A little more neck work

Classes are finally over! After long last, I have a little time to work on #4. The weather was perfect, too. It is hard to beat a sunny, 70F in central Texas in the middle of December (it almost makes up for all those summer days with temps near 100F). It felt good to go out into the shop today.

The first thing I did was finish shaping the peghead. I decided I like the shape of the last guitar (the spruce/walnut OM), so I used the same template again.

I used the pins to locate the template, then added some tape to make sure nothing moved around while shaping. A few minutes on the router and the peghead is pretty much done. All that is left is to finish the part where it blends into the nut and neck.

The next step was to glue on the fingerboard. First, I put a few drops of silicone adhesive in the truss rod slot to avoid the possibility of any weird vibrations.

Next, I add a little shim on top of the truss rod about in the middle of the rod. Some builders cover the entire rod with a shim, but that seems like overkill to me. Finally I cover the entire truss rod slot with some cellophane tape. I use that to keep the glue from getting down into the slot and getting into the threads on the truss rod. If you look closely you can see the guide pins I use to keep the fingerboard from skating around when I glue it on. I use epoxy to glue the FB.

And here it is all clamped up. The weather is supposed to turn cold tonight, so I will bring it in the house after the epoxy sets.