I've been making gits for 3 years now, and have over 70 under my belt.. I have yet to make a laminated neck, or a wider headstock... but would like to on an upcoming build.
I have been doing a bit of reading on grain, crowning, etc.
With my cabinet saw, I can make pretty accurate cuts, but I don't have a planer to get the strips perfect.
Where would YOU start? I have access to maple, oak, mahogany,etc. (mostly flatsawn)
Just looking to up my game a bit...
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The factory faces aren't too bad for laminating up a headstock, I take the neck cutoff, split it and glue factory face to either side of the headstock.
Adding contrasting laminations under the fingerboard can also help with increasing the break angle over the nut/raise the saddle and make your build more interesting
Fomhorach > Michael Fred JohnsonOctober 11, 2016 at 1:25am
If I attempted that it would be disastrous. That's truly skillful.
For laminating necks a planer and thicknesser are great (but expensive) tools, but everything can be done by hand. All you need is a decent bench, a good sharp plane, a long steel straightedge and a good try-square. I made my first couple of hundred guitars with mainly hand tools, apart from a cheap pillar drill, it just takes longer to do, that's all. Quite often I'll take a 6 foot length of timber, cut it in half, flip the timber so the grain of the two parts of the neck are as near symmetrical as I can get it and use a contrasting centre stripe. Use plenty of good cast iron C clamps when glueing up. Glue a 1/4 inch hardwood fretboard on top and you'll have a good looking and strong neck. It's really worth seeking out a good woodyard and building up a working relationship with them - my local one will cut and plane to size free.
Stewmac.com has a lot of instructional videos on site that you can look through and watch. Very helpful. Also Youtube videos can be very helpful as well.
I often use a bench top jointer to even up the strips for a neck like this. They run around 100 bucks for the cheapies. In lieu of that a hand planer would be my next choice. If you have a high quality blade on the cabinet saw you might be able to get by without either of the above. I love laminated necks for the beauty of contrasting wood and the added strength.
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Not bad for my first try...
The factory faces aren't too bad for laminating up a headstock, I take the neck cutoff, split it and glue factory face to either side of the headstock.
Adding contrasting laminations under the fingerboard can also help with increasing the break angle over the nut/raise the saddle and make your build more interesting
If I attempted that it would be disastrous. That's truly skillful.
It ain't really,it's just layers of contrasting timbers
For laminating necks a planer and thicknesser are great (but expensive) tools, but everything can be done by hand. All you need is a decent bench, a good sharp plane, a long steel straightedge and a good try-square. I made my first couple of hundred guitars with mainly hand tools, apart from a cheap pillar drill, it just takes longer to do, that's all. Quite often I'll take a 6 foot length of timber, cut it in half, flip the timber so the grain of the two parts of the neck are as near symmetrical as I can get it and use a contrasting centre stripe. Use plenty of good cast iron C clamps when glueing up. Glue a 1/4 inch hardwood fretboard on top and you'll have a good looking and strong neck. It's really worth seeking out a good woodyard and building up a working relationship with them - my local one will cut and plane to size free.
Stewmac.com has a lot of instructional videos on site that you can look through and watch. Very helpful. Also Youtube videos can be very helpful as well.
Or am I over engineering this...
I often use a bench top jointer to even up the strips for a neck like this. They run around 100 bucks for the cheapies. In lieu of that a hand planer would be my next choice. If you have a high quality blade on the cabinet saw you might be able to get by without either of the above. I love laminated necks for the beauty of contrasting wood and the added strength.