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After watching the benedetto archtop dvds on neck shaping, realized that I have to find a quicker way to do the heel shaping on my ukes/guitars.It seems to me to take forever. I rough shape on bandsaw ,then carve the heel with violin knives, coarse rasp, fine vlnmakers rasp. and then switch to scrapers and then final shaping with 80 grit to 220 or 320. I/ve skipped the vln knives and started using 1-2in in dia 4in long spindle sander discs 80 grit mounted in a wooden dowel, to work on the heel transition, Even though I own a spindle sander and 6by 48 sander I/ve always felt nervous about shaping the heel with one , as I saw benedetto using the sanding machine to shape the heel. Anyone out there have suggestions.?? I could do a mock 2 by 4 neck and practice shaping on the belt sander.Also noticed that he uses many different grit belts on sander from 60 to 120 plus a vy coarse 36 grit block to shape the roundovers on the maple neck. Some use a dedicated shaper to do this job , But I don/t own one.

I use 24 grit discs on my angle grinder, then switch to 100 grit. Then some detail work with hand tools and my sander.

I would NOT recommend this technique to anyone. I've been shaping wood with this tool for many years and have experience to control it.

I would recommend making some practice guitar neck heel section and practice with a bunch of tooling options, with no fear of total disaster, till you get good and fast with them .

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I use a 3" sanding spindle in the drill press and finish up with the ROS.

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

Benedetto also removes the waste material from his guitar necks with a bandsaw. It looked terrifying to me, until I tried it. Now, I wouldn't do it any other way, especially with a hard-to-carve wood like hard maple.

I also do a lot of my heel-shaping on my 6x48 sander. If you are leery of taking off too much wood, start with 120 grit instead of 36 or 60. Work up your nerve, and then go to 80. I find 80 grit to be about as coarse as I would go.

Make up a test block out of scrap material similar to your heel block, and just go for it. It's not that bad.

There are some people who do their rough shaping with a Lancelot on an angle grinder. I have never, ever, had that kind of courage, but maybe someday...

Sanding drum in a hand drill after rough shaping with a chisel.Lots of folks use the drum end of large belt sanders. Sanding seems to be the easiest way to rapid stock removal with good control that leaves a nice blended surface.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

spindle sander in a 3/8" electric drill.

Love the results. Hate the protective gear needed (dust mask, ear muffs, eye protection and a dust collector.)

Dave

On straight grained woods, I use a draw knife to rough in the shape, before I move to rasps (I recently got a pair of Arious that are really nice). The draw knife was the main tool of choice for the guys who shaped necks by hand all day at Martin, back when they did them all this way, and for good reason. It is FAST, but the potential for disaster is always present, so practice on scraps is a good idea. Tip: Bevel down!

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Sorry if this is too basic, but I do a lot of the aggressive removal based on primary, then secondary bevels. From the desired final shape, you can calculate on paper the extents of the primary (45degree) relative to centerline & fingerboard, and draw on the neck. This could be quickly flattened a number of ways (I just use a good rasp). Then the secondaries done the same way. This leaves a faceted neck & heel, confidently symetrical, for you to proceed with final fairing & smoothing.

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Dave
Milton, ON

Makita 9031 after rough cutting on the bandsaw. Face it. Your going to end up destroying and having to rework a piece of wood at some point. Don't work with expensive woods until you feel secure. Never put your fingers at risk. Except for your personal saftey, fear is the enemy. Make some sawdust.

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Christopher Morley

Like the sanding drum routine so will practice with an air angle grinder with a 1/4in dia by 1.5in L sanding drum. I have a lancelot, but was using that to carve chairseats with the sanding disk on a angle grinder. The heel profiles on ukes are small and delciate.Will use a small 1/2in drum in a dremel tool

Here's a way to get the initial profile.

http://kennedyguitars.com/_Kennedy_Guit ... e_Jig.html

I then go to final shape and blend into the shaft with chisels, hand held drum sander, rasps, and scraper/sandpaper in roughly that order.

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

terrence vy slick jig.Is that a 3in drum.??never thought of reversing the template on the robosander

I put a course belt on the belt sander and hog off lots of the wood using the roller end of the belt as shown on John Mayes videos, this and a few other tricks I picked up from the DVDs was well worth the cost. Then the usual sanding and rasp techniques.

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

If you adopt the shape of the heel used on many Gibson acoustics you could shape the neck and heel with a router bit.

Yes 3" but any size works, I'm using a smaller one now which works just as well. I just dedicate it to heel shaping.

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