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This is how I cut a scarf jointed neck

#21
Techmonkey said:
Would it matter if my headstock and neck were the same width when I glued them together? So if I got the blank, drew the neck in, but didn't cut it, created the scarf joint, then cut the neck up to where the headstock starts?
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It's hard to understand what you're saying. You are gluing up the scarf and then cutting the neck and headstock, or you are cutting one of them to shape first?
 
#22
I'm creating the scarf joint before doing anything else to my neck except planning it out and drawing on the points where I'm going to cut. So the width of the headstock and the width of the neck will remain consistent all the way down the neck. Then I'm going to shape the neck, and finally the headstock.
 
#23
Techmonkey said:
I'm creating the scarf joint before doing anything else to my neck except planning it out and drawing on the points where I'm going to cut. So the width of the headstock and the width of the neck will remain consistent all the way down the neck. Then I'm going to shape the neck, and finally the headstock.
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There shouldn't be any problem with that. That's how I do it and that's basically what Wilser did.
 
#24
Geoff St. Germaine said:
There shouldn't be any problem with that. That's how I do it and that's basically what Wilser did.
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I mentioned somewhere that I 'cheated' and I used the blank for making two necks. The blank was not wide enough for the 2 including the headstock, so I cut the scarf first, then split the long part of the neck. One got the headstock that was cut glued in, the other will get another different piece of wenge as a headstock. That's why you see the odd 2 different sizes in there. Sorry about that.
 
#27
Wow, almost two years since the last post. One question. If the piece used for both the headstock and neck are 3/4", does that mean that you take off some material later off the headstock to make some room for the volute? Headstocks are never 3/4" thick anyways so that would be my guess. and also a neck is usually thinner at the first couple frets.... is this how all you scarf jointers do it?
 
#29
T2W said:
Wow, almost two years since the last post. One question. If the piece used for both the headstock and neck are 3/4", does that mean that you take off some material later off the headstock to make some room for the volute? Headstocks are never 3/4" thick anyways so that would be my guess. and also a neck is usually thinner at the first couple frets.... is this how all you scarf jointers do it?
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oops don't know how I missed this one. The answer is yes, I thin down both the headstock and the neck but leave enough material at the volute to carve it out later. My headstocks are thickness tapered, so it gradually thickens as it approaches the volute.

Mikey R said:
Just wanted to bump this thread and say I built one of these this afternoon and it just worked an abosolute treat! :D So much less work than using a block plane and scraper.

Cheers Wilser!

(love the videos as well! Thanks for sharing all of this)
Click to expand...

I love to share! so I'm glad you're liking it. If more people did this everyone would have a better and easier time doing everything!
 
#30
wilser said:
oops don't know how I missed this one. The answer is yes, I thin down both the headstock and the neck but leave enough material at the volute to carve it out later. My headstocks are thickness tapered, so it gradually thickens as it approaches the volute.
Click to expand...

Check out the video:


For those of us without a drill press, I would guess a router would also work with a decent jig.

wilser said:
I love to share! so I'm glad you're liking it. If more people did this everyone would have a better and easier time doing everything!
Click to expand...

I totaly agree :)
 
#31
Even though there hasn't been a post on this in a few years, I figured I would ask this here. Is the diagonal line that you marked at the beginning at the nut? If it isn't, how do you decide where to put it? I would just look on one of my instruments, but none of them have scarf joints. Also, can I cut the scarf joint, then before I glue it up, cut the neck taper on my table saw? To me this sounds like the easiest way to cut the taper.

lowsound
 
#32
If you have a table saw you can use it to cut the scarf, mikeyswood posted his jig for doing it here a couple of times. If you have a sharp blade and a decent saw it should come out just about glue ready. And yes, you can cut the scarf, then the taper then glue the scarf.
 
#33
rdrr said:
If you have a table saw you can use it to cut the scarf, mikeyswood posted his jig for doing it here a couple of times. If you have a sharp blade and a decent saw it should come out just about glue ready. And yes, you can cut the scarf, then the taper then glue the scarf.
Click to expand...

What I was trying to get at with my question is, where does the cut start for the scarf joint? At the nut, after the nut, before the nut?

lowsound
 
#35
mikeyswood said:
Did you read the necks tutorial?

An underlap scarf is an extension to the headstock and an overlap scarf starts ~3 fret.
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This is something that was tough for me to grasp too. Even with the books, everything on scarf joints is covered very fast without alot of info. Kinda just mentioned in passing. The tutorial here is probably the best I've seen.
What would be really cool is a diagram of the router jig. Everyone's got one (except me), but there are NO real plans available, just a quick "measure,measure,cut, there you have it" description.

I actually used this tutorial yesterday. I haven't built the router jig yet, but made a quick jig for my radial arm saw, and clamped the headstock piece to my neck blank and cut them at the same time. Took very little cleanup. I used a flat sanding block.

If you can make a quick blueprint for the router jig, I know ALOT of us would really appreciate it.
 
#36
mikeyswood said:
Did you read the necks tutorial?

An underlap scarf is an extension to the headstock and an overlap scarf starts ~3 fret.
Click to expand...

Can you provide pictures of these? I am having real trouble visualizing it.

Rip: are you talking about the router jig that Wisler built for flattening after it is cut? If so, I think I could whip up a blue print for that in AutoCAD fairly quickly. Just tell me what your tilt angle is.

lowsound
 
#37
iamlowsound said:
Can you provide pictures of these? I am having real trouble visualizing it.

Rip: are you talking about the router jig that Wisler built for flattening after it is cut? If so, I think I could whip up a blue print for that in AutoCAD fairly quickly. Just tell me what your tilt angle is.

lowsound
Click to expand...

I've been using a 14* angle on my headstocks. Thanks, man. I've got a pretty good idea of how to build the jig, just wanna be sure.
 
#40
Okay, so what I did was since you only wanted a quick sketch, I just took the picture, scaled it and dimensioned it. I will note that Wisler is doing a 12* angle here and you are doing a 14* angle, so you will need to make the needed changes, but I am sure that you can figure that out. Have fun building. It is saved as a PDF :bassist:

lowsound
 

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