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The weird but functional neck I made uses a but joint / barrel nut bolt approach. One side effect is that I have two holes on the treble side of the heel. While unsightly it does allow me to reach in and turn the nut so the angle matches the plane of the bolt.

So in a M+T joint do you leave it unglued and hope the nut does not turn ? Or do you put a dab of glue on the nut, then insert the bolt, so the nut is at the right rotation for the bolt ?
Hope I am not over-complicating this.

No glue.

No glue. The hole should have a slight friction fit that will keep it from rotating while attaching the neck. If you find it rotates too freely a tiny piece of masking tape on the side or end can hold it in place well enough until it is attached.

Kent

I have used them and had enough friction to hold them in place. Until the last one. I could not get the bolt in, it kept rotating the nut. In frustration I put a drop of CA on it and the next time I tried it threaded in nicely.

No glue here either, back when I used them.

I'm confused perhaps but the way I have done M&T joints with the barrel nuts you would design it such that it is free to move so that it takes on the necessary angle when tightening the bolts. In the future when the guitar needs a neck reset then the bolts will be free to rotate to the required angle. That way there will be no stress imparted on the heal by a bolt that wants to apply force in one angle to a nut that is set fast at another.

+1 to friction fit. If the barrel spins too freely, you can build up the outside of the barrel or the inside of the drilled hole with successive coats of CA. You just enough to snug things up a bit.

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George :-)

I usually glue mine in.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

The nuts are 10mm so I have a 3/8 drill bushing jig and after they are drilled run a 10mm drill through in reverse. Usually gives a snug fit. +1 on the CA technique if loose.
Good idea to reinforce the tenon when using barrel nuts. I did some pull out testing A number of years ago and failure occurred at pretty low forces.
With reinforcement such as Cumpiano describes it was almost impossible to get the construct to fail.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I wick in CA. Why not. If you take the neck off and that cross dowel moves you got a problem.

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Michael F Smith
Goat Rock Ukulele
http://goatrockukulele.com

I don't but mine fit tight. If I had some that were loose enough that I felt they might move then I'd put some glue on the nuts just to make them tight but not locked in place. I want them to be able to move in case of a neck reset. That said, I don't think it matters a whole lot since they're accessible when the neck is removed.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"