Neck carving in the 21st century

Pete Howlett

Pete Howlett

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Parkinson's has robbed me of a lot of upper body strength - after 3 minutes of hand sanding a ukulele back, it feels like I've been at it all day! Like all artisan craftsman I am constantly reviewing techniques and after 4 attempts have a dead-head sander to help in the preliminary profiling of the back of the neck.vI also use a carver's angle grinder to preliminarily shape the back of the neck. Oddly enough, the skill levels required to handle these tools are much more subtle than using a rasp, spokeshave and knife. What it does is conserve my energy for 'flossing' the final shape and detailing the neck in preparation for the finish.

The whole process is in the video: If you have my carving video you will see the 'progression' of technique and craft that marks someone who has not found yet the perfect way to do something, but is very near it! Enjoy and comment please.

 
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Arbortech make a range of grinder attachments that make short work of turning wood into sawdust. I use my mini turbo quite a bit.
A 40grit flapwheel is dustier but does the job.
I find my $2 y handled potato peeler from Kmart quieter, less dusty and just as quick for shaping necks but. Kiwi brand and Ikea ones work just as well. Not so good around the cross grain work around the heel though. The biggest disadvantage is the damage it does to your street cred. Luckily I didn't have any to start with and what you don't have you can't lose.
 
I like your cradle, I have a jig that I shim up for different angles of the headstock, I will have to rethink that one. As much as I like carving a neck I am thinking of mechanizing it. I had some tendon surgery in my wrist and also lost a muscle that was responsible for certain thumb movements so I have to conserve my abilities for more important operations. I am thinking of making a neck routing jig similar to this one. While it is designed for a bolt on neck I think I should have enough reach with a long bit. It should be no problem with a uke sized neck. Maybe consider something like this to get some of the bulk material removal out of the way and save your energy for the finer details.

P5114901.JPG


 
printer2 said:
I like your cradle, I have a jig that I shim up for different angles of the headstock, I will have to rethink that one. As much as I like carving a neck I am thinking of mechanizing it. I had some tendon surgery in my wrist and also lost a muscle that was responsible for certain thumb movements so I have to conserve my abilities for more important operations. I am thinking of making a neck routing jig similar to this one. While it is designed for a bolt on neck I think I should have enough reach with a long bit. It should be no problem with a uke sized neck. Maybe consider something like this to get some of the bulk material removal out of the way and save your energy for the finer details.

P5114901.JPG


Click to expand...
Been doing em like that for years in the lathe ...Two at a time :). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IpxnDFEeBM&t=44s
 
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Timbuck said:
Been doing em like that for years in the lathe ...Two at a time :). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IpxnDFEeBM&t=44s
Click to expand...

The lathe is a big investment, in space also. I am debating on how I want to build this jig, there are a few different designs out there but not really geared to acoustic instruments with a heel. Probable what would be best is to take a ready made neck and mock it up. I don't have any neck blanks made up, I guess I will have to figure out which body I want to make a neck for and glue one up.
 
The way Ken does it is, to put it nicely, 'cavalier'... or more realistically, insane. Only Ken, who really knows what he is doing would do it like he does. And yes a 4th axis on Boris would answer that problem as would the offer of my mate to program the carve in 3D. I am continuing to resist it....
 
You have the CNC ....... use it........

Various tool path shots of a Tenor neck 3-Axis machined neck we also can do this on a 4th Axis setup but find it less efficient.

Takes a while to work all this out from a file/toolpathing scenario but it only takes about 15 minutes to process a neck from start to finish and you don't have to touch it after initially placement and setup once the neck is started ... neck is extremely close to finished when the CNC completes it task.

Tenor Neck CNC Ex-1A.jpgTenor Neck CNC Ex-2A.jpgTenor Neck CNC Ex-3B.jpgTenor Neck CNC Ex-4B.jpg
 
That's the issue Kevin. I don't have the technical ability to use Rhino or Fusion....
 
Pete, thanks for posting your video, neck shaping on my first project is something that's been keeping me awake at night and this helps. Where did you find your angle grinder? I've been searching for a small one like it and haven't found much. I have an air die grinder but it spits a lot of oil all over so the electric is the better way to go.
 
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