Official Luthiers Forum!

OK, my head is spinning from reading all previous posts. I really did do the leg work before making this post. So, I'm reaching out. Still tetertottering (us that a word?) over the options.

I have done a few dovetail neck/body joints. One using a StewMac precut neck & neck block, and one using just the StewMac templates and kind of gnawing wood until I got a mediocre joint. I have been looking at the jig on LMII (the one you buy and put together a la R. O'Brien) and the other, more expensive jig out there. I understand the geometry of the fit and all, I'm wanting to tool up for accuracy (reduce fuss). Let's assume the jig fairy is coming for Christmas. What will he/she/it leave me under the tree..?? I know tweaking will always be necessary and I'm not looking for engine overhaul in a can. Just looking for the best tool for the job. What do you dovetail guys do?

thanks again, curtis

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"I need to hurry up, the years are going by far too fast"

I like the luthier Tool neck angle jig, the instructions are a little vague in a few areas, once you get the neck angle right, it's a great fitting perfectly in line dovetail, minimal flossing required, very repeatable. A pox on the stewmac templates

Yea, just looking at that one, one would assume it would do the job.....I bet it can launch a space shuttle too. Actually, I have looked at some online vids of that in action. It's certainly an investment, but good tools are usually worth it.

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"I need to hurry up, the years are going by far too fast"

Did you find videos other than the two from Luthiertool site directly? I haven't been able to find many videos on the topic. I could be using the wrong search terms though.

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I picked up LMI's neck angle jig a few months ago and like it. I used it to do a mortis and tenon. The tenon came out a bit oversized, but not terribly, and I used a smoothing file to narrow it just a hair. I wish they had just developed an appropriate sized template. Other than that, it's a solid jig.

If I were in a production environment and needed the durability of aluminum, or if I had expendable funds, I'd look at the LuthierTool.

bcombs,

All I saw was the Luthier Tool vids.

Well, I'm not in "production", nor unlimited funds.....maybe somewhere in between and that kinda sux when it comes to making decisions. I have also been looking at the LMII jig. Same principal it seems. For the price difference, one could easily have a set of aluminum templates made (after some tweaking of sacrificial templates).

I think I have an outfit/shoes that would match the LuthierTool jig, though....

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"I need to hurry up, the years are going by far too fast"

We use the Paul Woolson neck jig and modified Stewart MacDonald templates for milling the dovetail or tenon - I think there may be plans available from others here on OLF that purchased them while they were available, or from Mr. Kragenbrink if they are still in stock. I don't believe that there is more than a few hours of work in building the jig, based on building a couple over a Saturday afternoon for some local builders (4 luthiers and 5 students...in one 1800 square foot shop...crowded!), and the materials and hardware were - according to receipts - in the $100 range.

The StewMac templates for the dovetails are fine - the nature of the joint results in enough adjustability to get to a fit with minor work on shim fitting. The mortise and tenon templates are a different situation, with the fit between them being intentionally sloppy. We built the tenon template out to provide a snug fit in the mortise, and find no fault with them after the mod.

The LMI jig, as well as the Luthier Tools jig both appear to be based on the Woolson jig, but differ in either allowing use for both mortise and tenon milling (or socket and dovetail), or greater rigidity/range of adjustment. The Woolson does not handle the easy part of the job - milling the mortise or socket - but a simple template that clamps to the body works fine for this and avoids any conversion tasks on the neck jig. We have a somewhat more complicated, more flexible fixture to allow use on archtop bodies, but the core attribute of the fixture is to mold a template on center-line over the socket or mortise area, with some adjustment allowed for depth of body.

As mentioned in previous posts, no neck jig will produce the correct angle all the time - tapered heels fitted to curved neck attachment areas will reduce the neck back-angle by some variable amount related to degree of taper and curvature, so there always seems to be some chisel and file work to got the neck to the point where a good flossing can set the final angle. For square-style heels and flat neck areas, the neck jig gets very close.

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