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What kind of homemade tools have you made? I did a notched straightedge and some string spreaders recently. If you've got pics I'd love to see them. Might be nice to share some ideas as, we all know tools can get expensive. Thanks.

Last one I made was a fret bender: scrap of wood, washers, bolts, and these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-x-Replacement-Shower-Door-ROLLERS-Runners-Wheels-V-Grooved-19mm-Dia-LW19-/281049030019?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Bathroom_Shower_Units_PP&hash=item416fd3dd83.
Works well.

A must see. Homemadetools.net. . Click on "new tools", and just go page by page . AWESOME!!!!!

Lots of home made tools here. Made a new one today, but that was for a little shotgun work. I suspect your inquiry goes more to luthiery tools. Okay, here's a start. Arch top carving planes. I admire you for making a notched straight edge. I'm not sure I would attempt such a thing.

Patrick

Thanks for the link Landy, never seen this site before.

Steve

Over the years I've made a number of tools (mostly because they weren't available at the time) including a thicknessing sander, bridge pin reamer, router templates and modifying Sears router bits to accept guide bearings.
All of these tools required access to a machine lathe and milling machine (which i had before I retired). Now fortunately, all of this stuff is available from folks like Stew Mac but there was once a time when one's ability to do this work depended on making one's own tools.
These days my favorite homemade tool (not made by me but a luthier friend in London) is this little plane (the larger of the two in the back):

I like simple. I like cheap. In the manner of the popsicle stick I came up with these purfling cutters (now with cotton wrapping):



They work just like the popsicle rosette cutter, which is to say that they work extremely well. Just like the popsicle rosette cutter, gone are the days of moving a touch forward, a touch back, no. . . just a bit more. . . almost. . . just a hairs. . .

"I like simple. I like cheap".

I agree Michael, one's tools should never be nicer than what one builds with them.

While at homemadetools.net also do a search for Frank Ford, he's got 104 different posts there...

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Hey Nick...could we see a picture of the one you made?

I made a drill bit that had a small aluminum tube extension to allow drilling classical/uke string holes in an already-glued on bridge (ask me why I needed one ). Todd told me how to do it. I'll try to remember to upload a picture of it when I'm home.
One of the most used homemade "tools" I've made is a couple of bench hooks. A small one allows jointing and trimming of things like the bridge blank. The largest (again made under the virtual guidance of Todd) used to joint back, side, and top plates. Maybe those are more "jig" than "tool".

I have plenty of home made tools, as I bet most folks who have been at this craft for a while do. Mine are mostly copied or at least inspired by ones I have seen on the net, in books or various publications over the years. Here's one I have seen in numerous configurations, I made mine from some plywood, an ancient plane iron, a couple of bolts and a few bits of hardwood. I'm strictly in the form-follows-function camp...

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Making your own tools and jigs is a great way for us hobby builders to save some bucks or at least allow us to spend more on materials. Some things just seem to make more sense to buy when you consider set up time and cost, a radius dish comes to mind here. While other things just seem to be easy enough to make or cost enough to buy to make it sensible to try to make. Outside molds, bending forms come to mind here. A couple of other things that seemed reasonable to make are a circle cutting jig for a router.
And for me a drum sander was pricey enough to urge me to make my own.

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Kyle

Derek Cohen is a master at making his own tools. http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/index.html

Filippo, that fret buck was exactly what I thought of when I read your comment about tools looking nice. Every time you post pictures of your setups, (like the neat, clean and organized drawers of tools) I salivate over them! I aspire to your aesthetic. Thanks for all the pics. I'm not sure what the table with the router pad and T tracks on it and the two hardwood pieces suspended over it, is? (maybe to route the center strip on the back?)
Nice tools in general, guys. This is a great thread.

How cool is that!!? Thanks, Filippo.

Here are just a few tools I've made. I have a few more I've taken pics of but haven't gotten around to resizing them. The moulding planes are not luthier tools but a woodworking tool none the less. Actually there is a paid of moulding planes I've made but for some reason only have a pic of the one. They were the most difficult tool I've made to date but thanks to Larry William's great DVD it was doable for me.

This is a great thread and hope i gets a lot of action. I am also in the camp of function over form but if you're taking the time to make a tool that will be with you for a while then why not make it as beautiful and as careful as you can achieve. A good looking and feeling tool is a joy to use that will continue to inspire you to do good work while using it.

Tools eh...

well here be a few (me not gonna show you all)







In fact...me whole shop is one big homemade tool...is true...go here

http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=25595


blessings
?adma

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My most useful self-made tools are chisels and knives. I made cutting tools long before I made guitars. When I started out, Alexander Weygers was my idol. His books are still the best introduction to tool-making that I know of. Try this: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Modern-Blacksmith-Alexander-Weygers/dp/0898158966

Man, I trained as a tool maker and have been doing luthier stuff since the 70's. I thought I'd post some of my useful handmade tools, but I'd look like a chump. Mine function well, but they aren't beautiful like what I see here.

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Don't worry, Chris, I'm about to lower the standard on display considerably!

Beth,
Sorry for the delay, here is the fret bender... Tis ugly as sin but it worked!

Bolts, wingnuts, washers, and these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-x-Replacement-Shower-Door-ROLLERS-Runners-Wheels-V-Grooved-19mm-Dia-LW19-/281049030019?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Bathroom_Shower_Units_PP&hash=item416fd3dd83.
(The right roller is secured in an elongated slot by a wingnut, and slides up and down to change the radius.)

Thinking about it now, maybe it's best to slide the washers up and down rather than the roller.

Great stuff here!

Filippo, the elegance of your tools has always blown me away.

I'm putting the final touches on a table saw sled fixture for cutting neck tenons, with an adjustable angle.

I also have a simple sled for cutting the taper on fretboards and vanilla jigs for rosettes and bridge slots.

Pat

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I have some...

A router sled for planing large pieces of wood (such as a table top)... Note the spiderweb because I don't actually build that many tables... the shop isn't big enough.



My new workbench. There's nothing heavy enough in Taiwan, so I made my own out of discarded floor board.




A Wells Karol jig made from plexiglass, because I can't find UMHW and nobody knows what it is. It works well enough. Also below that: a bending iron. The wells karol jig is permanently attached to a router base so all I need to do is slide the motor in.

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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

That's a pretty excellent idea keeping the router base attached to the circle jig, Tai-Fu. I never thought of buying additional bases, I just bought more routers so I didn't have to attach jigs. Your way is much cheaper I would reckon.

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PMoMC

By the way that only works for certain models... sometimes you can't always buy bases for a given router. I use the Rexon/Jepson Taiwanese trimmers where the base sells for about 6 dollars a piece, vs. the machine itself (which is about 30 dollars), so it makes sense to dedicate bases rather than whole routers. However I do have a Dewalt Laminate trimmer that I can't find bases for... only places I found wants 50 dollars for it and I actually paid less on the laminate trimmer itself... but then again it was used/display model.

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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

Here is the noticed straightedge I made. I use a drafting square cut down to 19" with the end removed. I leveled it with the leveling beam, cut the notches and file the smooth. It straight it's homemade and best, it was only $10.

011 by Bohdan79, on Flickr