Acoustic Guitar Construction

So far every time I have cut out a scarf joint on the bandsaw I either cut it by hand with quite messy results (not so bad if I change to a 1/2" blade) or I cobble together a temporary guide using bandsaw miter gauge and another wedge to get the required 10 - 15 degree angle. I have also rigged up a combination of wedges and clamps to cut it on my compound radial arm saw (scary). All of my mthods worked but I finally decided to build a jig that I can just pull out, line up the stock and cut.

I started attaching two zero play guide bars to a piece of scrap of 3/4" sign board plywood. I was proud that after I did all of the measurements and drilled the holes I was able to attach the guides and the guides fit in the two slots I have in my bandsaw.



With the guides in place I cut into the sled and used it as a reference to draw the largest angle I use of 15°. I glued and screwed in a fence to complete the jig. On some of my classical guitars I use a 10° angle but it will be easy to use a shim to correct for smaller angles.



I grabbed a bit of scrap plywood for a test and it worked like a charm. I liked that I could clamp both sides of the cut.





I continued onto my spanish cedar neck blank and cut out a great scarf requiring just a touch of cleanup before glueing the scarf joint.

Very nice. I've been doing it your original way ("a temporary guide using bandsaw miter gauge and another wedge to get the required 10 - 15 degree angle"), but I'll be copying your jig. I particularly like the ability to clamp both sides of the cut. Thanks for the post.

What a good idea for a jig. Thanks for posting.

Great idea, thank you for sharing.

I've been doing this with a sled on my 12" table saw—this looks a lot less intimidating.

Last time I did a scarf joint I retracted the table saw blade all the way, clamped the 1"x3" over the blade where I wanted the cut, then raised the blade into the blank (John Hall suggested this). I had to adjust the angle of the blade a couple of times to get an exact 90 degrees, but once set up it was a breeze. I've got a 10" saw but with Daniel's 12' saw it would work great with no pucker factor.

Carl Dickinson wrote:Last time I did a scarf joint I retracted the table saw blade all the way, clamped the 1"x3" over the blade where I wanted the cut, then raised the blade into the blank (John Hall suggested this). I had to adjust the angle of the blade a couple of times to get an exact 90 degrees, but once set up it was a breeze. I've got a 10" saw but with Daniel's 12' saw it would work great with no pucker factor.

That is a clever way! I am not sure my 10" saw will go all of the way through. In any case a very clean cut and less movement. I did something like that on my radial arm saw. I combined the angle my saw gave me with clamping the neck blank so that the cut was in the path of the blade. It mostly worked but once just as the blade was hitting it the neck blank was sent flying. (not clamped very well). Thus my sled.

I made one to use the slot, but didn’t think about making it as a sled. I think version 14.2 will have to borrow your idea, thanks for posting