Another problem solved

Another neck comes off. With a mixture of steam, light pressure, and heat a neck can be removed with minimal damage to the guitar. In a perfect world all neck joints would respond predictably and slide right out.

This was one of those. Mostly because it had loosened over the years. And despite the fact that the dovetail joint did not line up with the holes we drilled to force steam into the joint. In fact the fretboard glued to soundboard was doing more than the dovetail joint, in this case.

See those 4 small holes just behind the neck cavity? Those were drilled though the fret slot seen above and are meant to allow access to the seam where the neck meets the body. I could feel that my first three holes were landing directly into the neck block, so I angled the fourth (far left) until i felt the opening. That one opening was just enough to force steam through and loosen the last bit of glue.