Fender-style headstock thickness & transition

zenman · #1 05-19-2008, 10:57 AM

I'm building my second Fender-style bolt-on neck, and in general, I am pretty comfortable with most aspects of their construction: Flat-sawn neck, two-way truss rod, fretboard. But the biggest problem that I'm having is thicknessing the headstock and ending up with a nice flat headstock face and a nice smooth radius up to the fretboard.

For my first neck, I bandsawed to thickness, as in Hiscock's book, & then flattened & radiused with a hand-held belt sander. Nice smooth radius, thickness & flatness of the headstock not so nice.

The second one I thicknessed with the router, and again used the belt sander to do the radius & flatten the headstock. Better, but the headstock is not as flat and smooth up through the radius to the fretboard as I would like.

Maybe I just need more practice with the belt sander, but how do the rest of you handle this part of the neck build?

Thanks,
Dennis

SDB Guitars · #2 05-19-2008, 02:35 PM

Maybe I'm missing something? When I do that style, I just rough it out on the bandsaw (with a blank/square headstock, before cutting out the shape), then use either a belt sander or (now) my spindle sander to clean it up.

The belt sander would be ideal because you just lay the face of the ehadstock down flat on the belt, and slide it forward so that the "transition" area is against the idler roller at the end of the belt. This will give you that nice curved transition, and a flat headstock. You just have to make sure you have nice even pressure so you don't thin one side more than the other.

**Rodent** · #3 05-19-2008, 03:00 PM

I rough the thickness with a bandsaw. I then add the transition radius and fine tune the thickness with an oscillating drum sander

all the best,

R

SDB Guitars · #4 05-19-2008, 03:04 PM

That's how I do it now... I *used* to use a belt sander.

I don't know how I got along for all those years without an oscillating spindle sander, but I sure can't seem to live without it, now... lol

zenman · #5 05-19-2008, 03:16 PM

Thanks for the replys guys!

Shawn, I think the only thing you might have been missing was the hand-held part of my belt sander. It works fine, but it is really hard to keep it flat and not gouge the piece. I'm sure a larger stationary belt sander would work better.

Tell me, when using the spindle sander, do you guys use a fence of some find to keep the neck parallel with the spindle or what?

Dennis

**Rodent** · #6 05-19-2008, 03:34 PM

exactly - look at the image and notice that use two key items

* a wooden straight edge clamped to the spindle sander face (marked fretboard press in the image) ... this is my depth gauge that also serves to keep the headstock moving in a straigh line

* a fence to keep the neck blank perpendicular to the sander face ... I clamp the neck blank to this fence, which also serves as my fence when bookmatching tops on the bandsaw.

sliding the fence along the straight edge gives me uniform exposure to the sanding drum. when I need to decrease the headstock thickness I slightly loosen the straight edge clamp and tap it in somewhere between a few thousandths to a full 1/16" at most. the secret is not to attempt to remove too much wood in any one bite - the neck will go flying across the room in this case.

I also ensure that the drum direction is from the fretboard and towards the headstock so as not to chip the fretboard

it's really a simple set-up that has the benefit of being easy to manuver and wonderfully accurate while costing me absolutely nothing to make (since I am reusing parts from other jigs)

all the best,

R

zenman · #7 05-19-2008, 07:36 PM

Thanks Rodent. The pictures don't always show up when I'm on TB from work. I wasn't able to see the image until I got home. All is clear now.

Dennis

eleonn · #8 05-19-2008, 08:04 PM

Ill hickjack (as usual) the thread a little bit. Whats the advantage of the oscillating spindle sander vs a spindle sander?

**Rodent** · #9 05-19-2008, 09:09 PM

one of the biggest advantages is that you significantly reduce the problems of sanding tubes having one or two grits larger/higher than the surrounding ones. if you've ever been victim of this, you know the frustration of having that gouge line run all along your sanded surface

the other advantages are that the paper loads less and you have less heat build-up

all the best,

R

gfried84 · #10 05-19-2008, 09:28 PM

I use the same method and get great results. With the oscillating spindle sander I get such a good finish that very little finish sanding is necessary. I used to use a drum on my drill press but as rodent said the sanding scratches were too much to deal with as I always find that area hard to sand.

SDB Guitars · #11 05-19-2008, 09:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eleonn

Ill hickjack (as usual) the thread a little bit. Whats the advantage of the oscillating spindle sander vs a spindle sander?

Bear in mind you are often using fairly coarse grits... the oscillating action decreases the visible scratches by not having them in a straight line, but rather criss-crossing over themselves; you don't have horizontal grooves showing up, which you will find with standard spindles as they "load up" with sanding dust. It also seems to speed up the sanding process over what you find with a non-oscillating drum.

***EDIT*** damn, I sat on that "reply" page for a long time... everything I've said has already been said, I guess... lol