Well I took some time while the shop was warming up today to work on the neck. As I mentioned, this will be a V joint peghead, just like the original 1890 Martin that I am replicating has.
One nice thing about this style of neck is that I can use shorter "scraps" of mahogany that are too small for a regular neck. Only needed a 16" long piece for the neck shaft.
So I cut a blank and drew out the neck
Then I bandsawed it out
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/whitespruce/guitars2/m2neck2.jpg)
I was able to pick out a perfectly quartersawn offcut for this neck
Then I measured for the neck shaft length and made some side cuts to demark off the dovetail section and the "V" stub that the peghead will fit onto.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/whitespruce/guitars2/m2neck3.jpg)
These will be cut to full depth by hand later in the process.
Since I am only making one neck, I did not go to the trouble of making any fancy jigs. I just set the table saw blade to 12 1/2 degrees and screwed a piece of plywood onto the miter guage and "went at it". First I did a test cut on some scrap...just in case
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/whitespruce/guitars2/m2neck4.jpg)
Looks fine...the rest will be cut by hand
So here is the setup
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/whitespruce/guitars2/m2neck5.jpg)
I set the rip fence to get the cut at the correct distance from the edge of the blank. Then I clamp the neck blank perfectly vertical and make the cut..
...Then turn the blank with the other edge to the rip fence and make the second cut
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/whitespruce/guitars2/m2neck6.jpg)
Like I said, the rest of the cut will be finished by hand and everything cleaned up
I cut the peghead out of another piece of mahogany "scrap". It is 5/8" thick and about 3" wide (for now), and 7" long. The end that will fit to the neck shaft is squared off at a 15 degree angle, the angle of the peghead to the neck. I left the table saw set up the same. Used an offcut from cutting the peghead from a 1-piece neck as a spacer..it already is cut to the 15 degree angle. To make the first cut of the "V" I used the spacer block to angle the peghead blank 15 degrees back
Then I flipped the spacer block to tilt the peghead 15 degrees forward and made the second cut
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/whitespruce/guitars2/m2neck8.jpg)
Actually, I had made the cuts before these 2 photos, and I had just shifted the rip fence over a tad to recut and widen the "V". Then all I had to do is cut out the very tip of the "V" with a knife and clean it up with a knife edge file
So here are the parts all cut
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/whitespruce/guitars2/m2neck9.jpg)
Only needed a slight bit of trimming (mostly used a small sanding block) to get a perfect fit
Here it is dry fit
I used thickened marine epoxy tinted brown to glue it up
So there it is. Just let the epoxy cure and clean it up. Now to be honest, I was kinda dreading the prospect of making this joint cuz I thought it would be one of those finikey things. But truth is that it went real easy and seemed to come out perfect. I might even do this on a regular basis
But I do owe a big thanks to Waddy and Arnt for showing the process and making it easy to understand. Without that, I might not have gotten up the nerve
G