Messing around with a couple of necks

I started tidying the shop to get some space for building a christmas gift to myself and my wife. But with half finished projects littering the place it's too damn easy to pick something up and continue building. 

Tonight my eyes fell upon the resos. The necks already had holes for the barrel bolts so how hard could it be just to drill for screws and tie everything together?

The first picture shows the fifth dry run. 

I had forgotten the level of engineering skills I have to fake to build these! How on earth do I choose, and then set, the proper neck angle?

I put a cone in and a cover plate on, then did some dodgy calculations. On my acoustics it's easy - I just bend the neck a bit when I glue the back on. The back always covers the heel and keeps the angle in place. The miniscule difference between the front and back edge on the upper bout is sort of masked by gouge marks and general asymmetries. 

But, back to the resos and tonights frustrations. It seems that an angle of two degrees is about right. I planed and pared away at the heels. The mahogany neck for the walnut reso was a bit brittle in the end grain so after shaping I let some CA glue soak in at the middle. I don't want that barrel bolt to come rushing out when I tighten the screw. 

The ash neck was easier, heavy and solid as a really solid thing. 

Here they are, neck angles and all. Took me 90 minutes. (I still need to clear the bench though.)