Wood Butchery III - Y.A.T.B. (Yet Another Telecaster Build) DONE!

Misterg

Following on from the success of Wood Butchery I and Wood Butchery II ...

Just when you thought it was safe to.... erm... whatever... I got it into my head that I fancied having a go at making a traditional one piece Telecaster maple neck - No good reason that I can think of, just one-of-those-things.

I'm probably getting over-confident by posting this before I've finished the build, but at least a reasonable number of people will be entertained when I cock it up!

So it started... here...

Maple blank from ebay and headstock templates from the excellent TDPRI forum:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/Begin_zps1ae64569.jpg

One edge planed flat and square - this will form the reference for fitting the truss rod and slotting the fretboard.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2935_zps6eacb378.jpg

I wanted to do a vintage style truss rod with heel adjutment (again, no good reason), but I couldn't find any plans for this. There was a drawing for a Strat neck  (again on TDPRI : Factory neck drawing ):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck Building/StratNeckBlueprint.jpg

OK, it's for a Strat, but I understand that the truss rod channel is the same shape (or at least very similar)... and it's for a headstock adjust, rather than heel adjust...

The channel has slightly different start and end points for a heel adjust rod - more space is needed at the body end for the adjuster, and a bit less space at the headstock end. As far as I can tell from photos, the channel should run from just under the 1st fret to roughly between the outer pair of neck mounting screws for a heel adjust neck.

The depth channel is formed from two different curves: 255" radius towards the heel and 115" radius towards the headstock. I plugged these, and the depth of the channel at the mid-point into Excel to work out the measurments for a couple of curved rails that would vary the depth of cut along the length of the channel as I ran the router over them:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2972_zps41b8485e.jpg

(Incidentally, I couldn't get the dimensions on the above drawing to work out - the radius and the 0.715" dimension seem to be mutually exclusive - the depth of the channel at the 1st fret works out at 0.715" with the radius/centre depth shown- YMMV)

I didn't bother making any fancy jigs, just screwed the rails to the neck blank and set about routing the slot:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2941_zpse9718483.jpg

Cock-up number one - I wasn't holding the router tightly enough against the work on the first pass, and the router pulled off line (I also stopped the channel at the wrong mark - Doh!):

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2945_zps6b864fb0.jpg

Repair #1:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2949_zps56019c00.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2952_zps4e458119.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2957_zpse841f475.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2969_zps2edcdc21.jpg

Misterg

Next up, cutting the fret slots...

I have a Japanese pull saw (ex B&Q) that seems to be OK for cutting fret slots. I built myself a mitre box with a steel rule taped to the base to keep the saw square to the neck:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2973_zps0bc71e32.jpg

The chunk missing from the top of the blank is the bit I cut off to repair the wayward truss rod slot, and the cuts in the blank are where I was checking the mitre box was square to the true edge of the neck.

I don't trust myself to mark measurements accurately, so I fixed a razor blade to the end of the neck and used this against the steel rule to measure the locations for the fret slots. Each time, I also measured the fret-to-fret distance just to double check!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2976_zps98ef03a1.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2977_zpsd6e5728f.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2978_zpsd0b8d146.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2980_zpsf1e59b18.jpg

I thought I may as well commit heresy while I was at it:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2981_zps8eff32d2.jpg

Once the slots were cut, I could mark out the outline of the neck and saw it roughly to shape:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2983_zpsb2fa2a34.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2984_zpsfc7af80f.jpg

racefaceec90

looking good :-) looking forward to seeing the finished guitar. 

thermionic

That neck looks very wide to me - are you trying to muscle in on the sausage-fingered farmer and builder market?

Looking forward to see how this proceeds, wow awarded.

Misterg

racefaceec90 said:

looking good :-) looking forward to seeing the finished guitar. 

You and me both, pal!

thermionic said:

That neck looks very wide to me - are you trying to muscle in on the sausage-fingered farmer and builder market?

Dang! Busted! And I was going to call it finished, too!

Misterg

I stuck the headstock template onto some thin ply and marked out the rest of the neck for a 43mm nut and the 2 3/16" heel width.

Got a bit close to the line when I was roughing it out and had to un-cut some wood:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3003_zps192d3ef2.jpg

To the router table...

(Actually it's a piece of plywood with a hole in it that my router drops into)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2997_zpsd03b9d0c.jpg

I straightened up the edges of the neck template with the router, sanded the headstock to shape, then fixed the neck template to the blank with a screw through the tuner hole and another through the waste at the heel of the neck

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3004_zps121c3c73.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3006_zps7f9699d5.jpg

I could then cut one half of the neck to the template with a bottom bearing guided cutter, then flip it over and put the top bearing back on the cutter to do the other half:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3007_zps9a7aaf7c.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3009_zpsa8ce2608.jpg

Things started going a bit pear-shaped at the end of the headstock (I sort of expected them to - this maple seems to burn *really* easily). I quit before I buggered things up completely, and finished it off with the sander

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3010_zpse7e3cb41.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3016_zps2e36cef6.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3013_zpsf66f32b0.jpg

Not too bad otherwise

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3014_zps026d5601.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3015_zpse5225342.jpg

Slight line where the cuts overlapped, but looks worse than it is.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3012_zpsca820c2e.jpg

I drilled the tuner holes after setting up a fence on the drill press to keep them a straight line

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3017_zpsf1181c8d.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3019_zps32ebf41d.jpg

And checked that the tuners would fit (nasty Chinese Klusson copies bought from evil bay in a drunken moment of weakness)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3022_zps4efba43d.jpg

Pleased with that!

Misterg

Before disturbing the drill press, I also maked and drilled the pilot holes for the tuner screws (in an effort to keep them in a straight line).

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3023_zpsf70bb043.jpg


I could now cut the headstock down

Marked the finished thickness (0.6" IIRC)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3024_zps3196ca84.jpg

Then cut down to the line at about an inch behind the nut (this bit will eventually be sanded away, so the position isn't critical - as long as the cut isn't too deep)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3025_zpsf5a11b1f.jpg

Then very carefully used the router to carve away the surplus

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3029_zps76b57903.jpg

Looks a bit rough, but it cleaned up quickly with the plane

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3030_zps6cccf03d.jpg

After a bit of trial and error on some maple offcuts to find the right drill size, I could counterbore the tuner holes for the bushes.  (I was lucky that I had a stepped drill bit that was just the right size to centre itself in the tuner holes and drill pretty much the right size for the bushings - the holes just needed deepening slightly with the right sized drill bit afterwards).

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3031_zps05c2a290.jpg

Now for the difficult bit ...

There needs to be a ~10mm hole from the headstock to within about an inch of the end of the truss rod channel to take the truss rod anchor, and then a ~6mm hole from there, along the same axis, for the truss rod to run through and into the bottom of the truss rod channel. From my Excel sheet, I knew what angle the hole needed to be at, and, knowing where my vertical cut was on the headstock, could work out what height the hole needed to start at. (That's the theory, at least...)

I made up an accurately square block, marked the hole height and angle on it and, while it was still square, I drilled a 10mm hole through it, then planed away the angle:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3033_zps043e2a12.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3035_zps021bde26.jpg

(I think I must have had a re-think between marking out and taking the second photo !)

In theory, then, all I needed to do was to clamp it to the headstock, on the centre line and up against the vertical cut, then follow the 10mm hole through to the right depth.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3036_zps6d328656.jpg

There's only about an inch to drill with the 6mm bit, so it's not too bad to keep it centred in the larger hole

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3037_zps3a3c8d97.jpg

Bugger me! It seems to have worked!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3042_zpse4d4990e.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3050_zps0e948886.jpg

Not perfect, but close enough for rock and roll

DannyP

Have a Wow on me.

Misterg

DannyP said:

Have a Wow on me.

Cheers!

AlanP

Great work!

Where did you get that device you used to "extend" the drill bit?

I'm going to need to drill a (maybe) 6mm hole through a guitar as a cable route, entering at the neck pocket and going through the neck pup route to the bridge pup route.  I'm sure there's a suitable solution for that (I'm not sure where to source really long drill bits) - what should I use?

Thanks

Alan

Misterg

AlanP said:

Great work!

Where did you get that device you used to "extend" the drill bit?

Thanks!

I thought I'd been clever buying a long drill bit (ebay), but forgot about the headstock interfering with the drill chuck :-/

The drill bit extender is something sold for extending 'spade' type wood drills - probably came from Screwfix ages ago:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/flat-bit-300mm-extension/16769

It's probably meant for a 1/4" drill shank, but worked acceptably on a 6mm drill bit at the low speed of a battery drill.

I don't think it would work for what you want, though, because you need to drill a very deep hole.

You might find a long enough bit (maybe 10mm though) in a decent builders' merchant, but the lazy answer is ebay:

8mm x 300mm

8mm x 600mm

(I'm sure there are 6mm ones there somewhere, too)

AlanP

Cheers. Alan

Misterg

I cut the neck to length (Strat neck length for the 22nd fret). I didn't cut the heel to its final shape as I was concerned that the narrow strip of wood near the radiused corners would chip off when fitting 22nd fret.

I could then made another block to match the angle of the hole in the neck heel (1.6° - headstock was 3.6°). Then I threw that block away, because I'd forgotten that the angle went in the opposite direction... (

New block made, marking the drill bit for the correct [1] depth of the adjuster hole:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3053_zps1408a017.jpg

[1] It wasn't. More later.

Then drilled it as before, and followed up with the 6mm drill to break into the truss rod channel

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3054_zps17b129c4.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3056_zps156f6e8e.jpg

A little off to one side, but not too bad.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3057_zpsaf6e8f50.jpg

About this time, I drilled the the other side of the neck for the position markers and superglued them in place (just short lengths of plastic potentiometer shafts that I had been hoarding).

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3077_zps44975972.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3078_zpsd9606a42.jpg

looked OK when they were trimmed off and sanded flush.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3106_zpse0680a04.jpg

I could have bought a vintage truss rod, but B&Q sell 5mm steel rod for a couple of quid, so all I needed to find was something for the headstock anchor and the adjuster. By sheer luck, I happened to see a bucket full of little hex adjusters in the scrappy and asked (yes, really) if I could pinch a handful. They were already threaded M5, so I just needed to knock the corners off the hexagon.

They even join together so that you can hold one in the drill chuck and screw another one on and and attack it with file.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2963_zpscaca35cc.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3080_zps79281da4.jpg

Gives you an adjuster with a snazzy hex end [2]:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3085_zpsaab4e8a9.jpg

And with a bit of additional hacksawing and filing, an anchor:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2962_zps097cab46.jpg

[2] which turned out to be a flawed idea

The rod from B&Q came with a shear mark on the end which turned out to be the ideal tool to use as a scraper to blend my 6mm truss rod holes smoothly into the channel (I broke my nice, new, long 6mm drill bit trying to use it for the same purpose )

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3045_zpsf3b4fa56.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3052_zps0ae73d45.jpg

Scraping done, I could saw the end of the rod off clean and tap it M5. The metal is really hard (I guess it's cold drawn) so it was essential to back the die off and break the chips every 1/4 turn, or so.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2960_zps248f13df.jpg

I had to resort to heating the very end of the rod on the gas stove to make it soft enough to peen over and secure the anchor

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3067_zps396d064b.jpg

I inserted the truss rod into the necktemporarily and used a punch to seat the anchor (it was a nice, snug fit), marked where the other end of the rod came out of the neck, knocked it back out again, cut the rod about 6mm shorter than the mark [3] and threaded it for the adjuster nut:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3070_zps9468c187.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3087_zps5b2b1835.jpg

Everything seemed to fit perfectly

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3088_zps05e45230.jpg

[3] Can you guess where this is going yet?

Eager to press on, I cut a piece of wood for the skunk stripe ("Mahogany" of some sort, as I had some) and spent a while planing it down and sanding it until it was a nice snug fit in the truss rod channel. It took me about 3 attempts before I got the radiussed end anywhere close to matching the end of the channel (only the headstock end needs to match, as the other end is hidden in the neck joint). It's made harder because the end of the channel is at 90 degrees to the truss rod, not 90 degrees to the back of the neck. One other 'gotcha' I found, is that when the strip is close to being the right size, it slides a long way into the truss rod channel, sticks, and doesn't leave you anything to grip to get it out again. Having spent ages trying to get it to this stage, it is quite a perplexing problem to extract the strip without mangling it.

Once it fits, one edge is trimmed to match the curve of the truss rod. I also marked the depth from the back of the neck to the the truss rod at a few points on the side of the strip so I could make sure that it had been inserted fully when it came to glue time.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3094_zpsf453fe91.jpg

So with the truss rod waxed, fitted to the neck, the anchor seated, and a little tension applied to the rod to make sure it was snug against the bottom of the channel, I proceeded to glue the strip into place - just a sparing amount of glue to avoid gunking up the truss rod.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3095_zpse5d898df.jpg

The depth marks all worked out OK.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3096_zps1bf6221b.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3097_zps4bde08dd.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3098_zpsd435d037.jpg

I didn't think there would be any problem picking up a length of 10mm diameter dark hardwood dowel to plug the hole in the headstock, but nobody locally seemed to have any at all. I did find some hardwood dowel in a model shop, but it was very light in colour, undersized and not even round.

So I made some

I'd made some dowels before by the brute force approach of bashing square pegs into round holes, but I found this 'pencil sharpener' technique on teh internets and it works staggeringly, amagingly, fantastically well:

You need a block of wood with a hole in the same size as your finished dowel in one side, and a larger hole that your stock will fit into on the other. You then cut into the block to just  meet the dowel sized hole and clamp a wide chisel or plane iron at an angle over the top.

Put a length of roughly sized stock into a drill and feed it through the jig.

This is the jig and the first dowel I made. It was only supposed to be a practice, but it came out spot on!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3101_zps3de92e8d.jpg

And it was long enough to do the job:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3102_zpsaeceee64.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3103_zps8c0f155f.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3105_zps4c45da78.jpg

Misterg

Before I finished off the transition from the headstock to the nut, I wanted to radius the fretboard while there was still plenty of support around the nut area (snigger...)

I fancied trying a compound radius - something like 7.5" to about 12".

I planned to work out how much I would need to remove to get the right radius at each end of the neck (assuming the centre was un-touched), mark the edges of the neck blank with the depth that needed to be removed at each end, then plane down to the marks smoothy, blending centre to edge.

Now I know how compound radius boards are supposed to work, but it still came as a complete 'Doh!' moment when I worked out that the depth of the tight radius at the narrow end of the neck was the same as the depth of the shallow radius at the wide end of the neck - err... yes... that's what they're supposed to do!

You need to basically need to plane along the string lines (rather than parallel to the neck), and the shape just sort of emerges.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3117_zps48a3c0de.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3115_zpsf6e111f4.jpg

The headstock end looks lop-sided because there's still excess wood (which will be removed when the headstock transition is finished) on the right hand side of the photo. I'd planed this to a steeper angle to keep it out of the way.

With that done, I could finish off the headstock transition. 1st a saw cut at roughly the right angle:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3118_zps2ca91202.jpg

Then some VERY carefull attention from the belt sander:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3120_zps6e06a20d.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3124_zpse9aed152.jpg

And with a bit more sanding:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3134_zpsd40dfc94.jpg

Before I could fret the neck, I needed to cut the fret slots to a set depth across the radiussed neck. I used a stop on saw to try and keep this consistent. The photo also shows one of the perils of doing it this way, in that if you're a little off starting the saw (or stop concentrating), you can catch the edge of the slot, rather than following the original line. Not disasterous in this case, but annoying!

 http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3142_zpsbdfee202.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3143_zpse0e9950c.jpg

The fretboard was now sanded to 400 grit:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3145_zpsf368cb27.jpg

Misterg

I bought my fret wire as straight lengths, so needed to pre-bend it before fitting.

Two ball bearing races, some blind pulleys and some time spent juggling washers and spacers got me this:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2939_zpsbe04964b.jpg

...which worked quite well for bending frets, but as it bedded in, the bend radius changed!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_2940_zpsa74e0d34.jpg

(I could even pretend that it was deliberate to suit the compound radius neck but nobody would believe me).

What I hadn't banked on was losing an inch, or so, on each length of wire where it was threaded into or out of the machine - I'd only got five 12" lengths, which would have been tight for 21 frets, but was touch-and-go for 22 - I marked out each length of bent wire in each position until I found a combination where I could cut 22 frets while avoiding the kinks near the start and end of the curve (hence the marker pen all over the frets).

The frets were bent to a tighter radius than the neck so that the ends seated first (as is normal practice). I still couldn't bring myself to hit the frets directly (and don't have a decent soft faced hammer) so I compromised and used a hardwood block over the fret to cushion the hammer blows.

I managed to not to mangle any frets and this went pretty well - the frets seemed to be well seated and tight in the neck. It was so much easier than trying to get the frets into the ebony board of my Firebird.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3146_zpsbf6b5b53.jpg

This next bit comes under the heading of "Things I Wish I Hadn't Done"...

I'd always intended to fill the gaps under the fret tangs with superglue, but I had the bright idea of running this in before filing down the fret ends, so that there was less chance of loosening the frets when I filed the ends off (not that they seemed loose). I clamped the neck at the edge of the fretboard, ready to file the fret ends, then went at it with the superglue, then filed the fret ends off:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3153_zpsa5e6d415.jpg

When I took the clamps off, I saw to my dismay that the glue had run down the sides of the frets, as well as along the slot

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3152_zps9b934f9f.jpg

I tried to clean and scrape off as much as I could, but I'm expecting problems here when it comes to applying a finish.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3155_zps639c58d4.jpg

Now I could turn my attention to finishing off the heel of the neck, and I had another one of those "Oh Shit!" moments when I realised that I'd done all the truss rod cutting and drilling without taking into account that the neck heel should have a step in it so that a 22 fret neck will fit on a standard Tele body. (

I could just have cut the neck pocket in the body to suit, but wanted to keep things 'standard' as much as possible (in case the body or neck turned out to be worth keeping). The adjuster nut sticking out a bit doesn't really casue a problem (I could always cut it down slightly), but the length of the truss rod was a PITA, as it extended beyond the cut line for the step so: (a) I couldn't use the router to cut the step and (b) the adjuster nut would have to extend out of the step so that the rod stayed clear of the screwdriver slot.

In the end, I  carefully cut away as much as possible with the pull saw, then finished off with a junior hacksaw with the set hammered out of the blade to get through the truss rod.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3512_zpsbfd1e559.jpg

I think it'll tidy up OK.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3513_zps055eac19.jpg

Evilmags

Those are some skills there. Bloody hell...

Misterg

Thanks

Misterg

Time to start on the back of the neck (I love doing this bit).

I'd decide to aim for a 57 'soft V' type of profile (chart from TDPRI):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/mellecaster/Nitty Gritty/FenderProfiles.jpg

This meant tapering the neck thickness by about 3mm from the heel to the nut. I was keen to keep the shape under control for as long as possible, so did this by packing up one end of the neck and running it over the router with the cutter slightly raised

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3508_zps016e5832.jpg

Stopping before the nut, of course...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3510_zps73335d0f.jpg

Then I sketched a couple of "facets" onto the 12th fret & 1st fret profiles that would be the first stage of roughing the neck out, and transferred the edges of the first facet onto the neck blank and set about it with a rasp:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3515_zpsce676afd.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3516_zps513cd0d0.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3517_zps52a48eb9.jpg

I could then mark the edges of the second 'facet' and do the same:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3518_zps678e6f88.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3519_zps371e4e2b.jpg

Somewhat annoyingly, I cut into a resin pocket, or something in the maple

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3520_zpsa82f27fe.jpg

I blended the 'facets' mostly by using sandpaper, but did start using a spoke-shave. It was good to see that the glue between the skunk stripe and the neck had worked:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3536_zpsedb8cb58.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3521_zps15814cae.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/TC/DSC_3522_zps17bfb383.jpg

There's still quite a bit to come off here, and a lot of tidying to be done at either end, but (like I said) I like doing this bit

close2u

Amazing work Andy.
Serious wow.

thermionic

Amazing work on that neck and making a truss rod from scratch.

I did think at one point "shouldn't there be a tongue at the end, he said there were 22 frets?" I guess you had to saw off a bit of the thread? Good work saving that!

jd0272

Excellent! This is the sort of thread I likes.