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Greetings!

Here's a handy little tool that I thought some of you might be interested in.

http://www.templatesandjigs.com/jigs-to ... iling-jig/

We've been working on this for almost two weeks trying to get it dialled in. I thought I'd post my results and process since it's pretty likely I won't be the only one here to want one.

It is designed for electric necks with no heel, so to use it for acoustic guitars, it needs to be set up differently.



Well, you can already see how it works and why it's so handy.


Came nicely packed and arrived within a week of purchase which made me pretty happy. About 650$ CAN, plus another 150 for a router, 60 for a router collet extension, and 30 for the bit. So, about 1k$ plus a great deal of hours to make it work right.

Anyway here's a bunch of pics in no particular order...assemby...
It is important to put the bottom rail as far to the outside as it can go, otherwise the heel can't turn over.


Seething up the sled. Must be perfectly aligned in the center. The jig is pretty high quality, you can set it up to roll nice and smooth with no slop.


One of the end pins was off center, put together wrong at their shop. We corrected that. We also used different bolts than the ones provided. We got ones with no thread, so they won't wear and widen the vertical slot.





We chucked in a brad point to find the centreline while setting up the sled. It comes blank with only a hole for the bit to pass through, so it will accept any router you like. We went dewalt cause it was on sale.






Next come the rollers that ride the pucks. In the end, we set them up differently than the instructions called for. We put the holders on the bottom of the frame, as there was too much flex when held from above. Also, tapped the frame and added bolts to hook springs to, in this case little bungee cords. Good enough for now.


Loaded a a 2x4 blank to test the jig using the supplied pucks to make a tele neck.


Well, would ya look at that!

Of course, we don't make teles, so we needed to make our own shapes.

We made a metal cap with a scribe on the end that fit over the rollers, and used some plywood with a shiny surface. We fit a dowel in the router, put an already carved neck in the holder, and carefully scribed the shape into the plywood.


And then made piles and piles of test cuts to get it right.



Once satisfied with the shape, I did one test neck with a mock fingerboard for proof of concept.


Then the real test. From this...


To this, in about 15 minutes. Obviously, the smaller the passes, the better the 'resolution', so better to be patient during the carving bit.

All that's left to do is feather in the heel and headstock.



Still took an hour overall, but way way less physical effort, which was why I got it, as neck carving was taking a serious toll on my elbows.

As well, once we crack the code for making the pucks, we should be able to offer different profiles as an option too.

It also saves 30 minutes per neck, which is sweet, sweet fishing time!


Oh and also, we put a flathead screw beneath the bolt so that it wouldn't dig into the wood over time and cause an elliptical rotation.

Anyway, just thought I'd let you know this thing is available for purchase!

One more mod we will be making will be to add drill guide bushings in the center of each position . That way you can add a pin on the bottom of each puck and be able to slip it into the drill guide bushing and have it center automatically. Center line is everything with this jig.

That is awesome! However penultimate...

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

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Pat

The next one should be perfect!

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George :-)

Interesting! How big a mess does it make? Have you figured out a good dust collection rig for it?

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

CNC !

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

Yes, CNC is the ultimate solution. However, when I really looked into the costs without my usual rose coloured lenses, it turned into a north of 7k$ enterprise. I just ain't got the juice.

Terence, there's no extraction on it yet, though we'll be attaching ports on both sides of the sled at some point.

It's a dangerous machine though. The first real neck I used it on worked just great. The second neck got killed, which is a tragic waste of wood and labor. Growing pains I guess.

What went wrong with the second one, inquiring minds want to know.

Here's a different take on a DIY neck profiling fixture -- looks like you'd need a pin router set, pretty quick operation.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Ken, this gadget is likely a takeoff of the Pederson one. Same concept, though he uses a milling machine.

An advantage of this one is that since the router moves over the neck, it can be half the length of the Pederson one, a plus in a tiny shop.

Printer, I think I loaded the neck slightly off center. Gotta stay on top of that...

I bet that would be nice for doing asymmetric neck back profiles. I recently messed one up by hand. If only I could use something like this to carve a body or arched top. Would need a much bigger wheel I think.

Thanks for posting. I will certainly be looking into this for my own shop.

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

Spoke shave only costs about $30 bucks

Nice toy though.

Perfect! Reminds me to add a spokeshave to my shopping list!

I guess it depends on how many you need to do. For me, neck carving has always been a bottleneck, as is fingerboard making. This cause problems with cash flow which causes problems with life. Soon, our fingerboards will be contracted out, hopefully making life a little easier. Lots of different ways to carve a neck, this is what I need for my elbows.

Can u explain/illustrate the heel part? Pretty stoked that guys around here understand difference between penultimate and ultimate. Lol

It doesn't cut the heel, you still have to do that, it only cuts the barrel.

Anybody ever get one of these things to work for carving necks?

http://woodgears.ca/copy_carver/plans/index.html

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

I may have to try that. For 14 bucks and a some basic parts, what could go wrong?

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I know a few guys that have tried that approach with disappointing results.

Years ago I had a commercial unit I was going to use for mandolins and violin tops and backs -- used it for one Mando then sold it. Lots of work very messy as well. However I do see these or something similar set up for guitar necks in ads -- just wonder if anyone really got a neck carved and how long did it take?

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Is this not what the old Legacy ornamental mills did? Probably find some of these things used.....

Ken when we started we used one of these to make necks........ as always the quality of the machine makes a difference......

A copying carver can be great and do much more, but it helps to have or make one where you can limit the cutting depth and work in passes, or else they are hard to control, and chunks may go flying! Having the thing spring loaded will help with control too. Hell, you can even make one that has a tilting head (multi axis)!

CNC's are even better, but a lot of money to cough up, not including all of the accessories bits and other essentials you will not find included. The stuff ads up so quick, your $7000 CNC is $9500 in no time, and may sit there not making you any income until you figure out the software part!!!

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If what you see is what you get, then Stevie Wonder ain't got nothin'!

Yup, that's why I went penultimate in the meantime...

penultimate is a strange word, as ultimate is either at the top or as near it as one can get, whereas penultimate means: second to last, one prior to the bottom, second to worst...

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If what you see is what you get, then Stevie Wonder ain't got nothin'!