I put some pencil lead on the end of the bolts and stuck them through the heel block – to put some marks on the neck tenon.
All the holes drilled and the bolts used to attache the neck. Decided to go with these type of bolts/nuts.
Think they are stronger than pins and I don't like the idea of putting inserts in the end-grain.
Testing the bolts, they seem to fit really well but the nuts are a little proud of the tenon – just slightly too long.
Much better fit.
This is the mortise in the healblock that the tenon will insert into. You can see the bolt holes and the truss rod hole if you look close.
Bolted up. I haven't yet made sure that the neck is straight to the body. This will take some patience and I don't have any extra today. I will straighten it up another day.
Fits perfect!
Sharpened it to a very fine point as low as I could get the pencil lead down.
Ran the pencil lead across the frets to mark where the fret height is. The strings will need to be slightly higher than that.
Rounded off the back of the nut.
Cut the spice wood down to the heel shape and glued to a matching birds-eye maple piece.