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I used to have a stewmac string spacing rule but I lost it. I have a laser cutter and I can make one. Where can I find a file or information on how to draw one in the computer so I can perhaps make a temporary one out of cardboard?

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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

If you look at SM's string spacing rule instructions you will actually find this....

Picture just as a reminder, each second slot is longer/shorter, to make line-up easier especially for old codgers like me who get easily confused..
Slots as I remember are approximately 0.5mm wide I think, because they fit my propelling pencil leads of that size quite neatly.

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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.

A new one from StewMac costs around $24. Knockoffs are available on eBay for less. I would put cutting your own string spacing rule in the same category as making your own pencils in terms of whether DIY makes sense. Just my own perspective.

24 dollars from Stewmac, and since I am back in Taiwan, another 10 for shipping.

Whereas cutting one with a laser out of cardboard costs about 2 cents.

In fact a lot of Stewmac things are overpriced and having a few machines can save thousands (all those tools add up).

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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

Well, perceptions of value, as well as how one values one’s own time and effort, differ.

This may help:

- 0.014" thick x 0.12" wide x 12.0" long stainless steel

- Each slot is 0.023" wide by 0.150" long to accommodate a 0.020" pencil lead

- An engraved leader line of 0.005" width extends from the center of each slot to the edge of the rule

- Each adjacent slot is offset by 0.050"

- There are 71 graduations on one edge and 53 on the other

- The smallest graduation is 0.128"; the largest is 0.241"

- The hanging holes at either end are 0.313" in diameter, set 0.500" in from the ends of the rule and centered

- Fusion 360 by Autodesk offers a free 30 day trial, as well as limited free use to hobbyists and small businesses with 1 year duration licenses. If you have the time available for this activity, it seems unlikely you will not satisfy Autodesk's small business revenue limitations or their hobby use criteria.

- An Fusion 360 educational license of three year duration may be had for free to accredited faculty and students of educational institutions

Unsolicited opinion follows:

If your goal is to use the project to gain a basic level of competence in the use of one of the computer aided design and manufacturing packages, this seems like a good initial project well worth your time. The 50-100 or so hours spent would seem to be a worthwhile investment in developing a skill set useful to the modern luthier with access to necessary equipment and materials.

If your goal is limited to manufacture a commonly available, relatively inexpensive tool to avoid paying the $35US or so delivered cost for the StewMac article, that endeavor likewise seems to me to be a perfectly acceptable activity for someone with nearly unlimited free time and absolutely nothing else of a more pressing nature to do with it.

Good luck with your project.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

Wow, I had no idea your time was that valuable.

I mean time I'm not paid to do work isn't worth a whole lot (and nobody's paying me to play video games or watch movies between jobs), so unless I'm so absolutely loaded with customers to where I actually have to hire secretaries to handle calls and a manager to manage incoming orders, spending 1 hour to draw a ruler isn't going to kill me (and no, it doesn't take me 50 hours to learn how to draw a series of line in Autocad, it's not THAT hard to use). So having a laser actually saves me thousands when I need to produce say a routing template for some pickup, or produce a template for a bracing pattern. When you have to buy a 20 dollar template, times 100 (for various shapes, sizes, neck pocket configuration, etc.) the equipment more than pay for itself.

I'm also going to have some basic machine shop equipment in my shop (a bridgeport type mill and a lathe) for the same reason, why pay Stewmac 70+ dollars for some special tool that not only cost a ridiculous amount of money, plus shipping and customs tax (and having to look at "US Only" signs thanks to government regulations), it pays to produce the tools needed for work. I think that is actually part of the training as a competent luthier.

This thing: https://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/S ... l_Set.html

Costing nearly 800 dollars, can be reduced down to around 50 dollars just by having access to a laser cutter. The only thing that I'd absolutely have to have is a set of nut files, but if I have a surface grinder (and a bridgeport can double as one if you aren't so concerned about "protocols") you can turn any off the shelf file into a nut file (the smaller ones can be made by grinding a hacksaw blade down). The straight edge can be easily made by putting a piece of scrap steel into a mill vise (and making sure it won't flex) and running a face mill through it (or just do the same treatment to a standard heavy gauge steel ruler). Fret files can be made by grinding the edges off of a standard triangular file. String action gauge can be made on a printer, or there are music shops in Taiwan that gives the thing away for free.

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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

You are very welcome - think nothing of it.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

Well, make sure you are comparing apples to apples. That StewMac tool kit also includes a digital caliper, a small hammer, tape, StickIt sandpaper, and books. And while some of the tools are simple (straightedges), some are a bit more complex (nippers, a small vise, and that nut action doohickey that clamps to the neck).

You should spend your time the way you want to spend your time; that's cool if you want to spend it building those specific tools. I build lots of my own stuff, too; but there are some things that would not make sense for me to try to build myself.

Do what you love doing.
For me, I enjoy building guitars. I made a decision a while ago that if a jig exists, and it isn’t cost prohibitive, I’ll just buy it instead of making it. Personally I want to make guitars and not jigs. But some people choose to make nearly everything! I respect that, it it’s just not my thing.
If you enjoy the process then have fun:) all good.


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Thanks for the helpful information.

I really do enjoy making all manners of things, be it guitars, tools, rockets, or what have you. It saves me a lot of money (shipping anything to Taiwan is cost prohibitive, and I want to avoid it as much as possible).

Besides, I can use the laser to make one out of cardstock or thin plastic, and when it wears out, I make another one. Heck, if I ever start a luthier school, I can make them for students to use free of charge...

After all, lasers are cheap and once a file is made, can be used forever.

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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

You do know you don't really need it, right?
Myself, I set up a spread sheet that takes into account the string gauge and inset from the edge and desired spacing. Then I just use my caliber to mark them out.
Of course there's nothing wrong with the stew mac template and I can see where it would save a few minutes in a busy shop.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Lasers are cheap?

The tubes take forever to wear out for sure...

Also, they don't need to cost 100,000 dollars because these days they have fairly cheap ones that's good for home use if you know what you're doing...

I mean you're not trying to cut through 1/8" thick steel plates...

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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

You have a laser? Why not just use the laser to mark the string locations on the nut? Make up your file for different nut widths and you're good to go. No need for the ruler.

And here's a link to Jim Olson's webpage, showing all the stuff he does with his laser, including marking the nut for string locations.

http://olsonguitars.com/the-artisan/jim ... er-cutter/

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Wow, that's nice!

Doesn't look cheap, though...

Frank Ford on frets.com tells about his string spacing rule, where the distance between each pair of strings increases by about .010" to compensate for different string diameters, giving you consistent distances between strings, not based on centers. Draftsight is another good free app for your project.

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

The problem with the laser (at least the cheap kind) is you can't locate the start of the cut with any real precision... so etching string spacing on a nut could be a problem. Also if the nut is brass, good luck (CO2 lasers don't cut metal).

The guy looks like his laser is probably one of those 100,000 dollar kinds.

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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

No, but probably around $10,000-15,000






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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

get around the first mark precision problem by making the first mark be the end of the nut and size after marking (like cutting the 0 on fretboards).

...then thank Woodie for the helpful information he provided you

I found the PDF linked to in this thread to be an interesting approach. Further down you can see it differs from the SM ruler a little, but would be handy to print and have sitting around.

http://www.tdpri.com/threads/compensate ... ol.109915/

Brad


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Great, now I am drooling about the possibilities. For those with experience with both laser cutting and a good CNC machine which one has more value in a small low volume shop. I do get there is really no financial argument to support it, I am more interest in the value to the build process, the finished product and the versatility of use.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

A laser need not be expensive.

Google "k40 laser", it is affordable to most people, and while it lacks in safety and control system, it works well enough for a small shop (you just can't use it if you have a commercial shop with employees because it may violate many OSHA rules).

For the more serious luthier, they have a laser for around 2000 dollars that's a bit larger than K40 but offers a stronger laser and a better control system as well as things like honeycomb table, adjustable table height, etc. as the K40 laser is really intended for making stamps (in the Chinese society stamps are considered legal signatures so there are many shop who makes them like making keys)

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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

John if I were to get one over the other I’d get a small cnc machine. It can do nearly all a guitar maker would need, but a laser could not.

Think jig making out of 3/4 ply or MDF, bridge profiling, neck profiling. An affordable laser just couldn’t do these things.


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_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Even a small CNC machine is going to cost a lot more than an affordable laser. The smallest ones could barely scratch brass and isn't large enough to do any guitar parts except for inlays.

I think the ones that would "meet every needs of a guitar maker" would cost more than 100,000 dollars. In contrast a laser would be intended as a support piece that would make patterns (not a very thick one, but pattern nevertheless) that you can use to guide a router.

_________________
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