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Thinking to use a PVC non-slip router mat to lay guitars on for inspection and repair as carpet can seems a bit too slippy for me.
Are there any known issues with contact between PVC and Guitar finishes?

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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.

Light just came on. Poly Vinyl Chloride.
Found out after posting that Wiki says they are commonly used in PVC (Anti-fatigue matting, etc.)
Thanks.
So what do other people use to lay down instruments for inspection/repair that isn't slippy or harmful to the finish?
Does it exist?

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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.

Carpet.

I use old bath towels. I put the neck in the vise if I don't want the guitar to slide around. Would be nice to have something that would protect the finish and was non-slip AND would not be a magnet for metal shavings and other finish killers.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I use a bathroom rug. There's sticky stuff on the back side so the rug doesn't slide on the bench. I don't find the soft side of the rug to be too slippery. It's good to wash the rug before you use it to get loose fibers out.

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John Cavanaugh
Saint Paul, MN
"What could possibly go wrong?"

I went to the Goodwill and bought a very nice ladies full length leather coat. I covered my workbench with it. Glued it right down to the wood. That was a few years ago. My only problem is having to clean a spot big enough for a guitar.


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I have been getting Yoga Mats and have had no issues thus far .

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Probably OK short term, but a little research showed yoga mats sold here seem to be NBR (Nitrile butadiene rubber), and plasticizers are used in NBR to soften it at low temperatures (eg room temperature) so I'll give that a miss.
Think "O" rings seals - NBR is used for basic "O" rings.

_________________
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.

A while back I considered Yoga mats until an online query here pointed me away from that idea. Still using the old carpet trick.
Tom

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

I've been using a piece of carpet pad.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

Wish this post had come up years ago--I wouldn't have started using that rubber(-like) matting from Lowe's that lines tool cabinet shelves. Has worked fine while building and quickly acquired a fine coating of sawdust that defies my shopvac's best efforts. Hasn't caused any changes to the guitars that have laid on top of it, although most don't rest there all that long with finish. Admittedly, I frequently place a few old towels down on the bench at times, too.

Lonnie's post got my attention, about using leather.
May warrant further investigation and perhaps a visit to the charity shops (and a piece of router mat under the neck support)

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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.

Tried masking tape on the fine sawdust?

_________________
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.

The leather idea is a good one. Like Dave said-time to check the charity stores.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

beware of the nonslip mats, likely use silicone as a release agent in the molds.

go to a leather supply shop, and get some upholstery leather. comes in a big roll, find something off color or off spec at a cheap price. I have some with a suede like surface on the back that works good. make sure its not oily though, so you dont contaminate and have finishing problems

Maybe vegetable tanned leather would be an idea?

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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.

Carpet with a low nap and that vacuums well. The last thing that we ever want to do is place a newly finished (or otherwise) guitar on our protective mat and have some scrap of something from old, dried glue to a nipped off fret end scratch the crap out of it.

We use carpet and I vacuum my carpet usually once per guitar I am working on to be sure that the thing is safe and sound where it is.

Some plastic mats have silicon residue in or on them and silicon may have been used in the release agent when manufacturing the thing and removing it from a form or mold. As such it's a good idea to avoid plastic mats.

Early on I used the drawer liners commonly found at big box stores for lining tool box drawers. I was concerned about release agents with this stuff too so I washed the mat on gentle in the washing machine (using no liquid fabric softener that may contain silicon as well) many, many times and it worked fine.

These days though it's carpet.

Another consideration is the vice that you use and how you hold the work piece when working on it. The vices that we use don't have the guitar back in contact with the mat for the most part and that can avoid damage as well.

You will also find lots of uses for leather as well to protect the instrument, pad it at times, protect the strings from scratching the frets when clamped in a vice, etc. Leather is something that many Luthiers know to score when ever we see some good stuff.

I wont argue with the research , I haven't checked and you are probably 100% correct . I should have also mentioned that I don't leave the Guitar on the mat over night . Simply used when working on the instrument . I have tried the carpet and ended up finding little carpet fibers all over . May have been "quality" of carpet .

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

I use Leather...

I bought some suede but found it inferior to actual leather. It's leather ok but it's not the skin part. That's where the protection comes from. I was considering making a jig to use in neck re-sets. So I'll be going to the goodwill to look at what they've got. It's only a mile up the road. I have no problem with finished guitars laying on it. I oil mine once in awhile to keep it soft and pliable. Even glued to the bench it gives good protection.


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If you wet a towel, a finished guitar won't slip around at all. You don't want to do this with an unfinished guitar but once paint is on it you're safe.

RECYCLED split leather apron from yard sale 2 $

My wife has made me a variety of protective coverings and mats from old leather coats. I also use old towels, but find that the leather holds the body more securely and is easier to keep clean.

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George :-)

Without knowing any better I've used a foam routing mat for 10 years on my bench without any ill effects. I also made a guitar vice using drawer liners to protect the box. I may have been lucky, but I haven't noticed any issues. Is there any reason I shouldn't keep using them? Do you think that objectionable chemicals would dissipate over time (although, I never did have any issues... No problems with finishes...)

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