Official Luthiers Forum!

Thanks again to everyone who was able to join today's roundtable meeting. We had a new member, Rob McDougall, who joined the meeting for the first time. Was great to see everyone and hear about our mutual love hate relationship with finishing!

If you would like to submit anonymous feedback on topics, experience, etc... please fill out the form here - https://forms.office.com/r/HHEni87fAP

Highlights:

Intros:
Rob McDougall - 2:00

What's on the bench and finishing tips:
Rob McDougall - 2:00 - EM6000 & Aqua coat experiences. Rob is working on #62!!
Craig Wilson - 20:35 - #12 in progress. Shared a fascinating lining technique from Fernando Jaén's - https://www.guitarrasjaen.com/peoneta/
Darrell Friesen - 28:00 - Resawing in progress including some beautiful cocobolo!
Ken Nagy - 34:05 - Amazing work and details about making your own varnish!
Don Parker - 45:20 - Finishes Don has used throughout the years and experience with UV cured finishes.
Kent Fishburn - 51:50 - Fleishman jig with cool glider brackets, notes on clearing the bridge footprint with a dremel.
Steve Smith - 1:00:00 - Brazilian rosewood success & repair work in the shop. Small space spray booth. (Steve, I figured out the canister you have there https://www.autorefinishdevilbiss.com/p ... dryer.aspx).
Brent Tobin - 1:05:00 - 00 Engleman over ovangkol, cool bridge design for pinless bridge & prairie state guitar bridge replica!
Steve Sollod - 1:13:30 - GS Mini under construction using Genone luthier plan. New plate joining approach with parallel clamps.
Brad Combs - 1:25:00 - Eagle Abrasives & some details on UV cured finishes. Shout out to Simon Fay (Toonces) for all his coaching and information sharing around Eagle / Kovax products. Here is the thread I mentioned where Simon first shared details about the Eagle products - viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=53979

Recording:
Direct Link - https://youtu.be/oS1NM81fZE4


Attendees:
Craig Wilson
Rob McDougall
Darrell Friesen
Ken Nagy
Don Parker
Kent Fishburn
Steve Smith
Brent Tobin
Steve Sollod
Brad Combs

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Really enjoy these sessions Brad. Always a few nuggets and some great info from all participants. Really enjoyed Ken's information on various resins etc. and making varnishes. My first few archtops were done with wood from Don Barnes (Grandpas Workshop was his website from which he sold wood all over the world) from Okotoks, Alberta who bought and processed logs from the BC West coast, mostly maple, Sitka, yellow cedar and WRC. He was a violin, viola and cello builder who also made mystical finishes like Ken. He passed a few years ago, so lost a great friend, mentor and supplier. He started processing archtop wood after I visited him around 2000 as he was unfamiliar with guitars, but it was obviously in his wheelhouse. Anyway, thanks again for putting these sessions on. Technology and communication is amazing these days.

Thanks as always, Brad. Like Darrel, I always get something out of these sessions. Like more debt. I ordered some Super Assilex and Super Buflex abrasive sheets today after the meeting. I appreciate the tip, and look forward to experimenting with them.

I will be interested to hear about your experience with it. I will write up a more detailed report in a new thread. Like I mentioned in the meet is that it’s required to level completely first before going to the flexible sheets. I learned that the hard way. For leveling you can use these:

Tolecut PSA 8-Cut Block Sanding Sheets, Yellow K-800, 191-1527, 25 Sheets https://a.co/d/6ELlw6V

Next step for me is machine sanding to level. Dang rheumatoid arthritis.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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I had trouble trying to show you stuff with the camera on my laptop. I thought I'd give you a better shot of my new way of plate joining. I just tried it for the first time and it works well. I have always just used "triangular" pieces of wood going in opposite directions to create a clamping force (if that make sense). That always worked for me, but I thought I'd try this method. These are $12.99 Harbour Frieght bar clamps. https://www.harborfreight.com/hand-tool ... 60539.html
There are a number of posts on youtube that show ways to "strengthen" them by inserting work into the alluminum extrusion, but frankly that's not necessary for this application. I put some cork on the clamping surfaces with double-stick tape.

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

Thanks Steve, that plate joining process looks like a winner - time to dump my little triangles and go shopping for some clamps! (and some Super Assilex and Buflex)

Good meeting and some good information. Sorry I had to bail out a bit early but my connection kept crashing.

Hey Brad, here's the details on the air dryer

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I've been using a similar setup for the past few years. It works really well for me--I started using it with archtop plates, but started using it on flattops too.

Dave

The plate joining method I use is similar. The clamps below are Bora edge clamps. A cool feature is that the heads swivel about 22 degrees which makes them really useful for top or back plate sets that aren't rectangular. Harbor Freight sells a version of these for $12.99 that also has the swivel heads.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Those are cool clamps!

Dave

[quote="J De Rocher"]The plate joining method I use is similar. The clamps below are Bora edge clamps. A cool feature is that the heads swivel about 22 degrees which makes them really useful for top or back plate sets that aren't rectangular. Harbor Freight sells a version of these for $12.99 that also has the swivel heads.


Darned if I can find that clamp anywhere. I want to try out your setup!

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

I checked with Bora and they don't make edge clamps that have the swivel heads anymore. Harbor Freight does carry a line of edge clamps in various lengths that look like the same design as the Bora clamps I have and they are much less expensive. I don't know how the quality compares, but they would be worth checking out. Here's a link to a 24" clamp which is the size I use. https://www.harborfreight.com/24-inch-clamp-and-cut-edge-guide-66126.html

When I actually do the glue up of the plates, I clamp a length of 2x2 over the joint to keep the plates from popping up like what sdsollod and ballbajos showed they do above.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I think a combination of the plate clamping action of these clamps, plus some of the Band Joe's silicone bands I talked about a few Roundtables ago, would be a pretty cool setup. One of the reasons I like using the two bands on either side of the seam, instead of a single board over the seam, is so the seam gets enough air to dry faster. Just an idea. Thanks for sharing info on this way of clamping plates.