Stewart MacDonald 5295, Assembly Instructions Manual, Page: 24 / 40

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flush to the wood, and avoid tearing it loose . Now continue
final-shaping the heel with your half-round file and sandpa-
pers . The neck should be final-sanded to 220-grit .
When the glue is dry, remove the rubber bands . The neck
must be trimmed to meet the edges of the fretboard, with-
out removing any of the fretboard edges or filing deep
marks into them .
To complete the peghead “diamond” a little carving is neces-
sary . Visualize the back of the neck shape continuing right
up to an imaginary line at the end of the fretboard . A chisel
or a file is best for establishing these lines, as well as for
carving the diamond into a more delicate shape
(pictured) .
Follow with a half-round bastard file or a smooth mill file
(pictured) . Finish with 150, then 220-grit sandpaper and a
couple of small sanding blocks for smoothing . Always switch
to the next tool or sanding grit just before you think you
need it, to avoid overdoing it with any one tool .
KIT TIP: Neck sizes
Although the neck has been machined to reason-
ably close tolerances, plenty of extra wood has
been left to accommodate different neck sizes and
shapes . You can make tracings from the blueprint,
and cut out neck cross-section templates for check-
ing the shape of the back of the neck if you like .
We penciled the entire backside of the neck and
used our files at a slight angle along the length of
the neck
(pictured)
. When the pencil marks were
removed, or left evenly and slightly below the
grain of the mahogany, we switched to finer grit
sandpaper .
Using a rasp, followed by a half-round bastard file, shape the
neck’s heel . When the heel is close to the final shape, stop
to install the plastic heel cap .
Neck shaping and fitting
Shaping the neck
Rough-cut the shape of the heel cap from the plastic sheet
provided, leaving a little overhang to be trimmed with a
file after gluing . Attach the heel cap trim to the flat bottom
of the heel with medium-viscosity superglue, and let it dry
thoroughly . Carefully and gently file and sand the material
Fitting the heel cap
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