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