The neck is held with glue and two dowels. The heal of the neck is roughly curved to fit the curve of the body. To make the fit perfect I stick some sandpaper to the body and move the neck back and forth to make the curves match. The dowel holes are pre-drilled in the neck so I need to mark and drill 6mm holes in the body. To get the holes positioned correctly I ground the ends of the dowels fit them into the neck and press them into the seam of the sides at the top of the body.
It was a clever idea but it didn’t work as well as I hoped. When I connected the neck to the body it sat just a bit high. To make them even I ran the flat part of the neck through the jointer set to take a tiny bit of wood at a time. After a few passes the top of the body and the top of the neck were dead even.
A Clever Plan to Drill the Mating Holes Perfectly
As you can see by the other photos, my plan to mark the body using sharpened dowels didn’t work. Thought I was being smart. I guess I’m not.
Fitting the Neck to the Body
To ensure the neck fits tightly to the body I use the body itself to form a sanding surface and sand the heal of the neck until they mate perfectly.
Jointing the Neck Top
To correct for the misaligned neck mounting I use the jointer to shave a small amount of wood from the top of the neck.
Neck Isn’t Quite Aligned With the Body
I must have mismeasured when I marked the location of the dowel holes. The neck sits a little proud of the body.