Official Luthiers Forum!

That's undeinably true. You don't need a lot of tools, it's just makes some things easier and often more accurate, not to mention faster. The speed is becoming increasingly important to me, but I won't sacrifice quality. I've got too few hours to spend building as it is, so if I can do something quickly, pleasantly and accurately in less than half the time and move on to something else that requires a little more focused attention, I'll take it.

James, why not make a small router table? You can get a decent piece of plexi, or use phenolic board, and make a larger square base, then drop a smallish router into a double-piece of plywood, add some short folding/locking legs, and you can keep the table under the bed with the collapsable go-bar deck.

I would also consider a small shop vac. Maybe the smallest Fein. It's not cheap, but will do the job.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Rockler makes a great small benchtop router table, that's what I use. Honestly, if I was really cramped on space, I probably wouldn't have one, you could do a lot of that stuff with an edge guide.

That Stewmac circle cutter for the dremel works great for me, you just might try sticking on some 220grit sandpaper to hold the adjustment in place. I also use the Black and Decker version of the dremel, and it's rumored to have less runout than the Dremel brand.



The Black and Decker Workmate is great, too. You can use it as a vise for planing neck blanks. I clamp a 2' x 4' sheet of 3/4 mdf and it's my main bench for now.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

get rid of the dremel and buy a Foredom. Then you can put $700 in the bank

You should spend money on some good sharpening equipment to make the hand tools you already own work well, some more on good measuring tools (dial clippers, straightedge, square), a good vise (versa vise or patternmakers vise), a lam trimmer (PC 310 in nice) and a drill press. The rest you spend on wood of course!

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

James, here is a decent router table. I used to own one before I moved up to a larger one and shaper. It's mostly aluminum, so no rust and if you don't like it, recycle it! You can find these at pawn shops, garage sales, etc. for little money.

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Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

If I were in your shoes, I'd have sore feet. Seriously, the first thing I'd do is figure out how to get a bigger shop.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Well, my thousand would go as a down payment to Hesh, for another of his dark sunburst slope dreads.mt

Total, $669 with shipping

Luthier Suppliers:
- Brace Maker
- 2 radius dishes w/sandpaper

intothewind.com:
- 30 3/16" fiberglass rods to make 60 go-bars
- 120 rubber tip

Blues Creek Guitars:
- heating blanket w/temp control
- stainless steel slats

Stew Mac:
- Double sided fret file
- Fret end dress file
- Saddle and nut shaping files
- 47mm/18mm finger plane
- 6 nut files

Still without a machinest's rule, Japanese saw, PC 310 with bind, circle,
and bits.

James, A caliper with a dial guage and a small square are very useful tools and not expensive.   Rave On

I actually have a few calipers and depth gauges. I forgot to include those.   
I'm starting to refine my list a bit. When I sell this last amp that I made,
I'll be able to really start honing in on it and deciding what I do and don't
want to go with, and if there are less expensive solutions for certain
things like Stew Mac's $20 nut layout rule, better bit sources, and all that.