The other night I finished routing the body for the mortise, so next was the tenon on the neck. I marked the center of the neck and used an awl to mark where I wanted the bolt inserts to go.
The end of the neck block is already cut to match the angle of the body, so I didn't want to drill the holes for the inserts freehand. I drilled holes in a piece of plywood and used that clamped to the end of the neck to guide my drill bit. It worked out well but in the future I would definitely like to come up with some kind of jig for this.
With holes drilled, I installed the threaded inserts. I started out by carefully giving them a tap with a hammer, then carefully threaded them in, being careful to thread them square to the end of the neck. The inserts turned out good, although the top one is slightly off center. Like I said, I would like to come up with a jig for doing this.
Next I cut out the tenon. In the future I would like to have a jig and route the tenon, but this time I decided to cut the tenon by hand.
The finished tenon turned out great and fits the body well.
The other day when I was working on my neck blank I decided to cut the blank narrower, but that caused me some problems when setting up to route the trussrod channel. A couple of hours of frustration but I finally figured out a method of cutting the channel on my table saw. I didn't take any pics of this, but here's the finished product, shown with the stainless steel 3/16" diamter rod that I'll be using for the trussrod.
I won't be able to finish the trussrod installation until I get the anchors, washers, and truss rod hex nuts that I ordered from Stewmac.
I won't be able to finish the trussrod installation until I get the anchors, washers, and truss rod hex nuts that I ordered from Stewmac.