Thread: butt join for solidbody

Those butt joins need to be perfect
you can get em that way by cutting them with a table saw set up perfect. with an 80 tooth blade for smoothness. You can also do it with a router running along a 2" ally angle thats around 500mm long. you screw this to the wood and slide the router down it making the cut perfectly square an flat. you can also do it with a decent plane by putting both bits in the vice and planing them flat and square. tak em out an flip the bottom of the boards out and should join pretty good. A jointer will do it or a router table as well.
Sandpaper will be ver very difficult speccialy if you used a circular saw.
good luck
btw see melvin hiscoks book he does it with a plane
a plane or a router is cheapest way to go. router is most accurate both will cost around the same. but a router will do a lot more than a plane

thanks, i started trying with the router using a straight edge to get it right, might try it again but using a piece of wood to support the other side so it doesnt get the tendancy to dip down, thats where i had the problems. i was surprised how close i got with the sanding, surprised me as i thought it couldnt hurt so i gave it a try. ill get the clamps made up then have a look at the router.

thanks

if you need more idea post back
i watch this group[ pretty close

i feel like an idiot. i was thinking about using the router holding it paralell to the edge i want to get flat (using the edge of the cutter) the obvious way to do it well is to use the bottom of the router. tomorrow ill get some malamine because i know it will have perfect edges and is cheap, and clamp it to either side of the 2 blanks and run the router between the malamine using them as a guide. this will ensure that the cut is perpendicular to the sides of the wood, and that it is perfectly straight, assuming i line up the malamine properly. i was thinking about it the wrong way. oh well, should be no drama now. i feel silly after spending ages with the sanding and then my girlfriends dads plane today. i did make some clamps that will work really well out of some threaded rod and some nuts and blocks of wood. should work a treat.

thanks for the advice, i probbably should have thought a bit harder about what you were saying, i just assumed you were thinking along the same lines as i was.

When I cut the joint for the top and back plate for my archtop, I set the halves (flat side down) with an 8mm gap between them. I ran a straight edge down one of the halves, spaced so the center line of the 10mm router bit (using the router base edge for the guide) was aligned with the center line of the 8mm gap in the two halves.
It took a nice clean 1mm slice from each half in one go, but I figured any variation in the straight edge (It's not a perfect world) would be mirrored by each half. Low places in the left half would correspond to a high spot on the other one.
In the first fitting it was near enough to perfect and all I had to do was some gentle sanding with a sanding stick to get the router marks out.
Hope this gives you some help

Malibu,

Not made clear in your method is making sure you have the two book matched halves of the top facing each other when you stack them in order to achieve the 'evening out" of irregularities you correctly outline.

re sanding sticks.....sometimes Ill run sandpaper over the join but I use 120 grit stuck to side of a builders level with double sided tape. My sanding sticks are a bit flexible to guarantee they'll be perfectly flat.

Cheers Martin

Originally Posted by kiwigeo

making sure you have the two book matched halves of the top facing each other when you stack them

120 grit stuck to side of a builders level with double sided tape

Thanks Martin.. A good point that I should have mentioned

I like the idea of the level too, I'll keep that in mind for future. (Although, I might have to get the concrete dregs off the sides first!)

i got it done and it seems to be glued very nicely. i clamped some malamine to either side of the wood and used it as a guide for the router as malamine has a very flat edge. made a perfect join. i then roughed it up with sandpaper and glued it. left it overnight and ill do a bit of planing today. looks nice in my opinion. you only know its there as there is a discontinuous grain (thats after sanding a little bit to see it)

thanka for the advice, ill put some pics up once i have the body cut and so on. ill probably ask for some advice with the neck as i havent done that before, but that will be later on.