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Thread: Guitar Neck Pin Router Jig

  1. #1
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    Guitar Neck Pin Router Jig

    What do you think?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
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    Smithfield, Va
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    You can do a lot with a pin router. I wouldn't invest in one for the sole purpose of shaping necks however unless I was in mass production. I am curious if that is an off the shelf cutter or special made. Either way some degree of handwork would be required to achieve the final desired shape. I've only made a hand full of necks over the years and all were shaped by hand. That is, hogging down with a draw knife then final shaping with a rasp or spoke shave then sanding. Once in a while I'll get someone that wants the neck reshaped to get rid of that "clubby" feel which is done by hand. Not trying to dissuade you from getting one, I just prefer hand working. To me it is obviously quieter and more relaxing to hand shape.

  3. #3
    I'm sure that's just an off the shelf round over bit. He's most likely just using it to waste away material. I had the ShopFox pin router. It's a nice little unit once you modify it to actually work correctly (if anyone's interested, I'll post what I had to do). That said, it's not really a precision tool. It's pretty convenient for some steps where you'd really like to be able to rout on top of a piece of wood that's curved, like cutting the F-Holes out of an archtop. The precision pin routers are MONSTERS.

  4. #4
    +1 on the hand work. I would use a rasp. When you get down near finish size you can use 80g sandpaper glued to a long block.
    Years ago in production, I used to turn my necks two at a time. The neck blanks were glued to a turning 'wedge' and I ran then with a lathe duplicator.
    I did a few 5-string banjo necks with the pin router like this video. Although, I still needed to hand rasp.
    One thing that bothered me about this video is that the fretboards are already attached before hogging off the back. Seems like an invitation to warping. I always brought the wood to just oversize, let it sit, then planed to final the next day. The fretboard went on last.
    Looks like you're having fun, I'm enjoying the posts!

  5. #5
    Join Date
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    The bit he was using looked like the table edge bit that I have. The first thing I thought was how the curvature of that matched the curvature of a typical neck. I agree that it would be good to hog out material but I can't see how it could ever be used as a finished surface. I made up some templates taken from drawings of the cross sections at the 1st and 12th frets and they have different radii. That's why I was wondering what the luthiers here thought about the jig. Personally though, I enjoy hand shaping.

  6. #6
    Join Date
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    Seems like an interesting jig. Also seems like a good way to get your hand ripped off in short order. Just curious and a question to those who have these routers - why are we so terrified of a shaper and go through all sort of jigging / shielding with them but not with these? This cut looks terrifying to me. There is no way I would move my hands in any way until that thing spun down.

    On another note - anyone who is a Primus fan is ok in my book. Fish on!
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  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Larry Fox View Post
    Seems like an interesting jig. Also seems like a good way to get your hand ripped off in short order. Just curious and a question to those who have these routers - why are we so terrified of a shaper and go through all sort of jigging / shielding with them but not with these? This cut looks terrifying to me. There is no way I would move my hands in any way until that thing spun down.

    On another note - anyone who is a Primus fan is ok in my book. Fish on!
    It's not so bad, and that luthier is doing it right. He has guide in/guide outs for the bearing, and underneath it's routed to capture the pin as well. How he's doing it is very safe as far as pin routers go.

    The ShopFox pin router that he'd using has a pretty much useless shield/guard. It's practically impossible to setup any sort of dust collection for it. If you do it wrong, and I have, the bit can grab the piece, and whip it around...round and round on the pin. It can be a handful to control if you screw up. It's definitely not a beginner tool. I got rid of mine because I use the CNC now for things I used the pin router for before. It's a manageable tool, but it's quite dangerous. The industrial ones are no better, except they have 5hp+ behind them. This is definitely not a beginner tool, and you must be vigilant and on your toes at all times when using it. Industrial pin routers are essentially inverted shapers.

    Sometimes, I use my CNC machine as a pin router now. Again, not recommended, and very dangerous. It requires proper jigging and procedure to make it safe.

  8. #8
    Yes to Primus!

    I would be cautious around that bit too! I'd have added more real estate to the jig to keep my hands a bit further back. I still have all ten digits and I want to keep it that way.

    Personally I use hand tools to do the work in the video. I never made enough guitars to need to make a jig like this. The bit is from LV and it is not a straight radius, I gots one myself.

    I do use my pin router to do similar shaping to this but I made enough of these pieces to warrant the jigging up.

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