Jay Turser JTA-Flag300 - Fixing a Hole

I'm taking the time for a number of things
That weren't important yesterday.

And I still go.

I managed to put in a few hours on this project over the weekend.  After another half hour or so with a file and a rotary sanding drum on my Dremel, I had the dovetail joint fitting up nicely.

Before drilling pilot holes through the neck block, that groove of a hole I had made needed to be fixed.  My preference would have been to route out the groove and make the bottom of it flat, but I don't have a good way to clamp her body down or a drill press to do it with enough accuracy.  Instead, I decided to shape a piece that would match the u-shaped opening.  I started with a piece of oak that had the grain running in the long direction and of dimensions slightly larger than that of the groove.  After a few minutes with a coping saw and a belt sander, I had this in-fill piece ready to be glued-up and clamped in place.

Since the slot would still need to be shimmed to set the neck angle, I left the infill piece proud of the existing outer surfaces of the groove.  This would also allow me to fill in the rest of the slot and then sand that entire surface to the correct angle at one time.

When the glue on the first piece had dried, I moved on to the two other pieces needed to level the plane of the neck block pocket.  A pair of popsicle sticks and some scrap furring strips wrapped in painters tape served well as clamping cauls.

While running errands and shopping over the weekend, I worked in a trip to Lowes and Home Depot for hardware.  Neither store carried the right-sized parts I was looking for in the color black, but what I found is plenty strong enough to do the job.  Still considering two repair options, I picked out and bought the bits and pieces for both methods of attachment.

The four plain wood screws and ferrules in the next picture are for the first repair option.  The wood screws are to go through the body and neck block from the rear, and go directly into the neck to hold it in place while the glue dries.  The screws are to remain, and would be removed to allow the neck to be steamed out for future set angle adjustments.

In this last picture are the machine bolts for the second repair option.  The four inserts are to be installed into the heel.  No glue is to be used in this option, the neck can be easily removed with the turn of a screwdriver on four bolts, and the neck set angle can be easily adjusted by shimming the neck heel and block.