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Home Made Things_Let’s see em
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Author:  BlueSpirit [ Wed Oct 12, 2005 5:51 pm ]
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Let's see some of your home made jigs and such.
Here's mine:




I copied this Thickness guage from somewhere. I can't remember. Works though.



This is a lathe I made from plans in the magazine Shopnotes. It works also.



I just finished these shelves. Not good looking but they work too.



This bender and heating blanket I DID NOT make. It's from John Hall, Blues Creek Guitars. Absolutely great machine.





These last two are from John Mayes DVD on neck building. Can't recommend them enough. Good deal too!

Hope you enjoyed. Let's see yours. Unlike me, some of you guys make QUALITY stuff!
Author:  Don Williams [ Thu Oct 13, 2005 2:25 am ]
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I like the lathe...I started one years ago based loosely on the one in Wood Magazine 20 years ago or so. Never got very far at all!
I hope folks will step up here and show some stuff they've done similar to what you've shown us. I've got a couple I haven't really shown anyone, and will try to get pics soon.
Author:  Michael McBroom [ Thu Oct 13, 2005 3:58 am ]
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Well given that lutherie is probably half about building ones own tools, here's some of the stuff I've made, some very typical, some not. First the typical stuff.

One of the first things I did when I started building guitars was to make a mold. I built one something like the one Sloane outlined in his book Classic Guitar Construction.



Then I modified it so I could remove the sides. Being able to remove the sides gives me the ability to set a top that still has a border outside the outline into the mold. It makes things a little easier if one installs the neck onto the top (classical construction) before installing the sides.



The bending mold and waist caul for my heating blanket setup:



A rosette gluing call next to a through-the-soundboard holddown.



I have a milling machine, so I made my own rosette channel cutter from a few pieces of aluminum. Originally I designed it for a POS Dremel Advantage. After that went belly-up, I modified it to work with my DeWalt laminate trimmer.



I used to install kerfing on my guitars. Now I install linings. But before I made the switch, I built this little rig so I could quickly cut my own kerfing. Shown with a piece of mahogany sort of set in place to show how I load the uncut kerfing strip into the rig.



Here's a little jig I made to hold chisels and plane irons for use with my sharpening rig. I like it because I can adjust the bevel angle.



And another simple little tool I find surprisingly useful -- a big block of aluminum to which I've glued down some 80 grit sandpaper. I use it for flattening fingerboards after contouring them for bass string relief.



Best,

Michael
Author:  BlueSpirit [ Thu Oct 13, 2005 4:48 am ]
Post subject: 
JW
The lathe works great. I bolted it onto a saw horse I made, and I also have another saw horse with rails on it and a slot where that piece of purpleheart that sticks out can fit. That makes the lathe capable of holding about a 48" piece. But that gets a little too wobbly for me. I am also, going to cover the belt with a guard.

Michael,
That's some very nice stuff. I really like the mold.
Author:  Steve Kinnaird [ Thu Oct 13, 2005 5:14 am ]
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Here's just a few pix of a jig that does double duty.
The first shot is of the gluing jig, which has threaded inserts and all-thread used for the lateral pressure.



Next is the same table, with a maple arm that holds a dial indicator for deflection tests. It is screwed into the adjustable fence on the side opposite the threaded section.



Next is the jig with a top in it and a test in progress. I'm using an old Stanley #4 plane for the weight. Nothing special about that weight, it's just what I started out using, and I'm trying to be consistant.




Thanks for looking,

Steve
Author:  Rod True [ Thu Oct 13, 2005 9:51 am ]
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Well here are a few of my home made thins.

Like many of us, I don't like to pay much for things and well I know sometimes you get what you pay for.

Here it goes.

home made fret saw from a stanley flush cut saw, ($12 at home depot). Cut it in half than I epoxyed it into the maple handle.


Had help with this one. I designed it (drawing the plans and such) and a good friend helped make it in exchange for helping him make a guitar (he is a welder by trade)


Stole this one from Marios site and an old post on the MIMF. Works well for my needs of inlay, just need to get some better bits.


The heat is on. 3 200 watt bulbs does the trick.


Same welder friend made this for me. Cuts the truss rod access grove out very nicely.


Though I would throw this one in there, the bunch of sticks I use for the go-bars are leftover pieces from my neighbour putting down new maple hardwood flooring. Two, 3" pieces gave me lots of go-bars. Price, loaned him my compressor to put the flooring down.


That's it for now.
Author:  BlueSpirit [ Thu Oct 13, 2005 1:49 pm ]
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Hey Rod,
How does that drum sander work for you. I've been looking to buy one, but hey, if I can make it, I'll do that. Where did you buy the drum?

PS: That's some cool home made stuff!
Author:  Shane Neifer [ Thu Oct 13, 2005 2:23 pm ]
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Here's a few more, kind of like Rod, I think of the money spent to make versus buying them but it usually costs as much to make it yourself, but you probably have spent it at an earlier date and now you can collect most of the bits from around the shop. I find great satisfaction in making functional things myself.

Thickness caliper:



Fox Bender



Dremel base with circle attachment (removable)



Rim Sander with Dish making sled



Cyclone Dust Collector



Rails for sliding table on re-saw



Hope this inspires those who are wondering if they can make some of these themselves. There are a lot of good ideas here. I know I will use (did I see "steal") some of them!

Shane
Author:  Rod True [ Thu Oct 13, 2005 3:01 pm ]
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Shane is that steal or steel?

Doug, I use to work at the same steel fab shop that my friend does, (his dad is the owner). I worked as a mechanical engineer tech, (machanical draftsman) I use to help design machinery and other mechanical stuff.

So I had the guys in the shop make the drum for me, I use to draw this kind of stuff up all the time. It's amazing how much work your shop buddies will do for you for a case of beer. That drum took them 12hrs to make, it has a T.I.R of 0.002-0.004" better than I could ever do with MDF and a "flat" sanding board. To align it to the deck I used two milled pcs of steel and adjusted the bearings with a take-up screw I built into the machine.

There are lots of good information out there regarding making a thickness sander and I bet someone here has some plans readily available. I don't have the software that I used to make it anymore otherwise I would just give them to you.

The onlything I need now is an autofeeder for it. Just havn't bothered getting to it yet, but one day soon.

The other thing with the sander is making sure you have it turning at the correct speed. for the first 3 years, I had it turning at 600 rpm, way to slow, now its at full speed and is much smoother and cuts way better.
Author:  Shane Neifer [ Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:29 am ]
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Rod,

I guess I mean an unlicensed rendering of anothers very fine work.....steal? (swiper no swiping!! (I have little kids))

Shane
Author:  Brock Poling [ Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:46 am ]
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[QUOTE=Shane Neifer] Rod,

(swiper no swiping!! (I have little kids))

Shane[/QUOTE]


I rather enjoy Dora. It is better than some of those awful shows.      
Author:  old man [ Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:59 am ]
Post subject: 
Let me begin by saying that none of these is original. The binding jig is Don Williams design, other things came from others on this forum, the GAL book,LINT, and other places.

The side bender came from LINT





The sander has a usable area of 20". Works great.




Don Williams binding jig. I have the other part too.


For making the radiused sanding dishes.


My guitar mold or form. I used two suitcase type latches to close it up.


And I used a hinge on the bottom to make it easy to remove the guitar.


My go bar deck.


At the top is jig for drilling bridge pin holes and for routing the saddle slot. Left: bridge shaping jig, Center: peg head hole drilling jig, Right: brace shaping jig.


Pretty common things for most of you, but it might give some ideas to newbies.

Ron
Author:  Rod True [ Fri Oct 14, 2005 6:37 am ]
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Shane, I laughed hard when I read that.

I have an almost 3 yr old (Oct 21) and she loves Dora.

Brock, I too like Dora, learning spanish as I go.

Ron, nice looking stuff.
Author:  Shane Neifer [ Fri Oct 14, 2005 6:47 am ]
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Rod,

At this very momentI ahve littel unhappy guy because he wants to watch Dora, we have recorded a few episodes that get a lot of VHS time. I am trying to limit TV time and expand the "excercise your mind" time. Not always successfully! But is quite good and they are learning a bit spanish which is also GREAT!

Looking for other neat ideas that we can all borrow. Someone in this group must have a duplicarver or something very interesting alomg those lines, how about a gang saw for kerfing linings?

Shane
Author:  Dave White [ Fri Oct 14, 2005 7:05 am ]
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[QUOTE=Shane Neifer] Rod,
Looking for other neat ideas that we can all borrow. Someone in this group must have a duplicarver or something very interesting alomg those lines, how about a gang saw for kerfing linings?

Shane[/QUOTE]

Isn't it the little blue gang that make them - no that's Smirfed linings
Author:  RussellR [ Fri Oct 14, 2005 7:36 am ]
Post subject: 
First off my binding jig which is based on John Mayes Design (Except his clamping is better as he uses vacum cups.




Neck my Neck Jig made from a bit of everything and based on PaulW and Brocks design.



An Finally a Couple of my tail piece jig.




Author:  Rod True [ Fri Oct 14, 2005 9:54 am ]
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Dave, who ever said the british have a dry sense of humour.
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