Butt join

[mac007]

I find myself facing a butt join having not allowed for the top plate when drilling the tenon holes for a bolt join ie missed by about 3mm.
Do butt joins usually rout out a section of the neck to reduce the contact area to reduce the sanding area when adjusting the pitch/yaw?
Lots of words there Taffy will know what I'm talking about

Thanks in advance

Mac

[Mark McLean]

Yes, it is a good idea to hollow out the flat face of the heel - the face that contacts the sides at the neck joint - so that you have a small surface area around the edge to floss for the fitting process. But that doesn't fix your 3mm height issue. To fix that I would enlarge the holes in the neck block, essentially making them vertical slots rather than holes, which would allow you to slide the neck higher and situate the fretboard extension on top of the soundboard. If the heads of the bolts are big enough, or if you use big washers and counter-bore the holes you won't be able to see the enlarged holes on the inside. The worst case scenario is that the heel cap doesn't sit at the same level as the back (there are lots of guitars like that anyway), or you need to add a very thick heel cap to get it level.

[mac007]

thanks Mark

[Taffy Evans]

Hi Mac, I have been out of town dealing with a family emergency, I have just returned to my computer.

However, Mark has answered your questions exactly as I would have. I mark the holes for the neck threaded inserts after the top is on and the guitar is "boxed up".

Cheers Taff

[Mark McLean]

On the OLF forum Ed Bond recently posted a nice photo to illustrate that idea of slightly routing out the centre of the heel and leaving a rim which is the actual mating face against the guitar body. It would be a real pain to try to floss the entire heel block to get the right angles but this makes it manageable. If you are using threaded inserts for bolts you need to install them deep enough that you can rout or carve out some stock without hitting them. (Threaded inserts are not my favorite hardware, I prefer barrel nuts).

Taffy - I hope the family situation has resolved OK. You never know what is coming next.