Joining neck and body

The latest job I did on my guitar was joining the neck to the body. It is not glued yet so it can still be removed to fine tune the neck shape. Before I made the join I worked on the top of the guitar. With an eccentric sander I sanded away all the rough ridges that where left by the hand plane when I thinned down the top. After that I removed the excess timber in the overhang of the top with a router. It has a base with a little rubber wheel that you can use to follow the body shape. You have to be sure not to take to much wood away in one go otherwise you are risking to damage the top. So about a millimeter or two in one go. It took three rounds to have a satisfying result:

It is still a work in progress because the last part will be done by hand sanding. With that done, the neck had its turn. To make it not to difficult on my first guitar we will not use a dovetail connection between the body and the neck but a combination of bolts and glue. The glue will be the main structural strength but since the neck can hardly be clambed sufficient to the body two bolts are placed into the heel to go through the heel block. With two nuts the neck will be pulled firmly to the heel block to get a good connection. First I drilled two 9 mm holes in the heel and screwed to sockets in the holes which can receive two stud bolts. The sockets look like this:

Than two holes have to be made in the heel block as well:

The stud bolts are screwed into the sockets and put through the holes in the heel block. On the ends, sticking out of the heel block inside the guitar, two rings and nuts are tightened to make a firm join.

I couldn't stop myself from already display the guitar on the wall in our living room so it is hanging in its rack  above the piano.