The neck is not fastened permanently to the rim with glue, but is held in place with some hardware and a piece called the dowel stick.  The dowel stick is really just an extension of the neck that passes through the rim.  The dowel stick is tenoned into the neck and glued in place.  To make the dowel stick I started by cutting some maple about 1in square and 14in long.  I mounted the stock in the lathe to cut the tenon.

Tuning tenon on dowel stick

I turned the tenon down to 3/4in to fit the mortise drilled in the neck.  I then cut the dowel stick down to a little over 3/4in square.  I could have started with 3/4in stock, but I was not sure if I wanted to turn the dowel so it was round or if I wanted to taper it. After thinking about it I decided I would leave it square and un-tapered, and 3/4in seemed to look about right.  The dowel stick passes through the rim where the neck and rim meet.  I cut a square hole for for that.

Hole in rim for dowel stick

The dowel stick needs to be just the right length to pass through the rim to the other side, while bringing the neck into contact with the rim.

Dowel stick before trimming to length

The photo above shows that the dowel is too long.  Only the round portion of the dowel should be protruding through the rim.  I trimmed the dowel until it was the right length and the end matched the inner curve of the rim.  Back when I drilled the mortise in the neck for the dowel stick, I managed to make it a bit cockeyed.  The dowel stick must be straight with the neck, so to compensate for the crooked hole, I trimmed the end of the tenon on one side so the dowel could be straight.  This made for a pretty loose joint so I decided to use West System epoxy to glue the dowel stick to the neck.  The epoxy should fill the gaps between the mortise and tenon and make a strong joint.

Gluing dowel stick

The photo above shows the dowel stick and neck being glued together.  The rim is in place to help keep everything lined up, but is not being glued.  I placed a piece of waxed paper between the neck and rim to prevent them from sticking together.  Here are some photos of the dowel stick glued to the neck:

Dowel stick and neck

Dowel stick and neck

While I was working on the dowel stick I was also working on shaping the neck heel and attaching the heel cap.  The heel cap is a decorative piece of ebony to match the rim cap.  I cut the heel of the neck so it would be parallel with the back of the rim and to provide for the thickness of the cap.

Heel before trimming

Heel after trimming

After trimming the heel I glued a piece of ebony to it and shaped it to match the rest of the heel.

Gluing the heel cap on

Heel cap after shaping

Now that the neck and dowel stick were attached and the heel cap was on, I worked on the joint between the neck and the rim, filing and sanding the until they seemed to fit together well.

Heel and rim

Neck, rim and dowel stick

Neck, rim and dowel stick

The next step will be to make a cut in the neck to allow the tension hoop to slide down over the rim.