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I have oversized nut and saddle blanks that need thinned. What is the best way to thin and keep a consistent thickness? I can sand by hand but I have to keep pressure just right to prevent a wedge shape.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

I run them through my thickness sander

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

John, does it take a fixture to run them through your thickness sander?
thanks, Mike

If its really oversized, like turning a 3/16" saddle into a 1/8" or even 3/32" saddle, then I use a bandsaw to get it close then sand it... I do not have a thickness sander so all I can really do is stick it to a piece of wood and sand it on the belt sander... having power makes it easier to not sand it into a curve. I suppose you can also use the Wagner Safe T Planer too.

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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
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I just take a scrap piece of wood the thickness of the bone blank, cut a channel the same as the height of the blank, cut the channel (rectangle shape) longer than the blank so the wood gets sanded first.

Now run this with the blank in the channel through the sander. The board will ensure the bone blank doesn't get thrown back from the drum or tilt up...

This makes it easy to check in the nut or saddle slot on the go.

Here's a picture. It literally took me less time to make this versus writing the above.

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I wondered if I could use my drum sander. I'll give it a try.

What is the thickest saddle you've used successfully, 5/32"? Wanting a little extra compensation adjustment.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Good idea Rod!

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

3/16" works for me. Plenty of room for compensation and still plenty of bearing surface so you don't get grooves in the saddle or break strings.

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I've done this when I've needed a Fender blank and all I had were 1/4" blanks.

Flatten one side of your blank. Take it over to the disc sander, flat side down, and square one edge of your blank so it's nice and orthogonal to the side you flattened. Now you have a flat side and a square up edge...this edge will be the edge that goes down in the nut slot.

Put the flattened side of the blank face down, and put the UNFLATTENED edge up against a 1/8" piece of wood (or however thick you need) and scribe a line. Take a small piece of wood that is nice and square, and double sided tape the blank to the wood. Tape it so the edge you flattened is DOWN towards the table, and the side you flattened is taped to the wood. I just put the piece of wood down on my bandsaw table, place the nut down on the table, and push them into each other so everything's nice and flat and flush. Then take it over to your disc sander and sand until you split your pencil line. You'll find that it's trivially easy to do this on your disc sander once you have the piece of wood to hold onto and the pencil line to monitor your progress. It should take about 10 seconds....20 if you're being all careful and persnickety.

Where's that "Like" button when you need it. Thanks Rod!

Darryl : I have used over .200,but most are around 3/16".
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Rod and I use the same method

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Have you guys used a 3/16" saddle on a non-belly bridge (like a pyramid) that is 1" from front to back? Do you still have plenty of room for the bridge pins? If this worked ok, were you using a 90 deg saddle or did you have it slanted back 5-7 degs?

Maybe I should ask this a different way.....and then I could figure things out myself. What is the minimum amount of material that should be left between an opening (sadddle pocket, bridge pin hole, etc.) and the edge of the saddle? Also how much material should be left between the saddle pocket and the bridge pin hole? If I knew this information, I could easily figure out what would and what would not work on a bridge tha tis 1" deep front to back.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Double post sorry.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Darryl: Just checked a guitar I have sitting by the computer. Bridge 1.125" wide with 3/16" saddle and there is plenty of room at least for me. Perhaps if you draw it out you may feel more at home.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Thanks Tom. 90 deg saddle or is the saddle slanted rearward? Not sure I can get 1 1/8" out of the blanks I have.......might be 1".

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Darryl: Sloped slot......conventional,not sure in terms of degrees. Also the pin holes follow the slope of the saddle. I have 1/4" behind the bass E so I could remove 1/8" and be at 1" even. I would make sure you have decent meat in front of the saddle............whats behind pins not as important.At least in my opinion.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

I just thin them on a flat surface with sandpaper. Flip it every 10 strokes or so to keep it even and measure often with calipers. Watch out though....those edges will get quite sharp. I hate cleaning blood stains off bone

regarding the thickest saddle i've used sucessfully it was about 5/16" or so. but this was in the repair side, not a build.

the guitar was an epiphone which had one of those execrable gibson style adjustable saddles and a bolt on neck a la fender with the action in the stratoshere. needless to say not a great guitar.

the owner was client of my then significant other and wanted the thing made playable, but as she was not flush with money and was taking lessons, the budget for the job was tight.

neck angle adjustment via a shim brought the action down, but the saddle adjustment screw posts where eating holes into the top. pitched the adjustable saddle mechanism and replaced the whole thing with a corian saddle. lots of room to adjust intonation which was needed since the bridge was too close to the nut.

the oversized saddle drove the heavily braced plywood top sufficiently that her instrucor thought she had a new guitar when he heard her warming up.

i have seen photos of builders using up to 1/4" or so but haven't heard the results.