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Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on April 1, 2011 at 8:02pm

I buy from B&Q in China. Their wood sucks, but they have some nice trim wood which I buy and glue together to build laminated necks. The resulting necks are very strong. You may want to use some planks of wood to help clamp them together. My main problem is from the wood slipping when I clamp them all together, so now I use this kind of "jig" (if that's the right word for it). See photo...

This allows me to stack the boards together as I glue them and clamp down from four sides to minimize slippage on those two axes. If there is any slippage its longitudinal, and I can just cut a bit off each end for an easy fix. Saves a lot of time and effort, planing, filing and sanding to get the sides smooth. I use cut plastic grocery bags to keep the glue from sticking between my work piece and this jig. Here in a photo of one of my laminated neck so you get my meaning.

On this neck, I laminated two kinds of wood. Ideally the two kinds of wood should have the same shrink and expansion characteristics in response to ambient humidity (there's probably a term for this but it escapes my memory), but I am not even sure what kind of wood I used (my Chinese language is quite limited). When laminating bords together, pay close attention to the end grain of the wood. You should orient each board in your stack so the grain curvature is reversed from the previous layer. This will strengthen the neck significantly. Most of my necks are laminated and have had good results with this method. Alternating wood colors also makes for a pretty neck and headstock.

-Rand.

Stewart Hutton said:

Steve

 

I'd like to compare notes ...

 

I got cigar boxes in the UK for £5 each plus £3.50 P&P (for up to 3 boxes) from http://www.whisky-cigars.co.uk/empty-cigar-boxes-lucky-p-4084.html   (they have several websites that point to the same thing). I told them I wanted as big and "nice" as possible and they sent me 2 that seem to be ok. One will be my first CBG, the other is longer and slimmer than I'd like but will be my first stomp box.

 

that's my input. My question is ...

 

Finding hardwood in the UK :(

 

B&Q, homebase, focus - all full of pine. Is that a complete non starter? I've got some pine in my shed that is from 30 years old bunkbeds I dont believe it is going to  warp anytime soon.

 

I'm not sure that I have anyone within 30+ miles of here that is anything like  real wood merchant that could sell me 3ft of hardwood.

 

Best wishes for your builds.

Permalink Reply by Slowpaw Steve T on April 1, 2011 at 8:32pm

great tip John - i checked the skip in my workplace site and found some mahogany desk drawers that had been chucked out...think i could i make some good headstocks from these..? (-:

 

 

ChickenboneJohn said:

I see a couple of UK guys here..a LOT of my timber comes out of skips..oak & cherry doors off kitchen units, beech, mahogany, utile, oak from furniture, maple, oak and merbau from flooring offcuts. DIY stores are hopeless for hardwood (tho' the square Hemlock stair ballusters from B&Q are OK at a pinch providing you put a decent hardwood fretboard on them). If you can find local timber merchant, then you are lucky...but recycling really is the way to go for decent free timber. I've also bough a load off oak and mahogany offcuts from a furniture maker..but I did have to take half a ton of it. Message me if you need any! By the way....rosewood isn't illegal, and it's readily available. Brazilian (Rio) rosewood is on the CITES list (amongst load of other things), that's the really rare stuff.

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