A new OM about to be born

[John Parchem]

I like the bound fretboard with the dots. That is going to be a sweet guitar. Interesting doing the truss rod by hand. Recently on facebook I saw a post where someone need to add a truss rod after the neck was profiled. All the suggestions were for rigs that allowed a router. I did point out that it is not hard to score with a knife and clear with a chisel. It surprised me that I was the first to mention it.

[Kevin in California]

I have the truss rod fit nicely today.
Fun work. Starting on the headplate inlay today and drilled barrel bolt holes in the neck tenon area.

[Kevin in California]

Working on my headstock inlay using my little CNC machine.
I set the inlay in about .010" proud. Wick a little CA in a few spots to hold the shell secure. Then I pour over thin epoxy mixed with sawdust from the same ebony plate.
The epoxy flow in around and under the inlay.
It has been epoxies. Tomorrow I'll level it in my drum sander and thickness the plate from the back to .100".
It is currently .125"

[Kevin in California]

Logo epoxied in and sanded. Headstock is shaped. Neck is trimmed down to 1/8" on either side of the fretboard. Fretboard is located/positioned with pins. Holes are drilled for barrel bolts.

I am ready to route the tenon and the route the body mortise. That should happen tomorrow.

[Herman]

Exactly the way I do it too.
Herman

[Kevin in California]

Routed the mortise and tenon today.
It went very well. I use a Simpson jig. A bit fiddly but works fine once it's set up right. I made a center finder for the body jig (forgot to take a pic of that) and used it for the first time this time and I got much better alignment results. The neck fits near perfect and seems to be almost dead on center.

[Kevin in California]

Carved the neck yesterday and today.
It's looking like a guitar now. This is the first time I've had a neck heel fit just about perfectly against the body after just routing the tenon and then carving the heel. I did work more on have a very flat level surface at the mortise area. I'm so pleased how it came out. No flossing needed.

I've started today working up the bolt down fretboard extension. This will be my second one and it's going smoothly thus far. I will probably make all my necks this way from now on.

I'll show some pics when it's complete so you can see what I'm doing.