Portland Guitar Co.

( 215 ) 14-May-2012

I have set up my milling machine towork on the horizontal. This will allow me to make very accurate holes for the neck attachment hardware.

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Here you can see I am using a 3/4inch end milling tool to drill the hole for the neck adjustment bolt.

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Without moving anything I replace the milling tool with a drill bit to drill the the adjustment bolt access hole.

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I want the adjustment access hole to come out right in the center of the shoulder of the neck. (Please note that I call the neck's heal a shoulder because a shoulder goes with a neck and a heal doesn't.)

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I use 3/4 inch oak dowel for the retaining flange. Here I am drilling out a hole in the center of the dowel.

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This is the hardware I use for the adjustment mechanism. The orange O-ring is used to allow a little bit of compression in the hardware. This will prevent any slop or rattle when the neck is not under tension. The washer goes between the O-ring and the bottom of the bolt. The bolt goes in next, and then the oak flange holds everything in place.

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The O-ring.

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The washer.

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A bit of graphite to make sure the bolt turns easily.

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The bolt.

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And then the flange.

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I install a 1/4-20 wood insert into the access hole for the neck strap to screw in to.

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And then I compress the assembly while it is drying to ensure a good fit.

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Here I am rounding off the end of the set screws where they will make contact with the shoulder of the neck.

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The set screws go into the wood inserts in the shoulder channel.

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I mark the position where the set screws make contact and drill holes for the brass fulcrum plugs.

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I mark the depth of the hole on the brass bar stock.

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And glue the brass plug into the hole. These brass plugs provide a firm yet slightly compliant contact point between the body of the guitar and the neck.

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To ensure that the oak retaining flange does not work its way free under the tension of the neck I insert two retaining dowels through the flange.

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I mark the depth of the hole.

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And then glue the dowels in place.

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I am going to counter sink the tuning machines into the headstock and outline the washer with a b/w pinstripe circle. Here I am cutting out a Padauk plug for the base of the countersink.

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Next I glue on a layer of black fiber stock.

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And then a layer of white fiber stock.

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And then I split the assembly into three plugs.

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I drill a hole for each tuning machine.

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And insert the plug assembly into the hole.

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I use a C-clamp to press the plugs firmly in place.

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After drilling the countersink hole in each plug I drill a hole through the head stock for each tuning machine.

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This is where I install the Portland Guitar Jasmine Rose. My daughter's name is Jasmine Rose and she designed this icon for me.

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I use a Dremel tool to route out the channel for the silver wire I use to make the rose.

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With a bit of bending and filing I press the wire into place.

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The wire stands proud of the surface.

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And I level everything off to finish up.

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Here is a close up look at the rose, and the tuning machine counter sink with the pinstriping outline.

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I have made this special sanding tool to level the shoulder cap on the neck at the right angle.

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I want the shoulder cap to be the same width as the binding and to extend the contour of the back.

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This tool forces the sandpaper to the right depth and angle.

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With the shoulder cap sanded down I glue on a plate of b/w/b fiber stock.

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And then fashion the shoulder cap to extend onto the shoulder channel.

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Here is a look at the shoulder cap sanded to the contour of the shoulder.

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The shoulder cap fits into the shoulder channel with only a small gap showing.

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To finish up the neck I install white markers in the binding.

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The markers get sanded flush with the binding.

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Next up is to paint the top black, apply the finish and make the bridge.