Ken Picou sent me one of his Luthiers Friends to try, up until now Ive only used the robo sander part of it, and that alone is a very handy tool to have. Today I made a batch of upper face brace's and thought id give the Luthiers Friend a try for shaping the brace ends. When I make a batch of braces the most important thing is that they all come out exactly the same. This tool was able to shape the ends verbatim.
Here the unit is, mounted on my drill press, and set to thin the ends.
Here im sizing up the brace into the sanding drum
Making the width adjustment
Feeding the brace into the drum
Feeding it until I reach my mark, then I flip and do the same to the other side
Done! it took about 15 minuets to set up and shape the ends to this batch of braces.
There is a link to Kens site in the luthiers supplies page where you can get more information.
LUTHIERS FRIEND SITE