Well doesn't time fly. Pretty shocked to realise that I last updated this in February...
There are a couple of reasons - other stuff going on meant I had to cancel or shorten some visits to the workshop, and I also kind of hit a bit of a mental blockage with the project. Having got to the point where I thought I had a reasonable fit on the neck, after some close inspection Col said he thought I could get it a bit better, to him it didn't feel quite right. And for him it has to be right, or as least as good as it can be. But I felt that things were now getting beyond my skill level. I had found the neck fit difficult and a bit nerve racking, it's like snakes and ladders, take too much off in the wrong place and you lose alignment etc and you can be back at square one. At least I could. It was also complicated by the fact that the neck was never designed for that body and the body itself wasn't true. I found it difficult to visualise which of the many touching surfaces within the joint was not quite right.
However I didn't stop completely, I just did a few easy bits and pieces and avoided thinking about the neck joint.
For example I cut a heel cap from an old bit of walnut, shaped the heel and glued it on ..

I also finished carving the heel, smoothing out the transition from the original neck to the new heel. Had to take a fair bit off the neck to do it, changing the neck profile in the process.

And then used a pillar drill with a Forstner bit to drill the body for the grills. I then enlarged the holes using an abrasive bit in an electric drill. The grills will be finally glued in later:
