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I've been looking at neck setting jigs, some people REALLY love their products. I'm not paying $300 for some baltic birch, no matter how good.

Suggestions, I'm on a tight budget...

Thanks
-Paul-

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-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

What's wrong with birch ply?

You can make your own I think Lance a plan for sale.

To put the Birch price in perspective

http://www.luthiertool.com/neck_angle_jig.html

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

I built one by watching the video from Robbie O'Brien over and over again. I purchased the templates from LMI for the M/T joint. The rest was about 40 bucks of plywood, hinges, cork, angle iron and bolts.

I've since traded up for the luthiertools jig that Ken links to.


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Nothing, I love using it. my point was that I'm poor, and paying over $300 for a jig is a little much for my tastes. Thanks for the link I'll take a look.

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-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

This jig has served me very well for 13 years. Copied from Charles Fox's shop after I took the course. Probably $40 in materials plus the StewMac templates. I love fibercore for jigs (MDF laminated with wood veneer. Birch is best.). Flat and won't warp.

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

We use Mr. Woolson's jig made from the OLF plans to handle coarse trimming of the neck dovetail or tenon, and a separate shop-made jig for cutting the body socket or mortise. We are making up a couple more Woolson/OLF jigs (two for local builders and one for a student), and materials cost with higher grade materials (phenolic covered die board, Bessey/Armor auto-adjusted toggle clamps, corrected version of StewMac M&T templates in Lexan CNC machined by yet another local builder) appears to be under $140 per unit, assuming I did the bill of materials order correctly.

One thing to note for jigs which reference body geometry to set neck joint milling angle (including Mr. Fox's, Mr. Woolson's, and the derivative offerings from LMII and Luthier Tools) is that they are only accurate when the heel is untapered or the neck mounting area is dead flat for the entire width of the neck at the body fret. With a nicely curved neck area on the body and a tapered heel, a correction based on the degree of heel taper and the curvature of the body in the neck area must be added to the angle set by the jig.

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We have become a civilization that elevates idiots, prostitutes, and clowns. Am I still to defend it? Yes, for its principles. Yes, for what it was. Yes, for what it still may be.

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I'll pick up the plans for that one, I really like MDO for jigs, (Medium Density Overlay), they use it for signs. All my rolling pieces for the large shop equipment use that, good stuff.

Thanks for the advice, Tired of doing it by hand.s

-Paul-

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-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

I like my jig from LMI. It's top heavy and unstable until you have it clamped to your work surface, but it was a good price. You still have to fit the width of the tenon slightly after routing, but the geometry is spot on.


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I made this one a few years back from watching the video on you tube. All parts were scrap except the "angle aluminum" and it cost about $10. I used 3/16" plastic panel (also scrap) for the mortise and tenon templates. I though I would upgrade a while back and buy dovetail templates from LMI but when I got them they were so close to what I was using I decided to keep what I was using. If you want those (unused), I'll sell them for $20 + shipping. (LMI PART SKU/SPMTD)

Here's the jig, just not sure why it rotated from my picture folder:

I looked at their jig, I like it quite a bit, but I would need to make my own inserts. I've been using my own tenon layout for a long time, I have a good number of necks and tenons already fitted just waiting for guitars...

I appreciate the off though

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-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

This is what I love about this site and the Luthier community in general, everyone helps everyone, it's always been that way.

-Paul-

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-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

you get what you pay for. cheap tools are a cost. I made mine off plans but I can see the value of the ones all ready to go

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it