Official Luthiers Forum!

First time using jig made from drawings by Todd Stock , with some minor modifications, mosty to accomodate router...bit is a 3/4 inch mortise bit..took four initial passes then cleaned up starting at the center then moving outward at about 14/to 1/2 intervals...very little sanding required...big mess routing ebony!!!!!!

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MK5acoustics.com

Is this a drawing Todd sells?

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I built one like this a few weeks ago, too! I didn't tape the first board down very well and now it's firewood, but the two I've done since came out perfect! I've been searching for quite a while for a radius method that suits me, and I've finally found it. Anyone who hasn't built one of these machines needs to drop what they're doing and build one right now. Shout out to Todd for posting these drawings!

Hope you are wearing a decent mask for that? I know people who have ebony allergies which flare up just touching it. Some kind of dust extraction will at least cut down on the mess.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

This attachment helps a lot with the mess. A box core router bit with a 1/2" shank works well to avoid chip out around the fret slots.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.