Neck warped

Timbuck

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Just spent some time trying to straighten out a warped neck..it had a 3mm twist :( it was alright a couple of weeks ago as a blank but after removing some of it's wood the inbuilt stress decided to relieve itself and I ended up with this twisted monstrosity..after several feeble attempts to rectify it I decided that it's best to stop now and scrap it and replace it..experience has taught me that much :D
It's common problem with one piece necks I believe.
 
Warping is a pain! I've been given a chunk of ipe which is about 15 x 8 x 30 (in inches) - this stuff is so dense it's nearly too heavy to lift! It looks like great fretboard material, so I cut off a fretboard-sized slice which looked perfect. Then next day it looked like a Moebius strip, I've never seen wood twist so much, the two ends are at about 30 degrees to each other :wtf:

I wonder if it's almost green wood? Guess I should cut thicker pieces and put them aside for a year to see how they behave.The problem is that this stuff is so hard that it's a huge effort even to do that, and I'd certainly wear out at least one circular saw blade.
 
Be careful with ipe, the dust is very debilitating. After foolishly working in a cloud of it without a mask for less than hour, I was was in a mental cloud for 2-3 days, with a loss of coordination. Never again.
 
Not the wood I use Ken. I make sure that it is at least 20 years old and sits on my workshop shelf for a good long time before I first cut it into blanks then work it. I'm just about to buy £1100 worth of such mahogany - direct from the guy who bought 2 cubic mtrs of the stuff 20 years ago... There is still some of this stuff about and it's worth spending the money on it. I have blanks I processed back in 2013 from wood purchased in 1996. Out of the 886 instruments I have built I have had 3 necks move.
 
Warping necks is nightmare number 2 for me (exploding ukes is number 1). I have not had a problem yet with one-piece necks and I'm thankful but I know it is probably only a matter of time... Trees don't grow straight out of the ground like we like to think, but they grow out as a spiral. Wood is going to do what wood is going to do and that is become a spiral again. Quarter sawn wood versus flat sawn wood is an attempt to address this fact but it doesn't always work. We are talking about living, organic things here and that gets complex.

I use what are said to be "seasoned" quarter sawn billets of mahogany from reputable vendors*. I don't have the time to let them sit around for 20 years and thus I get nightmares.

* LMI, SMD
 
Before I scrapped it I removed the fret board in a novel way using my new workshop equipment...I bandsawed the fretboad off leaving about 2mm of the mahogany neckwood still on..Then I ran it through the drum sander frets down side, and sanded it back to the rosewood. worked a treat :cheers:
 
I don't either. I look for wood that is being sold by businesses that are 'retiring'. Anyone in the wood trades who has made a career from it has hoarded wood. You just have to be vigilant and wait for the prices to come up. All the waiting is done for you.
 
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