Official Luthiers Forum!

I've been trying to get my fretboard radius jig sorted out. The problem I'm trying to worked out right now is making sure I've got a level bed for the fretboard blank to fasten to, and how to make sure my radius blocks at the ends are square, parallel, and at the same height.





The other project I'm working on is how to set up a registration pin on my RAS fence so that I can use my new fret scale template. Any ideas?

Helping a friend with his first build - a classical. We bent his sides today, and inlaid the rosette in the top (an LMI pre-made one).

I thicknessed the top for a flamenco I'm working on, and bent the sides and bindings.

Started picking out wood for the 2012 challenge. Top will be WRC cut from a dimensional 1 by 10 from a lumber yard (Delaware County Supply in Boothwyn, PA. Extremely cool place for a lumber yard - they often have a good hardwood selection, but I'm often most impressed by what I can pull from the softwood piles - Douglas Fir, WRC, etc.)

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Roger - Instead of trying to work off of the RAS fence, make a separate fence and table for the FB and template that you can screw down onto the saw top, and you can attach your reference pin to the sub-fence. The jig will look like a miter box cut in half length-wise like an "L" shape. When you make a cut, do it on the push stroke, that will keep the FB from riding toward you because of the blade rotation. If you don't have a reference pin, use a drill bit of the same diameter. Hope this helps.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Thanks, Alex. I'll have to put some thought to that and see what I can rig up

I wish I had kept my radial arm saw - it would be great for fretting, but it was the most dangerous tool in my shop and the only one I ever had potentially catastrophic accident with.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Been planing the details on my next build group. All 3 will Engleman/Mahogany. Still working out the trim details. Made a batch of Walnut bindings with attached purfs this past week and made a batch of my headstock inlays for the year. I am waiting for my new 8" joiner to arrive before I start working parts for the builds so I spent yesterday out visiting friends and other shops showing off one of my guitars. Will most likely spend the day cutting pearl & abalone or position marks or something like that.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

French polishing #13, scraping the bindings for 14 and 15. I can't start on the next until I get these out of the system

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Build log

No pics, but I'm working on a mandolin, a tenor banjo, plus some jigs and fixtures for my bandsaw and drill press.

Trying to channel the Padma while I attempt my first top carve.

Was Jenny Cream his magic ingredient?

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Puttin the resaw to work, sortin' through some new old wood:

Refurbishing an old desk and building a work station for tying flies and fly rods. Since go fly fishing everyday, time to start tying my own. Wife bought the vise, tools, and bunch of materials for Christmas. 27" rainbow on a soft hackel and 6X tippet yesterday.

Oops, this is the wrong forum. Now I will get yelled at.

it's never the wrong forum when you are talking 27" trout on 6x...! (c:

my only complaint is that there are no pictures..!

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

We have not been able to fish much the last few months as they were running gates 24/7. The last week we were only catching 12-17 fish and mostly on midges (I have been throwing woolys) This was unusual for this time of year. I was walking out to the golf cart to go home and threw this little soft hackle. Long story short, I had to play it and it was getting gassed from exertion, and no one had a camera (last time I go without at least my phone) We measured it and so he could heal let him go in some ripples. we didn't even take him out to weigh, but figure 12 plus pounds.

Taneycomo has huge rainbows and browns, but most huge fish caught in the fall. The average I fish about 15" taking big and small into factor and good days (30 or more fish per day-all catch and release is what we do) I live on the trophy tail area waters below Table Rock Dam .

One neck left to shape on three size 2's I'm working on.



And a Mahogany/Lutz OM with double sides and a BZ bridge set up for the wall at The Podium. Maybe there's something to this double side stuff. I've done laminated sides on my archtops but this is the first flat top. It's got a pretty cool sound that I like a lot.

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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 did boring stuff all week....processing big boards into smaller ones.

Not working this weekend so I finally got a chance to record something new. Based on a John Mayer lick.

http://www.recordingproject.com/bbs/vie ... hp?t=40374

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

That's very nice, Zlurgh!

I too was busy this weekend mostly with recording stuff on Saturday (nothing to share yet) but did have enough time to cut some stock for bandura necks from 12/4 hard maple plank I have.

The "shop" time I did have I spent working out how to fit 17 tuning pins into the peg block area on a bandura I'm building using my CAD software. I think this came out o.k. with only a little asymmetry but the good news is that there's a pattern on how to tune it (bottom to top, left to right) and there's no strings rubbing against neighbor pegs. What do you think?

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

I started a "phin" for a fwend.
He's gonna pay me too!
I hope.
Anyway, it's from Thailand,
has 3 strings, DAD, EBE,
treble strings, it's easy to make sound good,
and looks silly as heck.
Tassie blackwood's a bear to bend.

Worked on the challenge build between , taking a load of scrap to the dump , hauling a couple cord of firewood to inlaws and destroying old company files .

Made the Dulcimer/ walking cane head stock .

This is a particularly nice piece of cherry that came from the " Stump "

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

I did a little work on a pair of mandolin necks. Here I'm shaping a headstock veneer




I sliced up some celluloid binding on my table saw (which can be interesting... ), and made this tool to scrape it to size




Those familiar with F5 mandolin headstocks know that unless you make the binding for the curved parts wider than the rest initially, it will become too thin after the angled headstock edges are cut. Bound the veneer with acetone in the lap joints

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Got to work setting up the new shop this weekend. Setup the new Grizzly 14" bandsaw, the Shop Fox Drill press, and Jet 10-20 and got them all dialed in. Also made a radius dish jig much like the one in Chris Paulicks tutorial. Worth every minute that it took to make the jig. Made making the dishes go like clockwork. Completed a 15' and a 25' radius. Next week, we do the Fox bender, the go bar deck and the side molds.

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Jason McGowan
M&S Guitars
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United States of America, looks like another silent night
As we're sung to sleep by philosophies that save the trees and kill the children....
Casting Crowns

A Cort "Custom Shop" guitar with side cracks around the electronics cutout, wooden letters, and hopefully next week will be able to start the challenge ukelele. My demo guitar is on hold until I get the rosette.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I've finally been getting some time in the shop. Managed to glue my fingers together again - wish I had a dime for every time I've done that. Usually I can pull them apart before they get stuck bad; not this time


Finished a 12-string replacement neck. The original was too twisted to fix. '49 J45 Gibson in the background is getting restored to playing condition. Never seen so many cracks in one guitar but it is coming together.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I glued my fingers to a piece of wood binding once, when I tried to CA them together (they cracked during bending). Except the capillary action of the wood wicked the CA away from the joint but right into my fingers!

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

haha.. sorry.. i know that's not funny, but yea, CA will definitely flow into capillaries.. it's just a matter of making sure it's teh guitars and not yours :p

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Jim Hansen