Official Luthiers Forum!

After rediscovering that a disk sander removes finger skin very rapidly, I wondered what other folks use to hold nut and saddle pieces for shaping on a disk sander.
I looked through the jig and fixture sub-forum but didn't see anything.
It would be helpful to me, and perhaps some others, if folks could post a very short description and/or photo of the setup they use to radius, flatten and shorten bone or small wood pieces on the disk sander.
thanks
Dave

Go here

https://www.google.ca/search?q=jeweler%27s+clamp&client=firefox-a&hs=8tD&sa=X&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=fbysUcO5Iu_DiwK28oG4Dg&ved=0CE4QsAQ&biw=1280&bih=570

Take your pick ... the wooden ones can be drilled on one end for mounting on a pin in a board thats mounted to the sanders table for radiusing.

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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I shape all my nuts and saddles by hand on a piece of sandpaper doublestick taped to the bench. To hold it if necessary I will use a few pieces of binding tape wrapped inside out (sticky side out) on the pointer and bird-flipper finger. Then it will stick. I have never seen the need to use a power sander for shaping nuts/saddles.

I made that very discovery last night and now have fingerprints on only 90% of my digits. Sad part is, it's not the first time.

When I'm working sensibly, I use CA, and when done, hit it with acetone or CA release.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

"very short description"
anything secure except body parts

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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.

I made this simple jig a few years ago. Just a block of wood ripped in half with two notches cut on each end, one for nuts, one for saddles. Just make them a little smaller then the thickness of your nut/saddle. The bolt and wing nut bring it together and hold it snug.

See this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=40541

Double-stick tape the bone to a piece of flat scrapwood and sand away.

That's what I do. Fast and easy.

Great advice Filippo. Thanks for sharing.

Same as Filippo.

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Pat

Ditto. I hate the smell though. I usually just use a file or hand sand if I don't need to remove much

Filippo, It works really REALLY well! It's one of the few power tools I have inside. I used to have a wall covered with dust even using a DE. But now I think this hood contains most everything. I am running the full 2 1/4" connector to the festool DE.

I used 1/4" cork because I had some and just made a 1/2" lip. On the left side it is flush with the gap and the right sticks out some. It's not perm attached so I can move it to do longer pieces.

And thanks for the tip on flattening the disc!

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Pat

Your back!!!

BTW, what Fillipo said. +1. I use a zero clearance shelf for the same reason. It's normally the space between the shelf and the disk that cause the problem, especially at angles (when you tilt the shelf to get the 13-15 degree peghead angle). I'm a little less technical here... I just tape a card scraper to the shelf.

This for belt sander work...



This for holding in a vice and hand shaping...

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David Radlin
http://www.facebook.com/radlin.guitars

Wow.
So many great ideas including dust collection.
The zero clearance tables are wonderful too. I was actually using one when my finger was literally flipped into the disk by the oddly shaped piece of bone I was sanding. (It was literally a piece of bone that I had cut earlier from a leg shank bone I had laying around.)
I had a bunch of ideas for tools running around in my head and I needed to see some simple, elegant and effective ideas and that is exactly what I received. Thank you all very much for helping.
Dave

I had the pleasure of just that kind of extreme manicure once.....ouch! I use zero clearance, but I had bought a sliding vise that StewMac sells for the luthier's friend, thinking I'd use it making bridges, but it just sat around until I thought to use it for saddle shaping. Lined with cork to give it some hold and screw the knobs down. Now that I've seen some of these other solutions, they are both elegant and cheap.....I'd go with one of those.

OK, I see now, you just have the dust collection the the regular dust outlet. I like this and Filippo's setup.

James, yes, I am just using the built-in 2.5" dust port. I had originally planned to put in a secondary port above the right hand side, but it seemed to work well enough with just the hood.

However, I use a 60 grit disk sander in the garage for the bulk of things and then use this one inside for touch up and for smaller pieces: nuts, saddles etc. I also run a strong hepa filter inside.

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Pat