw) to do the job as it has very thin kerf and is able to saw in a straight line.


Sawing the wasted area


From the top end


Sawn V tenon


Another view


Side view

Then I proceed to clean the sawn area.
This is where I failed, in the end the V tenon's angle all got messed up.
I reviewed David Schramm's video on how he did the clean up and follow his method.
I planed the angle into the front face of the tenon and put a 90 degree wood to serve as an reference to clean up the V tenon.


Checking the head angle


Then I use the same face to draw the mortise part and saw the mortise on the head blank.

Saw away the mortise part. Note my sharpened chisel, the mirror surface.

After than I proceed to fit the V-joint this is the most taxing part.
I am using hide glue and to glue well the joint must not have any gaps.
Hide glues doesn't glue well when there are gaps.


The mortise and the tenon


The fitted V-joint (still need to plane the head part to correct thickness)


From behind view


I use the shooting board (one of few jigs that I am making) to remove the end grain during the fitting process


Jig makinng: plate jointing jig
I spend my time making some jigs.
Here's the story.
When I want to glue the head plate for my #2 neck, I found that I need to join the back first and use the cutoff for the head plate.
So before I can join up the backs, I need a shooting board and a plate jointing jig.
So I made this plate jointing jig based on the LMI jig.


The plate jointing jig


The top on the bottom part of the jig.
A top plate would cover the 2 plates and a rope is use to pull the 2 plates together.
Then the wedge would be inserted to exert more pressure on the 2 plates.

Shooting Board and Preparing the back for Jointing

Well I made a shooting board for shooting and jointing.
And then I began to prepare the backs for jointing.
Using my 16" MuJingFang wooden plane with a sharpened blade I began to even out the edges.
At first I apply the clamp the the 2 boards but in the end I discover as I need to take out often to do a light thru' check, I just simply hold it in place using hand.
There is a stopper block at the end of the shooting board.

When I do a light thru' check, I hold the pieces up against my table lamp and check which part of the 2 boards emits the light.
Then I shoot more of the touching areas (no light area) and even out the gaps.
I stop when I don't see any light thru'
It's really a great learning experience.
Next to come will be joining the 2 backs together but due to the weather (raining)
I decide to leave it for next time. (When it's raining the RH will be too high)


The shooting board and the 16" MuJingFang plane and the IRW backs


The shooting board and the 16" MuJingFang plane


Shooting


Holding with the left hand


Holding up the piece against the light to check for joint closeness


The 2 back pieces ready for jointing

Neck making

Neck making
I started making the neck for my Guitar #2.
I was deciding between a V-joint or normal scarf joint for the neck but in the end opt for a simpler scarf joint.
After all Torres also did a normal scarf joint.

The main reason was that my neck blank wasn't thick enough so for a V-joint I would need too attached a piece of wood to thicken that part.
Also V-joint needs more precision cut.

Anyway I got my new tool: a Ryoba saw (double edge Japanese pull saw - 両刃鋸).
First I marked out the angle of the head stock, 15 degree and enough wood for doing the headstock shape (probably a Torres 3 bun head stock).
Then I proceed to clamp a guide block and started sawing.

The saw did drift and my cut wasn't perfect.
I stopped and cut from the other side.
The rest was corrected by using the plane.
My new sets of long wooden plane does help but the greatest help was my wooden MuJingFang block plane especially in leveling the scarf joint surface keeping it square and flat.
Constantly I will check for squareness and flatness of the joint.

Once I can see no light at the area I proceed to glue up the scarf joint.
I used the hide glue which I had kept refrigerated for the past month.
It didn't smell bad so I proceed to use it.

Here are the pictures:


Guide block


Sawing with my ryouba nokogiri


Top view - can see the scarf joint angle.


Jaggered edge - due to my lousy sawing no fault of the tool just my skill.


Another view


Planing the scarf joint flat


The MuJingFang block plane really works wonderfully.


Checking the squareness and flatness


Checking the flatness


Preparing the hide glue


The scarf joint snug fit


Clamping the joint after applying the glue


Top view


Another view

After I removed the clamps and examined the joint, the joint looks pretty well done.
Hide glue really holds the 2 pieces together pretty strong, well at least it feels so.
Then I proceed to remove the woods in the head but it was sure hard work to remove so much wood by a block plane.
How nice if I had an CNC router machine programmed to make a neck...


The joint after gluing looks pretty good.


I don't have any wax paper so I just use a paper towel.
Those area will be removed by planing anyway.
I think I should get some wax paper... for top plate jointing.


Preparing to thickness the head


Thicknessing the head


After rough thicknessing the head, there is some tapering.
But I haven't exactly measured the exact thickness including the headplate and veneer

Sawing the neck using a ryoba

Fret crowning & Headstock

Fret crowning.

My tools from LMI finally arrived amongst them are some scrapers, burnisher, fret crowning tool, clamp, fret file.
I began to use the fret crowning file to round the frets.
Then I use the triangular fret file (corners rounded file) to round the edge of the frets.
Finally I finished the frets with a steel wool.


Fret crowning


Remove the edge of the fret

Headstock
After that I began to work on the head stock.
At first I was aiming for a Torres three bun shape headstock design but my lyre tuner machine need alot of wood above the top roller, I am left with limited wood for cutting.
So in the end I went for something similar but with gradual curves as with all the designs of this guitar.
I use dozuki to remove a portion of the headstock and started to round the shape using files.


Removing waste wood in the headstock using file


Same as prev.


Rough shape


Curves


Done!


Gluing the end cap
Finally I glue the end cap


Applying PVA white glue


Glued in


Clamp tight

Side track: Redgate guitar
For the past week I strung up the guitar and played it.
The sound was impressive.
I showed my friend the guitar and he suggested that we bring along our other guitars for comparison
He brought along his Jim Redgate guitar 1995 spruce top Indian Rosewood (laminate) Back and side guitar.
I had the opportunity to photograph the interior.








Lattice braced with carbon fibre


No back braces


Left side of the lower harmonic brace


Right side of the lower harmonic brace


Center


Upper harmonic brace


Neck block


The other side


His signature

We compared the sound, we did discover that the lattice bracing Redgate was more balanced throughout the range.
The notes was abit laid back and did not respond immediately but the dying part was pretty much delayed.
This was consistent with the Smallman's idea.
My guitar's sound was different animal altogether.
The sound simply exude out without stopping - raw power.
The dying off part was pretty much faster too.
(It does have some nusance sustain)
This is perhaps what John Williams termed as percussive.
But amongst the 3 mine was the loudest.
The Gutmeier Fleta paled in comparison to the other 2; probably because it hadnt been warmed up yet.
The last time we had a comparison betweeen Gutmeier and Redgate the Gutmeier took 1 hour plus to get warmed up.
Next time I will record something...


Sound Clips
I have been busy, but well the guitar is strung up and being played right now.
But I haven't got around to start the finishing (French Polishing) process that is to coat the guitar with protective layer of Shellac.
Shellac is a natural excretion from the lac insect.

I brought around to let my friends tried, well all have good comments about it.
But the fret work is sharp at certain points so I had to rework on the fret crowning etc...



Clearing the burr at the edge using the crowning tool.


Usually this is done using file w/o handle to make a taper but I seems to to misplaced my file.
So I use this instead.


Then I file the edge of the fret at various angles.


Another angle


Another angle

Also I rework on the neck making it thinner.
It used to be quite thick and very uncomfortable in playing.
I reshape the back of the head when I thin the neck.


The neck is shaped to a more pleasant looking curve


Using light to make the curves more visible.

And now for the sound clips.
... I just realise this blog cant upload sound clips...
Let me figure out how to upload...