Doing Things Wrong

Reverse Routing Plate

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The plate is an old piece of phenolic I had lying around - very stiff stuff. The 'legs' are pine scrap, in whatever width works.​

The Reverse Routing Jig holds a router above the workpiece, which is secured to a flat smooth surface below. I use an old piece of countertop, not a carpet, as in the picture. By sliding the router over the workpiece, you can mill the face of the piece. Height is adjustable by changing the legs. This jig is very useful for milling Fender-style headstocks. It is also possible to cut angled headstocks by blocking-up the workpiece and using the longer legs. This jig is basically an upside-down router table, with one great advantage - you can see what you are doing.

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This is such a versatile jig that StewMac actually copied it. I had my original version posted online well over a year before they came out with theirs. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.


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It's time to glue up some necks. First I radius-sanded the fretboards to 12 inches with my DIY sanding block. The StewMac board started with a 16" radius, which was easy to do. The other board started flat and was a lot of work to do entirely by sanding, not to mention a mess of nasty rosewood dust. For a flat board, better to rough it out with a router, and then finish by sanding. I'm not much of a cook, but the little kitchen timer has a thousand uses.