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!
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... 