Dowel Neck joint

Timbuck

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This method could be used to fit the neck to body... Maybe ?

 
I Ken,
I'm not a pro like you, but when i tried this idea a few month ago, i had some problem due to the curvature of the body and placement on the neck.
Yet, this vidéo send me a idea to create a little jig for that job :
attach on the body :
jonction_corp_manche_05.jpeg

attach on the neck :
jonction_corp_manche_04.jpeg

In my case, work fine :)
jonction_corp_manche_06.jpeg
 
I have used dowels to strengthen the neck/body joint on many of my builds. There are two considerations: one is using of the dowel to give strength to the joint: the other is using the dowel to fix the position of the joint. I decided that I only wanted the first - the second was not achievable to a satisfactory degree of accuracy, using the limited resources available to me.

I did not want the dowel to dictate how the two components (body and neck) would fit together, so I made the holes slightly larger than the dowels. When gluing the joint, I used ordinary white woodworking glue.

This way, I was able to put the two components together as I wanted them to fit, with the additional strength provided by the dowel.
 
I made the holes slightly larger than the dowels.
Thanks John,
I do the same for the same reason 😀
Yet, this little jig help me to be a little more accurate during the drill (on my previous uke i do that with just my hand... it's more artistic 😅 )
 
Thanks John,
I do the same for the same reason 😀
Yet, this little jig help me to be a little more accurate during the drill (on my previous uke i do that with just my hand... it's more artistic 😅 )
I like your method a lot. I'll copy that!
 
When I was Tool Making in engineering years ago building jigs and fixtures, we did it the other way round ... We allowed a little movement in the bolts and setscrews, and when the set up was finally deemed "spot on" then we drilled and fitted the dowels so that nothing could move out of position .... but that wasn't ukuleles :)
 
I very much like the ideas mentioned up thread.

If someone needs a further alternative to measuring and marking out then centre dowels might be a helpful tool. Centre dowels are metal bar with a shoulder and point at one end, when it’s ‘offered-up’ the point makes an indentation in the mating piece of wood to be drilled.
 
I came across a blog of a French ukulele builder. All of their builds seem to use a butt joint plus a dowel for the neck attachment. Their website is a fun one to dig through. Thank god google can translate the French for me. They seem to have come up with many clever jigs and such.


Here is one example of their neck joint.
83234129-E309-4EC5-9EC5-1777B33C0C5A.jpeg
 
I came across a blog of a French ukulele builder. All of their builds seem to use a butt joint plus a dowel for the neck attachment. Their website is a fun one to dig through. Thank god google can translate the French for me. They seem to have come up with many clever jigs and such.


Please, is there a way of automatically translating the whole of each and every page as you’re viewing it or do you do something else?
 
Please, is there a way of automatically translating the whole of each and every page as you’re viewing it or do you do something else?
I use google chrome. They have a feature that will translate web pages for you. I found this link on how to use it.

 
Thanks. I don’t use Google Chrome but maybe something similar is possible on my computer, I’d be delighted if it was.
 
Here's a photo of one of my builds. As mentioned above, I positioned and drilled everything the best way I could, by hand and eye, then made the fit of the dowels loose enough to allow the neck to be clamped up in the position I wanted. The dowels were there for strength only - not to determine the correct positioning of the joint. I'm not recommending this way of doing it - it is rather haphazard - but it shows what can be done working on your kitchen table. :)
31 - The Singularity, neck dowels - 2014.jpg