Official Luthiers Forum!

Now on my third guitar build and lacking a workshop full of dedicated tools (don’t even have a bandsaw) I’ve been getting creative with tools and along the way have come across some surprisingly good solutions.

The Cumpiano book calls for a neck tenon with the shoulders of the heel block mitred in 5°. This is most likely a skill issue but I’ve failed to get good results fine tuning the end grain of the faces with a sanding block or running strips between the body and heel to set the neck straight and pitched correctly.

However, I’ve found that (obviously prior to cutting the neck outline) setting up my Makita sliding mitre saw carefully I am able to use the depth stop and blade tilt to cut the 5° shoulder on the heel, while also angling the mitre of the cut on the other axis to correct the pitch of the neck. The results were truly excellent.

Last night I also realised I wasn’t able to get a tight enough radius on my maple binding for the headstock using my bending iron, so clamped a soldering iron to the bench and used that with perfect results.

So, I wanted to find out what every day tools you all use creatively while plying your trade!


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I get a lot of use out of a hammer

A chop saw is indeed a good tool for getting angles right. Other then everyday tools I also use things like hair dryers, nail files, combs, toothbrushes and rubber bands.

Don't forget the classic, mini-crocpot for HHG.

I use wooden clothes pins with rubber bands for clamping linings, fiberglass driveway markers for go-bars and aluminum yardsticks to make fret slot templates. I'm sure there are may others I'm not thinking of. This is going to be a great thread. I'm sure everyone will pick up a new idea or two.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I hope so! How do you make the cuts accurately on the yard stick for the frets? As an amateur builder needing to spend $50+ per scale length for the StewMac ones gets pricey.



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Old table knifes for separating glued joints.

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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.

White plastic cutting boards can be made into rosette forms, if you like gluing them up separate from the guitar. Glue will not stick to the plastic, and the plastic machines really well.

Glue won't stick to clear packing tape, either, so covering your gluing cauls in clear packing tape is a good thing to do.

I cut the slots for the templates the same way I cut fretslots by hand. I use WFret to print out a template. Double check it for accuracy and tape it down to the aluminum. Then I push a knife point into the line and slide a square up to the knife blade. Remove the knife and use the square as the saw guide. Cut carefully.

The next time I make one, I'll probably use a table saw sled in combination with the WFret template and save myself some time.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

My favorite bridge separation knife is a spring stainless mini frosting knife from Sur La Table (think Williams- Sonoma with friendly sales staff)...edges buffed on the 8" metal buffing wheel and tweaked a bit. The problem is that I have to walk by all that $250-per-piece All-Clad stainless steel cookware and gorgeous $400 Damascus steel chef's knives to get to those $6 frosting knives.

No - I do not have a shopping problem.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

Sounds like the Kramer's

My brother in-law has three that were made by Bob himself. I have three of the carbon steel Zwilling Kramer's from Sir La Table.

I also get a lot of use out of our frosting knife.

You are not helping, Mr. Orr

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

I find cake frosting spatulas very very handy.

I have also absconded with the clothes iron... I seem to use that for a lot of guitar things.

I use this method but with Plexiglas or polycarbonate rather than aluminum. Then I can stick it to the fingerboard with double stick tape and do my fret sawing on the table saw. I have one for every scale I use, it makes fret slotting effortless. Takes longer to set up the table saw than to saw the frets.

Shot Glasses.....to forget all those mistakes I make

I had a Red Devil 1170 plexiglass cutting knife in the shop:

https://rezcor.com/product/69044/Red-Devil-Plastic-Cutter-Tool

After thinning the blade a little on the belt sander, it makes a perfect fret slot cleaner for a bound (or any) board - pull the tool towards you

Ed

I currently have a shot glass full of Cooba sawdust. Not sure it will work for your purpose though

use a lot of plastic templates with sticky tape for all the different uke ret fscales

I like to use empty italian ice cups for scooping finish out of the can.

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

I use my Incra 18 inch rule with .5mm holes at 1/64" intervals as a universal fret slotting template for any scale fretboard up to 18 inches in length.

1/64" isn't accurate enough for fret slot placement, but the fixture I use it with is adjustable left and right on its base, and uses digital calipers and a screw to move the fretboard in .001" increments. Because the ruler with the fretboard taped to it accounts for the major movement of the fretboard on the fixture, the fixture itself only slides 1/64" in total during the entire fret slotting procedure, and greatly reduces the inaccuracy of the calipers because that tends to be linear over distance.




I can calculate the fretboard equal to or greater than the nearest 64th" for each fret and know which hole to index to, figure out the "offset" to the nearest thou, and then subtract the "offset" from the calculated fret position to know how far to 'adjust' the jig.

To make the calculation easier, I created a little fretboard calculator so I wouldn't have to do it each and every time. You can see that here if you like:
http://www.yafc.somee.com
In the display mode drop-down box you would select 64th Offsets, and in the Resolution drop-down select 1/1024. You can see the fret location values calculated to the nearest 1/64" and the corresponding offset next to it.

If I didn't have a radial arm saw, I would mount a router above the jig, or maybe use it in a drill press, and slot or drill a guide template instead of the fretboard itself, that could in turn be used in a table saw slotting jig.

More for players, but aren't we all?





The late, great, very young Dave Ray...

I use rubber bands from brocolli, etc, on my plywood workboard I have 3/8in dowels all around the perimeter , an the rubber bands to a great job of keeping the back or top in place while I shave braces , etc.