How to do a bolt-on neck?

sequoia said:
I struggle with neck to body connections. What drives me crazy is that all the directions and illustrations are for a flat, flush, square joins and I use a radiused joint. This adds a whole different level of complexity. Nobody ever talks about getting a radiused join just right with bolts. Flat, flush, square neck to body joins look lame to me and are easy to do. I'm sorry. Show me how to square a radiused butt joint with bolts and I will be happy.

(Apologies. I just spent a frustrating afternoon in the shop with a very balky neck to body join. Kinda pisses a guy off.)
Click to expand...

But why make life hard for yourself just for the sake of it? There are more than enough other potential pitfalls and frustrations on the road to producing a nice instrument to keep me happy! This is one you can very easily design out, and I actually prefer the squared off shoulders look of a body with a flat neck joint face :) Just to add insult to injury, I used to do radiused tailblocks but these days they are flat as well. ;)
 
Last edited:
DPO said:
Try joining a banjo uke neck to the body. The body is 8 inch diameter and the neck has a break angle of 2.5/3° . That's a fun join!
Click to expand...

and to complicate things further, try joining a 5 string banjo neck to the rim. Not only do you have to consider the neck angle and the rim diameter, but also the "skew" angle of the neck to the body. The neck has to be square to the rim and frets, and drawing a line down the centre of the peghead down to the heel would be wrong. The actual centre line is the 3rd string, so this also has to be included in the mix. I made a jig which does all these in one operation, using my drill press and sanding drum.
 
Wildestcat said:
Just to add insult to injury, I used to do radiused tailblocks but these days they are flat as well. ;)
Click to expand...

(Runs from room sobbing and bursts into tears.) Forsooth Wildestcat. Shame. A square tailblock. Anybody can make a radiused tail and block. It ain't hard. Now a radiused neck and block. That is hard.
 
sequoia said:
(Runs from room sobbing and bursts into tears.) Forsooth Wildestcat. Shame. A square tailblock. Anybody can make a radiused tail and block. It ain't hard. Now a radiused neck and block. That is hard.
Click to expand...

Fit it square and then radius it. Or do as I do and route a relieved section and only radius the outside edges.
 
Paul, thank you very much for the detail and the time you've taken to shoot some photos! I would suggest regarding the orientation of the photos that a simple fix would be to turn the camera or phone 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise and see what happens. With my Samsung phone I shoot pictures in landscape mode rather than vertically in portrait mode and so I don't have to rotate them.
But the real question I have is regarding measurements. I can guess that you are installing the quarter inch bolt roughly 40% of the way down from the top on the heel and the barrel nut and should be no closer than what, 8 mm from the end of the neck? To make this jig, I will need to determine what I want those distances to be.
And I finally figured out from a comment in this post above that the round thing with the sized hole is a guide? I assume you can buy those rather than make them?
Once again, you're talking to a greenie in terms of woodworking. Learning but have a long way to go.
 
Also, when I measure this barrel nut it turns out to be 25/64 of an inch in diameter. I will need to buy a drill bit and this could be a brad point (as I see in the photo for the horizontal hole, the quarter inch hole) or a Forstner. Or am I actually hunting a 10 mm drill bit? I welcome advice.
 
If you are near an Ikea they have every connection under the sun for a donation to UNICEF. Notionally spare parts for when the packing department forgets to put something in the box.
 
ChuckBarnett said:
I can guess that you are installing the quarter inch bolt roughly 40% of the way down from the top on the heel and the barrel nut and should be no closer than what, 8 mm from the end of the neck?
And I finally figured out from a comment in this post above that the round thing with the sized hole is a guide? I assume you can buy those rather than make them?
Click to expand...
Hi Chuck. The dimensions I work to for sopranos, concerts and tenors are as follows:

End of neck to centre of 10 mm barrel nut hole = 14 mm
Top of neck to centre of 6 mm bolt hole = 22 mm

On baritones, I increase the distance from top of neck to centre of 6 mm hole by 3 mm to 25 mm.

In the UK, the steel drill guide bushes are available as a set from Axminster Power Tools, but if you have access to a lathe you can make your own. If you are only aiming to make a small number of instruments, then just an accurately drilled hole in a reasonably thick hardwood or birch ply jig should be good enough.

I use Veritas brad point drills for the holes, as you won't get engagement between the bush and the reduced shank diameter of a Forstner.

Feel free to follow Kens suggestion for smaller components, but 10 mm / 6 mm is by far the most readily available size and works just fine on all sizes of uke.
 
Thank you, Paul! This is very helpful, a very good place to start. I have just discovered that not all drill guides and depth stops are created equal. Local hardware store had a kit of drill guides and a kit of depth stops both of which are anything but accurate. Can't get a 3/8 in drill through the drill guide, nor can I force the 3/16 inch centering point through the 3/16 in drill guide. I found three of the same depth stop and the kit is missing some of the sizes listed. Sort of captures the story of my luthier experience thus far... All the time and learning it takes to get up to the surface to simply do the job. Not giving up. :)
 
ChuckBarnett said:
Thank you, Paul! This is very helpful, a very good place to start. I have just discovered that not all drill guides and depth stops are created equal. Local hardware store had a kit of drill guides and a kit of depth stops both of which are anything but accurate. Can't get a 3/8 in drill through the drill guide, nor can I force the 3/16 inch centering point through the 3/16 in drill guide. I found three of the same depth stop and the kit is missing some of the sizes listed. Sort of captures the story of my luthier experience thus far... All the time and learning it takes to get up to the surface to simply do the job. Not giving up. :)
Click to expand...

Banjo Ukes and indeed some banjos use a simple lag bolt as a neck joint, I have built around fifty banjo ukes and twenty ukes usin the lag bolt or hanger bolt method with zero issues. Just a lot easier than the furniture connectors most people use.
 
Thank you, Dennis. Like was said earlier, there are many ways to do this sort of thing. I will do the barrel nut method for this first one. And who knows what I'll do next. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
Bolt on neck, elongate hole to vertically align neck with body?
Replies
19
Views
1K
ChuckBarnett
C
D
New member w/ thru-bolt neck.
Replies
8
Views
942
Dr.Ukenstein
D
G
Bolt and/or glue baritone neck to body
Replies
6
Views
1K
GaryDavis
G
Beau Hannam Ukuleles
Recessing a headblock with pen trimmer for neck bolt
Replies
8
Views
1K
Beau Hannam Ukuleles
Beau Hannam Ukuleles
R
bolt on neck or spanish type ?
Replies
13
Views
2K
Flyfish57
Flyfish57
Top Bottom