Spanish Heel Shim.

[Gilbert Fredrickson]

Third classical, third "slipper foot" shim. I must be missing something. How proud do you leave the slipper foot prior the attatchment of the back kerfing? And, I just watched the Orberg video on fitting the classical guitar back. I probably should have watched the video before attatching the kerfing. I made a back radius gauge and ...then made a 1/8th" shim to fit the foot.

[Jim Kirby]

Sounds like the answer to the question is there. I don't know how much proud I leave mine, in terms of a number, but I have the arched radius stick there to see whether it's enough as I'm trimming things to height before putting in the back linings.

[Michael Imbler]

Gilbert,
It will depend on your back radius and the length of the slipper foot as it will get deeper the further it protrudes into the back. I just leave "ample" and then plane it down a bit when I start to "drive the bus" with the radius dish, and see what is needed to get things flush.
Mike

[Brad Heinzen]

Sounds familiar. I think it's probably happened to everyone, especially if you're doing a stacked heel. If you plane the neck down to where it works well with the scarf joint, then the total stack will often be too thin if it's made from a standard blank. To make things work out better, I usually keep the neck shaft full thickness, and cut it down just at the top of the neck where the headstock scarfs in. When I do that, I have enough thickness left at the slipper foot so I don't have to add a shim between the foot and the back.

[Gilbert Fredrickson]

Yes, thank you, Brad. That is what I have been doing wrong. Each heel stack has been a 3/32nds-1/8th" too short at the tail end of the slipper foot.