Bending the fretwire...I like a bit of an overbend.

 

 

First I cut the frets nearly flush to the fingerboard and then I press them in.

 

 

Gluing and clamping the binding.

 

 

Trimming the binding down flush to the fingerboard and the fret ends.

 

 

To make side dots, I cut up some tortoise colour picks and superglued the pieces to the blunt end of a 3/32" drill bit.

 

 

I chucked up the drill bit with the tortoise piece glued to the end and turned it down flush to the diameter of the bit with a file. This photo is as seen through my magnifying goggles, I just put them right over the lens of the camera.

 

 

I didn't have a brad point drill bit of the right size to drill the peghead holes, so I ground my own brad pointed bit from a regular twist drill with this cutting wheel set-up. I did have to grind the back-rake freehand though.

 

 

To avoid tear-out, I always stop short of breaking through when drilling. Flipping the piece and re-entering the hole left by the brad point makes it nice and clean.

 

 

Since I used a pattern bit to cut out the peghead profile, I had to chisel in the corner at the top of the head.

 

 

The finished neck.

 

 

The back of the neck.

 

 

Fine tuning the fit of the mortise and tenon joint.

 

 

 

 

A nice fit.

 

 

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