Building a Telecaster styled guitar neck: fitting and placing the truss rod

Fitting the truss rod is a precision operation. Since our truss rod channel is routed in from the back side of the neck, strict attention must be given to the depth of the (headstock end) truss rod anchor ball. Too deep and it goes through the fret board . . . too shallow and it comes through the surface when shaping the back of the neck. We also chose to mig weld the 3/8" dia ball onto the threaded end of the truss rod, then grind the sides so that it will slide into the 1/4" wide routed channel.Since thr truss rod is 3/16" dia, there isn't very much left on the sides when the welded ball is ground down to fit in the 1/4" channel. 

To beef-up the solid surface area that the truss ball will bear on, we chose to make the maple insert (shown below). These will be hide-glued into the channel on the final fit-up.

The truss rod pushed into place (shown below). Note the string is used to enable easy removal during the fit-up. It can be seen how thin the skunk stripe will be, given that some will be removed when shaping the back of the neck. By choice, these necks will be on the thicker side at the headstock end, so the thin skunk stripe will work.