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I was thinking today that I've picked up a number of good methods, tips, and tricks from this forum that I've incorporated into my guitar building. I thought I would list the ones that come to mind with attribution where I can remember it.

- Using a Safety Planer to cut the initial neck thickness/taper in a neck blank. (Ed Bond)
- Installing side purfling separately from binding, which makes it pretty easy to get good miter joints in the purfling at a boxed in end graft or cutaway. (John Giltzow)
- When routing the binding channel past the end graft when boxing in the end graft with side purfling, mount the spacer on the top or back by gluing the spacer with CA to a piece of double sided tape which is stuck to the top or back. (Can't remember who, but it was here at the OLF.)
- Using a plastic straw cut at a 45 degree angle as a glue squeeze out removal tool. (Somebody on the OLF)
- Z-poxy pore filling method. (Hesh)
- Putting adhesive-backed sandpaper on the back of kerfed lining to make a sanding tool that conforms well to curved surfaces. (Can't remember who posted this, but it was recent and I used the tip for the first time today. Worked great.)
- Tom West's method of tucking the lower x-brace arms into the lining, but then carving the brace end down to nothing leaving a block for the lining to index to. Provides good registration of the top onto the sides and loosens the top.
- For a tight x-brace joint, cut the notches a hair too tight to fit and then reduce the thickness of the braces until they just fit together. (Ed Bond, I think.)
- The idea for an improved version of the jig I was using to make the cross section profile of triangular braces. (michaeldc).
- How to properly install an endpin jack. (David Collins)
- Using a chopstick to pull the endpin jack through the tail block hole. (David Collins?)
- Ideas for making a saddle slot routing jig. (A bunch of people here.)

I'm sure there are others that don't come to mind right now. A lot of good information and ideas on this forum.

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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

Err...Stew-Mac, rather...

Jay, I totally agree with you. People always ask me how I learned to do this. I always say OLF. They have trouble believing that you can learn from others on line given the difficulty of this work. But that is how good the OLF is. I could make a similar list, but I'd probably forget someone.

+1

So many nuggets..

Yup.

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George :-)

Tips I learned here:

Never get involved in a land war in Asia.
Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

No, wait . . . That was The Princess Bride. The stuff I've learned here has been MUCH more useful.

Build so that future repairs are either less likely to be needed, or are easier to perform.
Take RH seriously, or you pay the price in the winter.
How to make (or improve) really useful tools like a dish sander.
Oodles more.

Way too many to list.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Get along and go along , luthiery is a wonderful craft and the more we share , the more we learn

I've learned a lot of things too I only wish now that I could apply them.

+1

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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.

One great one for me was using a soft toothbrush and hot water from the glue pot followed by a hair drier for final cleanup of hide glue residual when gluing braces, bridge plates, etc.

Many years ago.

Hesh??

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

??? Couldn’t find the thread/post on this. Do you have a link? Not sure what that means.

Thanks!


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It was discussed in this thread: http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=46006&p=609035&hilit=drill+press+uses#p609035

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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

Hey Terry, this was not my tip but I remember it too but can't remember who shared it. I have not had enough hair left to own a hair drier for several decades now....

The single best tip that I ever received here reversed the flow of cash from outward to inward for me.

Not an exact quote mind you but Rick Turner used to say this here and it actually changed my life:

You ain't **** unless you learn to do repair work.

Regarding my understanding of how a guitar works Mario P. made this contribution to my knowledge base.

A guitar is not unlike a fireplace bellows. This analogy made a lot of sense for me.

And another very important tip was John Hall - you don't know what you don't know until you know it....... So very true

I agree there have been lots of great sharing here over the years.

Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes (regardless of ones take on the character of the author which is not up for debate here ): "...there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know..."

That last part seems to creep up on me at least once or twice in every one of the 60 guitars I've built to date. When will it ever end!?

I think of that one and it's author when I inadvertently find WMD in a sound hole. . You never know what's an unknown unknown.....

Regarding John's quote above it underscores just how very humbling Loofierism can be.

I resemble that remark


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The best "tips" I learned from the OLF has been the the go-bar deck and radius dish-changed the whole game for me......