Jigs and reels...

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Jigs and reels...

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prd1

Posts: 206
Joined: Jul. 11 2007

Jigs and reels...

...during my christmas holiday reading I came across the following in a book by Graham McDonald:

Q. How many luthiers does it take to change a lightbulb?

A. One - but it takes him 6 months to build the jigs.

I'm a jig lover... the most useful for me is a simple router guide to cut the end graft slot - for some reason I just find this simple task difficult without assistance... at the large end of the scale I made a jig to hollow out a couple of dishes to use with go bars and a gantry for radiusing.

I'm sure there are a load of simple but ingenious inventions out there - what are your favourites?

_____________________________

Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music - Angela Monet

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 10 2011 20:37:30

jshelton5040

Posts: 1500
Joined: Jan. 17 2005

RE: Jigs and reels... (in reply to prd1)

quote:

ORIGINAL: prd1
... at the large end of the scale I made a jig to hollow out a couple of dishes to use with go bars and a gantry for radiusing.

How tall is your ganty? I thought about making something like that with a pendulum to swing a router for making a perfect radius but the dimensions got out of control.

_____________________________

John Shelton - www.sheltonfarrettaguitars.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 10 2011 22:43:56

Andy Culpepper

Posts: 3023
Joined: Mar. 30 2009
From: NY, USA

RE: Jigs and reels... (in reply to prd1)

I can make a bridge on a bandsaw.. haha. including radiusing the bottom and cutting perfectly rounded wings. For most things I prefer to use hand tools though.

_____________________________

Andy Culpepper, luthier
http://www.andyculpepper.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 10 2011 22:57:50

Stephen Eden

Posts: 914
Joined: Apr. 12 2008
From: UK

RE: Jigs and reels... (in reply to prd1)

Hey Peter. The obvious stuff here.

for drilling holes for machine heads
for drilling holes in the bridge
for cutting headslots (with a router)
a form for making laminted linings

a jig for cutting circles with a router. not sure this one counts but I did make mine

I did also make my own dishes with a router and a cradle setup. Best bit was letting the dish spin out of control!!!

I think thats about it. You may also want to include holding an clamping devices!

_____________________________

Classical and Flamenco Guitars www.EdenGuitars.co.uk

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 11 2011 9:12:56

jshelton5040

Posts: 1500
Joined: Jan. 17 2005

RE: Jigs and reels... (in reply to Stephen Eden)

quote:

ORIGINAL: SEden

for drilling holes for machine heads
for drilling holes in the bridge
for cutting headslots (with a router)
a form for making laminted linings

a jig for cutting circles with a router. not sure this one counts but I did make mine

I did also make my own dishes with a router and a cradle setup. Best bit was letting the dish spin out of control!!!

I think thats about it. You may also want to include holding an clamping devices!

Some others:
A jig for cutting side mortises in the neck with a table saw
Multiple appliances for cutting fret slots in fingerboard with a table saw
Multiple jigs for various tapers of the fingerboard (compensating for errors in deflection) with thickness sander
Jigs with hold downs for cutting the angle and bevel on the sides of the fingerboard with table saw
Multiple jigs for grinding bevel on chisels and plane irons with band sander
Jig for cutting head to neck angle on resaw
Various fences set at angles for making radius cuts in top wood billets on resaw
Appliance for setting depth of cut on table saw for roughing out necks

_____________________________

John Shelton - www.sheltonfarrettaguitars.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 11 2011 14:27:16

prd1

Posts: 206
Joined: Jul. 11 2007

RE: Jigs and reels... (in reply to jshelton5040)

John,

My gantry is only about 18 inches tall.

The radius was created by marking out with a pencil and piece of string - I then cut out a pair of guides to run the router along. In order to radius the dish I drilled a 6mm hole in the middle and in a slab of MDF below it. Feed a dowel through both so the dish is able to rotate around the center.

I fed the router in from the outside of the dish until about half of the diameter of the 20mm bit was cutting and rotated the dish (its a bit of a two man job). When one full circle is completed move the router further in until you eventually reach the middle and cut through the dowel. drop a bit of superglue around the dowel at that point and the dish is complete. Maybe not as accurate as the pendulum method but I'm scared of heights.

Lots of other good ideas in there - wish I had cash and space for a table saw!

Little Steve,

How you keeping? I also made the headstock jigs... saved a lot of time! How easy is it for you to get into London from the North of France - I'm working in Stevenage at the moment?

_____________________________

Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music - Angela Monet

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 13 2011 20:30:23

jshelton5040

Posts: 1500
Joined: Jan. 17 2005

RE: Jigs and reels... (in reply to prd1)

quote:

ORIGINAL: prd1
The radius was created by marking out with a pencil and piece of string - I then cut out a pair of guides to run the router along. In order to radius the dish I drilled a 6mm hole in the middle and in a slab of MDF below it. Feed a dowel through both so the dish is able to rotate around the center.

That's similar to what I made to get started but my soleras don't use a perfect radius so all the finish work is done by hand using templates very similar to the ones used in carving violin tops.

_____________________________

John Shelton - www.sheltonfarrettaguitars.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 13 2011 21:53:26

Stephen Eden

Posts: 914
Joined: Apr. 12 2008
From: UK

RE: Jigs and reels... (in reply to prd1)

north london Hmm is about 2 hours perhaps! You should come and visit my workshop peter! I could show you how I roll!!!

Counted a year backwards today of all the guitars I have build in 1 year. I made 22 in one year!! wehey!

_____________________________

Classical and Flamenco Guitars www.EdenGuitars.co.uk

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 14 2011 17:23:10

prd1

Posts: 206
Joined: Jul. 11 2007

RE: Jigs and reels... (in reply to Stephen Eden)

Would love to come down for a visit in the near future - Can I bring my chisels to sharpen? (a forte of yours...). I've also been donated an old (but unused and boxed) Record No 7 plane from a welsh mine worker - I know how you love to level planes...

The reason I ask about travel time is that I have a spare ticket (free to a good home) for the Tomatito gig at Sadlers wells theatre - Feb 16th...would be good to meet up for a couple of beers before hand for a catch up? If you can't make it I'll have to arrange for Julie to travel down from up North...

John,

My solera was domed by hand and is certainly not perfect. In addition, I don't extend the dome on the solera to the sides of the instrument - probably not what is acceptable by the more experienced builders but I had major problems cutting binding channels with a fully domed top.

_____________________________

Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music - Angela Monet

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 14 2011 18:03:58

jshelton5040

Posts: 1500
Joined: Jan. 17 2005

RE: Jigs and reels... (in reply to prd1)

quote:

ORIGINAL: prd1
My solera was domed by hand and is certainly not perfect. In addition, I don't extend the dome on the solera to the sides of the instrument - probably not what is acceptable by the more experienced builders but I had major problems cutting binding channels with a fully domed top.

Cutting binding channels was always a problem for me as well. I hate those thin spots when it's all scraped out. The solution was this gadget from Stewmac:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bindings,_trim/Jigs/TrueChannel_Binding_Routing_Jig.html

Once you get it set up binding is easy. It's kind of expensive but I consider it money well spent.

_____________________________

John Shelton - www.sheltonfarrettaguitars.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 14 2011 18:23:31

prd1

Posts: 206
Joined: Jul. 11 2007

RE: Jigs and reels... (in reply to jshelton5040)

That's the type of thing I'm currently looking at... I guess the problem that I have is that the groove is cut an an angle which is offset by the dome of the top (or back)...my aim is to build a jig which introduces the laminate cutter to the channel to be cut from the side of the guitar - basically a Tenon saw handle with an orthoganally mounted laminate cutter where the bearing is a semi-circle tube of minimal radius which would allow full access around the waist of the guitar body - although no better if you build a flare into the sides a la the Barbero drawings that are available...

_____________________________

Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music - Angela Monet

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 14 2011 19:36:39

jshelton5040

Posts: 1500
Joined: Jan. 17 2005

RE: Jigs and reels... (in reply to prd1)

quote:

ORIGINAL: prd1

That's the type of thing I'm currently looking at... I guess the problem that I have is that the groove is cut an an angle which is offset by the dome of the top (or back)...my aim is to build a jig which introduces the laminate cutter to the channel to be cut from the side of the guitar - basically a Tenon saw handle with an orthoganally mounted laminate cutter where the bearing is a semi-circle tube of minimal radius which would allow full access around the waist of the guitar body - although no better if you build a flare into the sides a la the Barbero drawings that are available...

I did a lot of thinking about how to index the router to the sides instead of the top. There are several DIY designs that you can find on the internet, LMII, etc. but when you consider the amount of work to build one I thought it was more cost effective to just buy the one from Stewmac.

Another thing I've wanted to build but haven't found time for is a duplicating router setup. I've seen one at another luthier's shop and it was obviously a real time saver.

_____________________________

John Shelton - www.sheltonfarrettaguitars.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 14 2011 20:20:37

TANúñez

Posts: 2559
Joined: Jul. 10 2003
From: TEXAS

RE: Jigs and reels... (in reply to jshelton5040)

quote:

Cutting binding channels was always a problem for me as well. I hate those thin spots when it's all scraped out. The solution was this gadget from Stewmac:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bindings,_trim/Jigs/TrueChannel_Binding_Routing_Jig.html

Once you get it set up binding is easy. It's kind of expensive but I consider it money well spent.

I use this same setup. I love it.

_____________________________

Tom Núñez
www.instagram.com/tanunezguitars

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 14 2011 21:24:13

prd1

Posts: 206
Joined: Jul. 11 2007

RE: Jigs and reels... (in reply to TANúñez)

Tom and John...thanks very much for your opinions and advice. I've orderd the jig from StewMac - broke the bank (even before UK taxes and import duty) but I'm sure it will be worth the investment.

_____________________________

Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music - Angela Monet

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 15 2011 22:06:56