Official Luthiers Forum!

How do you guys get the bits and pieces? For the next couple I need:

Blocks. I used to get them for violins from the wedges. Guitar blocks can be quite tall. Do you put the grain horizontal? Make up a composite? I made a 3 piece for the last upper block that was easy.

Stock for rosettes/purfling/binding. With violins you just buy b/w/b and it is simple. I've decided to just make whatever colors I want, just using real wood colors. But how do you get the stock. I could buy different colored purfling and binding stock, or thin stock, 1/8" or so, and cut it to width. Make a tool to trim the width even. Veneer sheets seem expensive, but you can get a set width. But then you might want different widths, so more sheets to stock.

The binding in a one piece length seems like a lot of bother. You don't make one piece sides. Getting rid of the length constraint makes binding easier to just find.

Any and all ideas are appreciated.

I planed down my workbench yesterday. Glue was drying. The bench was stained with mostly Padauk, and some Wenge. It always amazes me how it can get so nicked up. I put a coat of shellac on it because I had some mixed up for a while now. Never did that before. Maybe it will keep it cleaner?

I watched this video last night. Nice sound. 1886 Torres. It does have a loose high E tuner. Is that the sort of thing that someone could braze, weld, soldier up the bushings, and gears, and machine to spec to preserve the set? It is a shame when parts are just thrown away instead of fixed.

Capriccio Diabolico. I guess.

https://youtu.be/xXw3dHTT9NY?si=S2BPVm4t2Fexv5xU

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Why be normal?

What a player and what a guitar!
Nice bench!

For colored strips I cut my own from dyed sheets from https://www.dyed-veneer.com/default.asp
For different widths, I eyeball it with a straightedge with 220 grit glued to the bottom, which minimizes tears, and an Xacto knife on a a sel-healing cutting mat. Gets me the cleanest cuts so far.

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

Ken,
I make my own. I built a mini table saw using my Dremel and an attachment that they make which is a little saw. I had to modify it by cutting off the plastic shroud they had around the blade, but it was pretty simple to build.

I just use standard size wood as long as the grain is straight and rip it (on my big table saw) into strips that end up 3/4" x 1/8th

I then run it through this little saw to rip it into strips.

When I am finished ripping the pieces I then use a scraper to get it to final thickness for perfling strips.

The nice thing is that I can just remove my dremel for other things and just attach it to this saw when I need it.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Cheers,
Bob

For wood binding, I run stock through my table saw set to the correct thickness.
I have an expensive Freud blade that leaves a very good surface. I think the blade is called “glue joint” or something.
For the width, I run it through a small bandsaw with a fine tooth blade and a fence.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

I just love to see a home made precision jig that does the job exactly right. Thanks for sharing that Bob.