The Neck and Truss rod

I took a few weeks off to build my deck, but I am back in the shop working on the neck.  Wow, I am a poet.  The initial carving did not take as long as expected.  I cut the pattern of the neck profile out and traced it to my piece of maple.  I used my band-saw to cut the initial shape out.  From there I used various hand rasps to shape the neck and heel. You can only shape the neck to rough dimensions before you must stop and glue the wings to the head-stock on.  Once the veneers are glued on and the head-stock is cut to shape , the final shaping can occur

 I just finished gluing on the front and back head stock veneer.  I was originally planning on a piece of Ziricote to match the fingerboard, but in the last minutes of my decision constipation I decided to use a piece of maple.  This will match the neck and back of the mandolin.

The truss rod was more of a pain than expected.  I experienced  my 1st major setback while cutting the slot for the truss rod.  I used a 1/4 inch dado blade on my table saw and flew to close to the Sun on the wings of Icarus. I sawed right through the back of the neck.  I gotta tell ya I was not to pleased.  But in the spirit of craftsmanship I made another neck and moved on.    

The access hole on the head stock was a bit of a challenge.  I used a Dremel tool and chisels to carve the hole.  It just took longer than I thought.

I am ready to cut the head-stock to final shape and finish the carving of the neck.

Cutting the Veneer

Gluing the Veneer

Gluing the truss rod filler strip