Official Luthiers Forum!

I finally broke down and went to homeless depot and bought the ridgid lam trimmer .It works vy well with the LMI cutters.I saw robbie O using a tilt base PC rtr to get into the back neck area on a radiused ss back.I have the PC , but not the tilt base . Was thinking of making a donut to put on the ridgid and find a way to mount it in my old style fleishmann binding jig, where do you get the umhw material ?? and how does one go abt making one? or should I just get a tilt base for the PC?? your thoughts ?? thanks

McMaster-Carr has it.

_________________
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

I used hole saws to make this one. Be sure to adjust your cutter depth between routing the top and back. The extra radius of the back will result in a shallower cut.

_________________
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

I got a bag of UHMW blocks from Woodcraft for a small amount of money. If you take a block and cut it to the size you want for your router base, drill it to fit the router, and then attach it, you can mark the center of it with a small bit chucked in the router. With the center marked, you can remove it and turn it in a lathe to any shape you want for the doughnut. When you're done shaping it you can drill (or rout) out the center to diameter you want for your router bit. The picture shows mine on the old Ridgid router. I also have the new one but leave tis one setup for binding.

I cheated and made mine on a lathe which is only useful if you have access to one. I also used Delrin but only because I had some left over from a job.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

The delrin is easier to machine than UHMW and more than adequate for the task. The UHMW responds better to very sharp tools but still leaves fuzzy burrs that are not easy to remove--it's tough stuff.

There is a woodcraft in overland park ks , will try them for umhw, where do you get delrin from ?? I do have a lathe. Thanks for the photos an setups keep them coming . I/m getting some ideas now, of how to do this thanks everyone.

I got the stuff (Delrin or UHMW) from a local fab shop that had some scraps.

I glued it to a wooden face plate with contact cement & turned it on my lathe with a gouge.

I removed it with a variable temp heat gun & a putty knife then attached it to my jig with contact cement.

Kevin Looker

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

Kevin did you taper the b. birch base from the edge to donut? what kind of radius 15' ? thanks.

Yes, I tapered the base, don't know how much, just held it up against a disk sander until I was sure it would clear the back of my build which had a 15' back radius.

Kevin Looker

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

Thanks everyone ,looking for a local plastics supplier. closest is abt 20mi away.

We had a cutting board made from UHMW in the kitchen that was ready for retirement. I cut out a piece, drilled a hole in the center that I ran a bolt through and tightened up the nut. I put that in my drill press and used it like a lathe. I had a lathe chisel (but no lathe). It did a fine job of cutting out a circle with a taper. Then I cut a 1" diameter hole in the center with a fostner bit. ...made a perfectly usable dognut...

_________________
Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Thanks everyone I just got a nice piece of 3/8in white delrin from a machinest friend .All the local shops wanted 20 plus $$. I glued the plastic to 3/4in baltic birch ply using hot melt glue , made a nice donut on the lathe..Building a 3/4in base for the ridgid lam trimmer to be remounted in the binding jig. Guess I can glue the donut on the birch ply with duco cement? or ??.All the photos , advice and info are much appreciated that/s what I like abt the forum, so many good ideas.My machinest friend rightly said that it would take several lifetimes to amalgamate all the knowledge from the forums and expertise needed to become a machinest /luthier etc.

John Hall also sells these. I remember it being reasonably priced.

I bought several strips of UHMW on eBay a few years ago, there was plenty offered.

Mike Franks

I bought several strips of UHMW on eBay a few years ago, there was plenty offered.

Mike Franks