Neck is gluing up

Tonight I glued up the neck, photo album here. First, I wiped down all the glue surfaces with acetone to remove dust and surface oils. Evaporating acetone on a rag gets surprisingly cold. Then I wiped Tite-Bond on each surface and stacked the layers up on some aluminum foil on top of my tablesaw, and started clamping.

It sure is nice to have lots of clamps around, and the big Bessey parallel-face clamps are perfect for a task like this. I don't have quite enough of those to completely cover a 48" neck, especially when using 3 of them oriented perpendicular to the others to prevent shifting of the glue-lubricated laminates, so I filled in the gaps with more ordinary (and much cheaper) clamps.

As I stacked the layers together, I was again blown away by how WIDE this neck will be. I've never owned a 6-string, and my left hand started feeling intimidated. Of course, the full neck is 3.6" wide, whereas the fingerboard will be more like 3.5" at its widest, and only 2.215" wide at the nut. But still, this is an assload of wood! Weighs a ton, glad more than half will get carved off!

I'll leave it clamped for a few days (which is probably overkill), and then let it sit for a few weeks to let it fully dry out before truing it up on the tablesaw and planer in preparation for routing slots for the graphite stiffening spars and truss rod.