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Hi Guys

Looking for a few ideas for nut(1/4")nut seating slot for flat and angled seats.
All methods/ideas will be helpful and please post pics

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"Practice enough till the results aren't hopes but expectations" forum member Peter Havriluk

The best way is to keep your surface clean while fabricating the neck, I use a dummy nut while gluing on the head plate and fingerboard.

What type of guitar, an acoustic or an electric with a Fender style bolt-on neck with the nut channel cut or milled into the fret board?

I really like the nut seating files from Stew-Mac. I have all three and use them for other odd jobs as well. In addition to masking off the area with painter's tape when I finish, I'll clean up the nut slot with the appropriately sized file.

I'm with Clinchriver on this. The only thing I would add is use locating pins on the fingerboard and head plate to get a nice tight slot.

But, if I wasn't going to do it that way I would glue the finger board down with locating pins then glue the head plate on and hold the nut tight against the end of the fingerboard and score a line with an Exacto knive. Then cut with a razor saw keeping the cut parallel with the end of the fingerboard.

I'm not sure a jig would be worth the effort but I could be wrong.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

I locate the headplate and fretboard with pins as Joe suggests but I leave the headplate a little long. I fit the nut using a razor saw, various files and chisels. If you were building the same thing every time then a nut-slot jig might be useful but I don't personally see much use for one in my shop.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I leave the headplate long, and than trim nearly through it on the tablesaw setting the neck on a block of wood in front of the miter. Keeps it square, and cuts the headplate normal to the fretboard; and the last few thousandths come off easily with a chisel.

Mike

If the original question is about the slot the nut sits in on acoustic steel string guitars, I don't see a need for a jig. I create the slot by gluing the fretboard and head plate in place with locating pins so as to leave a slot slightly narrower than the thickness of the nut blank, then fit the nut to the slot by sanding it, the same as fitting the saddle to slot in the bridge.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

For those of you that pin the headplate in location, how are you making the nut edge of the headplate parallel to the nut side?

I did something similar on my first, but I had to plane the edge of the headplate so it would butt up flat against the nut, then pinned and glued it on. Worked fine, but now I find it easier to glue it on long and run it across the tablesaw with the neck surface parallel to the table. Gives me the correct edge at the correct angle with one cut,
Mike

In my case, the edge of the headplate is cut square to its centerline. The headplate is then clamped to the headstock aligned with the centerline of the headstock and dowel holes are drilled through the headplate (outside the final headstock shape) into the headstock. The headplate is removed and pins are inserted into the headstock. The headplate is then glued on. Since the end of the fretboard is square to the centerline, the slot for the nut comes out square to within 3 or 4 thousandths. Since I make the slot slightly narrower than the nut blank, I then sand the nut to fit the slot. All of this depends on having laid out the neck, fretboard, and headplate accurately with edges that are square to the centerline which is pretty straight forward if the original neck blank was jointed and squared up.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Thanks Jay,
The part I'm being dense on is the paddle is set at an angle to the fret board (6 or 10 degrees, whatever it is) so it seems like the edge that bears up against the nut would be out of plane by that angle.

Maybe on a steel string the angle is small enough it doesn't matter. My classicals have the head at 15 degrees to the neck and that 15 degree out of plane to the nut is obvious and has to be addressed.
Mike

I cut the rear edge of the head plate the same angle as the head stock. Not the best pic but you get the idea.

I forgot to mention that. That's what I do too, using the band saw. 15 degrees.

Mike - Sorry, when I read the word parallel in your post, I was thinking parallel to the nut face crosswise instead of vertically.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I have a jig that holds the headplate at the proper angle to the belt sander to sand the angle into the nut end. I also have an attachment that holds the nut for the same jig to sand the angle into the bottom as I use a slanted nut.

I clamp on a surrogate freteboard that keys off the truss rod slot, position a trial nut and butt the headplate against it. Clamp the headplate temporarily, remove the nut, measure the width of the slot at each end with calipers just to be sure and then pin the headplate with four locating brads for gluing.

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

I like the cut of your jig. (Boo, hiss, hiss).

But seriously though, the locating pins are a good idea. Putting them I'm guessing at the points where the tuner holes will be, or in the case of slots, just making sure they are in the slot location. Correct?


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Thanks for the replies

Something like this for a jig.
I seen Mike Greefield had some jig like this in his video.
Anyone else use something like this?or maybe another approach?

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"Practice enough till the results aren't hopes but expectations" forum member Peter Havriluk

What would advantage would a setup like that have? Not trying to sound critical. Just wondering.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Mike Imbler said,

"For those of you that pin the headplate in location, how are you making the nut edge of the headplate parallel to the nut side?"

There are two places you can glue the fingerboard onto the neck. The first is back the width of the nut from the turn down of the head, (the bottom of the nut sits on the neck), and the second is aligning the 0 fret edge of the fingerboard on the turn down of the headplate. (the bottom of the nut sits on the head). I do it the first way.

I glue the fingerboard down, leaving it back from the turn down point on the neck blank, the width of the nut (usually 1/4"). Next I mark the center line of the headplate and make sure that at least one side is perpendicular to the center line. I put that side against my miter gauge, tilt the blade 15 degrees or whatever the drop of the head is, and cut the headplate. Then I make sure the end of the fret board is clean, put the nut against it and then the 15 degree cut edge of the head plate. I hold it tightly together and drill 2 locating pin holes where the tuners will be and glue the headplate down using locating pins.

My nut location is all set now.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Actually I pin it outside the peghead outline but do pin the jig for shaping the peghead through the tuning machine locations.

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

After reading all of the responses, I'm not sure I understood the original question.

My process is this:

- Glue fretboard.
- Spot glue nut blank in place tightly against it with a dot of glue.
- Glue headplate tightly against nut.
- Pop the nut out by tapping it lightly from the side.
- When finishing, mask the nut area with tape.
- After finishing, clean the nut area with Stew-Mac nut seating file.

It's simple and the results are clean.

Well said!

This is how I do also, it and has always worked well.

If you glue the fretboard on first,
isn't it in the way of shaping and binding the head?

I can't speak to binding the headstock, but it wasn't particularly challenging to shape the headstock on my current guitar. I understand what you mean and thought the headstock might not lay perfectly flush to the bandsaw table, but it turned out to be a non-issue. The 15° back angle was enough to clear the fretboard.

I carefully positioned a paper template on the back of the headstock with spray adhesive, positioned the headstock face down on the bandsaw, and roughed it out. Then I fine-tuned to the line with the spindle sander. I thought the fretboard might get in the way, but the headstock sat flush with a 15° back angle and 1/4" fretboard.

I'd like to create a routing or pattern sanding template for the headstock that would mount to the headstock face. Then there'd be no chance of it being an issue.

My process is such that I start with the headstock surface in the first place. I lay the slotted fretboard on the neck blank to do my layout, so I'm marking where the nut line should be. With the fretboard in place, I butt the nut up against it, then scribe that line as well. I plane the headstock true to that line with a block plane. It could be just as easy to glue the faceplate in place, shape the headstock, spot glue the nut, glue the fretboard, tap the nut out.

In Mike Greenfields video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAeXskZHC2o he shows cutting his method of cutting the nut slot, with a verbal description, starting at 34:35.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.