Truss rod channel

[Andy Bounsall]

Routing the truss rod channel in a neck has always been a bit of a nail biter for me. To make things easier, I spent a couple of hours building this sled for my plunge router. It attaches to the neck blank using 4 screws that are outside the actual shape of the neck. I use a two-way low profile truss rod that needs a 1/4” wide slot. To position the sled, I drill shallow 1/4” holes in the neck at two points along the intended channel, insert a short dowel in each hole, place the sled over the dowels, install the screws and remove the dowels. Once the sled is aligned and attached to the neck, routing the truss rod channel takes just a few minutes and virtually eliminates the chance for errors.

[Bob Francis]

Nice!

[David King]

Andy you are aligning the jig with index holes and pins?

When i used this type of rod I would use and under table router and my table saw fence. What really worked well was a 3HP shaper I had access to but those days are long gone.

Now I cut the curved 3/16" channel with a customized table saw slotting blade and then use that center slot to index a pair of 1/8" dado blades with a spacer between them to cut the CF channels on either side. Two matching channels are cut into the bottom of the fingerboard to lock the board in place around the CF spars that are 1/2" deep
.

[Brian Evans]

My necks are designed such that I can cut the channel on my table saw. That is a nice jig.

[Clay Schaeffer]

I cut the rough neck stock with a taper to save material. I made a simple table saw jig to cut the truss rod slot. It essentially works like a tapering jig only backwards - it negates the taper of the neck shaft.

[Ed Gerber]

Clay,

Don’t mean to hijack this thread, but it would be great to see how you do the headstock / scarf(?) joint. Your photo shows something I have been contemplating for some time. Thanks.

Ed