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Does anyone here make there own?

I am just finishing a guitar that has a bubinga bridge and I don't like the available choices.
That got me thinking about making a set out of manzanita.
I've never seen a thread or any tooling available for making bridge pins.

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I'd really like to see that too!

A micro wood lath would be all that is required outside of what you already have would be my guess. you just need to be able to turn the taper and bulbus heads then part them. It would seem to me to be a simple task once you have the pattern guide made up. y might take a look at Micro-Tools

Steve,
I've never made bridge pins, but I regularly make end pins. The process
should be the same. I have a small metalworking lathe and turn the pin's
taper first, then place a piece of hardwood with a tapered hole (matching
the taper of the pins) into a collet in the headstock. I press the pin into
the tapered hole and turn the head of the pin. At this point you can also
turn a recess for an inlay dot. Usually I will turn a couple of decorative
shallow grooves also.

I would think you could also devise some fairly simple router jigs to
accomplish the same thing. What comes to mind is chucking a piece of
wood in a drill press with a jig to hold a small router at a 3 degree angle
to the drill press spindle. With the drill running at its lowest speed, feed
the router into the turning blank to make the taper. Once the taper is cut,
you could hold the blank in a block with a tapered hole and make the
head using a beading bit in the router.

I wouldn't want to make them all the time, but for that "special" guitar,
you could do something spectacular. Good luck. If you decide to do it,
you have to give us a blow-by-blow, image-by image report.
Craig S.

Steve
Thanks for asking this question.
I have been thinking about the same thing.
I have a mini metal lathe also. My thought
was to make a scraper type cutter with a half profile
of a bridge pin. It is the only way I feel I could get
them all exactly the same in shape/size.
My blanks would be 2-3 bridge pin length. Im sure there
must be other ways, but it what I planned on trying.

Tom

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