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Is there a quick way of making a large quantity of truss rod covers? I tried making a Plexiglas template and then used a template bit, only the part was too small so there was no way of holding it safely, and also the router bit kept blowing chunks out...

I'm thinking die cutting or something.

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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 used to make truss rod covers a lot before I switched to soundhole access ... the jig I used had a template on top the shape of hte cover, to be cut with a router and a template guide collar, and this top plate was simply screwed to a bottom board, and the two together acted as a clamp that held the blank in place .... so its two boards screwed together and when you open them apart a bit, the blank slides in between, then screw them tight and that clamps the workpiece .. make the boards large enough at the bottom end that the router can sit on the top template, and you can still clamp the whole thing to your bench.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Do you have some pictures? I use soundhole access but I'm trying to mass produce truss rod covers for various factory guitars (Gibson and Taylors) to make some extra income and also to fill up shop time when it's idle...

_________________
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

Hi Tai . sorry I don't .. don't think I even have the jig lying around anymore, that's what years ago ....It wont work very well for a Taylor or Gibson style anyway, its more for a triangle style that butts against the nut, so you can vary the length by cutting some off the un-routed end .. any of the kind that have holes at each end, and are rounded like that are a B$%ch to make ....

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

I expect you could make a dedicated pantograph type router to index & cut out successive covers from a pattern.

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Dave
Milton, ON

You could make a long stick with the desired profile and then chop them off of the end of the stick.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

-Double side tape a template to your cover stock
-Use a router with a veiner bit (or bit of choice) and bushing guide
-Double side tape a scrap of 1/2 x1/2 to the cover to be. That will act as a handle to keep your fingers safe.
-Use the router in a vise inverted and move the stock with the template around the bushing guide
-Hold the 1/2 x1/2 scrap to control your work
-You may need to make two passes
That's how I do small parts.
I hope that helps!

Don't forget to make your template smaller to accommodate for the bushing size
Just measure from the center of the router bit to the edge of the bushing guide
That will be what you subtract from the template!!
Be safe!

I had to cut some trapezoids out of pearloid last year. I tried a lot of things. What I ended up doing was cutting the shape in a flat piece of MDF with enough room around it that I could get a router bit in there. Basically, picture a board with the shape that you're trying to duplicate cut into the middle of it and a "moat" surrounding it big enough for your router bit with a bottom bearing to trace around the shape. You also need to make the template area lower by at least the thickness of the material you are using. Maybe a little more to compensate for the thickness of double stick tape.

This wasn't the difficult part though. Getting the shape right and and sharp looking is the real challenge.

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"I'm not going to say that perfection has never been achieved. However, if it has, it probably went unnoticed due to it's lack of character."

I'm even running into snag mass producing wooden pickguards. The template wears out little by little from the friction of the bearing, and also I'm getting more tear outs too. I think I should probably use a laminate trim bit rather than template bits... bit safer with the cutter hidden under the bearing.

Also the tape used for securing the work for whatever reason is losing its adhesion, causing major problem.

_________________
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

Tai, Here is my take on what you are trying. If you are trying to make money by mass producing the covers making them by hand is not the way to do it. Your time is worth something and the amount of time you will have into routing each piece out by hand will not be profitable by any means.

These types of items are mass produced by the hundreds on CNC machines and sold in bulk to outlets that mark them up by a considerable amount.
If it were me and living where you do, I would find some small CNC shop that would do them for you and then all you have to do is advertise and ship them. I would dare make a guess if you had them done in bulk you would be paying about 1/3 of what they sell for at some of the large outlets whcih is about $2.50. If you found the right shop you could probably even have them custom engraved which would fetch even more money for them.

Having said that...

If I were to make a jig for cutting them out here is how I would do it.
I would have a CNC shop make a metal jig for me like the one below. The shape of the cover is a bit larger than the final product. The little tabs you see at the top and bottom are where you will stop cutting, Essentially you would be routing out half of each cover so they stay in place. When you have cut all the lines out then remove the plastic and hand cut each piece out where the tabs are.

I would probably use a laminate trimmer or a dremel with a small carbide 45 degree cutter with a bearing on it to ride along the metal pattern. You can make the pattern with as many cutouts as you want but I would leave enough material at the edges so I could clamp it together to hold everything in place. I would make a sandwich of the template on top, plastic in the middle and a scrap backer board on the bottom. That will keep the plastic in place so you get a good clean cut. Clamp the whole thing to your bench and you can safely repeat the process as many times as you want.

Before cutting the pieces out I would have another template for drilling the holes. It would be much easier and faster to drill the whole sheet rather than each individual one.

Anyway, for what it is worth that is how I would do it.

Sorry for the crude drawing it was just a quick one to get my point across.

Cheers,
Bob

Note: In case you don't understand, the shape of the truss rod cover is the open part. (the metal template is the shaded part) You would run the router along the inside edge of the cutout so those little tabs are what will stop you from cutting the whole cover out and having it fall loose.

I understand... I think I can use a small carbide bit and then have the bit shank run along the wall of the template (I do it with my dovetail jig, works better than bearings strangely).

I'm not really doing this to make a profit though, just a means to get rid of scrap wood and make use of unused shop time that would otherwise not be producing anything useful. So I won't be buying materials for the purpose of producing truss rod covers, pickguards, or picks, but rather using only scrap wood for this. If I can make even a tiny amount of money then it's shop time being paid for, as well as scraps being recycled rather than thrown away.

_________________
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

Tai,
Bob has the right idea! Time and waste equals money! Just find someone with a cnc and make a few hundred or just buy them pre made. I made a few with my grandfathers old wood, the way I explained & worked very well! After a 1/2 day of work, I had 24 finished! I have a spiritual connection with all the wood my grandfather collected from ships back in the 50s & hope to use most of his wood for guitars.