Official Luthiers Forum!

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

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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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
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

Nice bench Tai !!

Really nice job on the work bench, Tai!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

I'm glad this thread is growing. So many useful ideas already posted here. I'm looking forward to more.

+1

I have several Bosch Colt bases mounted to various jigs, and the cutters are pretty much permanently mounted in their trimmers. Instead of switching bits for different operations, I move the trimmers around from base to base. I've thought about getting a few extra bases, but as you can get those Colts pretty inexpensively on eBay all the time, I have bought extras to give me even more options for router bits.

Actually, I wish I'd done the same thing years ago, when the PC 310 was still being produced and not too expensive. Now, of course, I'm locked into using Colts for pretty much everything (my single PC310 only gets used for pattern routing, and a few other routers for similar single service tasks). The quality of the Colt is passable, but I do wish the height adjustment was a bit more precise, and I don't think it runs as true as the PC. I understand Rigid makes a better tool in the same class, it might be a better candidate if you are going to focus on a single model of trimmers.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Hi,
Nice thread, I am a big fan of DIY, and I must admit I often build myself good ideas taken here and there.
I do not always do that for economical reasons, it's most of the time simply because I feel like doing it !

The one I am the most proud of is this one :

Do you recognize it ? . And very efficient indeed !

I have also this one, which is funny, thought it is not the most straight forward way to build it, but I wanted to try this "3D printer like" method :
http://www.labellenote.fr/articles.php?lng=en&pg=87


I have my thickness sander, which embeds a compilation of all the goods ideas I found + some original tricks from me :
http://www.labellenote.fr/articles.php?lng=en&pg=260
Look at the bottom the geared table lifter !

And sometimes, there is no need for high end technology to get good tools : I have my paper made personal string action gauge:
http://www.labellenote.fr/download.php?lng=en&pg=56

And some other stuff :
mm <-> inch converter : http://www.labellenote.fr/articles.php?lng=en&pg=262

Soft jaws for a metal vice : http://www.labellenote.fr/articles.php?lng=en&pg=75

And I have lots of other for wood turning, but I stop here ...

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Christophe Mineau
Let's make chips ! - http://www.labellenote.fr

That geared table lifter is brilliant! Will have to put that on mine.

Jon here from HomemadeTools.net.

I know this thread is an old one, but thanks for the kind words

To celebrate our 20,000th homemade tool, we made a new ebook featuring our top 50 homemade tools. You guys are welcome to it for free:

http://download.homemadetools.net/50MustReadTools.pdf

Great link, thanks.

Thanks for making the download available, but am I correct in thinking there are only 27 tools on the PDF , not the 50 as it says in the title?

Right there with ya.....I was taught functional for the shop, fancy for the client. Most of my tools are highly functional but look rather crude.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

A couple months back I ordered some O1 tool steel, and made up a violin knife and 1/2 chisel for brace carving. I'm fortunate enough to have several old glass kilns in the shop with digital temperature controllers, making tempering and annealing at home pretty easy. Tested the tools on an old Brinell hardness tester - came pretty close to my target of 62 Rockwell - hit 61.7.

You're very welcome. Should be 50 tools spread out over 27 pages.

Here's a quick and easy one: Take an old x-acto blade and grind it to a chisel point. The blade thickness just happens to match standard fret slot width, so it's good for cleaning dust out of them (although a vacuum is even better if you have one handy). Also good for cutting tiny grooves in things.

Hey guys - we have a new ebook out: How to Make a Belt Sander. 100% free of course. Click the graphic below to check it out:

Very cool. I love it!

I gotta tell you though... I had to back off of making all sorts of stuff like this... It quickly morphed into a hobby of it's own.. I was spending all my free time on rehabbinh old rust and making cool luthier related jigs and tools.... And I forgot to build guitars... I lost almost 2 years of buildimg guitars before I came to my senses.

Yup, we've definitely noticed that. All hobbies are gateway drugs to homemade tool making.