Official Luthiers Forum!

Has anyone bought and used this stand or made one that is working well for you.
I've go to do something to mount my buffer on and may find other things to use if for like the guitar vise, etc. Thanks for input! tom

I bought one along with both vices. i plan on buying a second very soon. it's fantastic.

There is nothing special about the stand as compared to a typical shop grinder stand. The things you want to look for is the leg being moderately heavy wall pipe, the base being at least 3/16 thick or more both top and bottom and good welds. The reason for all of this is to eliminate vibration. You need to anchor bolt it to the floor or it will vibrate to kingdom-come harbor freight carries a decent one for about $39

Isn't the StewMac stand adjustable both in height and rotation?

I believe you are right but personally for a buffer I would not want either because they can come loose and add to the difficulty of eliminating vibration.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_su ... Stand.html
Here's a video on the StewMac work stand.

I have one. I use it daily, and I love it!!

_________________
Don Sharp
Got Brazilian?
http://www.sharpguitars.com

I love mine, when I bought it a few years ago it changed the way I work.
I am sure I will get another one. I always buy from Stewmac when I can, it gets here
quick and the service is the best. Its also in my best interest that they are around
as long as I am! They only sell to luthiers so when I buy something from Home Depot etc,
that I can get from Stewmac I am shooting everybody in the foot and am just a drop
in the bucket to a larger outlet.
Sorry for the blatant commercial for Stewmac, but I have been using them for
years and years with only the best results.
Best, Evan

_________________
http://www.NewYorkGuitarRepair.com

I don't have one. I don't make enough to warrant it. But I agree with your comments about Stewmac. Their service is absolutely second to none.

I'm curious about the ball bearing roller. Is it effective only when the stand is adjusted to it's lowest position?

I don't have one, but I know you can move the ball-bearing to different holes on the column, so the bearing works at a few different heights. Plus, I assume you could drill more holes for the ball-bearing to fit into. I can see from photos that the ball-bearing is held by a special pin, which looks like you push a button, then you can remove the pin.

I wonder if anyone has managed to break one of those angle vises while mounted on a shop stand. I have one of those vises and there are some places on the base that look a little weak.

I also wonder how thick the vise mounting plate is on that shop-stand. looks to be about 3/16" thick.

Seems like anyone who can weld, could put one of those together fairly easily.

It gets back to the make-or-buy discussion. Folks who have the time, talent and resources and like to make their own fixtures...... Or someone not possessing all these attributes but is busy building instruments......
To each his own, I guess.

Almost looks like the bearing could be placed next to a slot running parallel to the pipe with a quick clamp to adjust height.

That's right. The bearing is mounted on a bolt and is held in place via your choice of pretapped holes. I use the bearing feature most when gluing linings. I just clamp the mold into the vise, line one side, spin it around and line the other, then flip the mold over and do it again. I find the stand/vise combo very helpful when scraping bindings. The versa vise holds the instrument very nicely.

_________________
Don Sharp
Got Brazilian?
http://www.sharpguitars.com

The StewMac site says this stand adjusts from 28" to 36" in height. That seems low to me, which has been my main reason for holding off on getting one. It seems to me that if I'm going to invest in (or build) something that's height-adjustable, I'd like it to be able to come up to nearly chest level for some things.

_________________
Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

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

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

Don't forget to add the height of the vise. That's a total of about 42".

_________________
Don Sharp
Got Brazilian?
http://www.sharpguitars.com

Wonder if I'm the only one who had noticed on Erlewine's first "shop stands", the vise mounting plate is sitting on an angle, which allows the vise to tilt both ways. If you have one of those vises like I do, you know it can tilt farther than needed in one direction.
I guess when StewM decided to sell the stands, they wanted to make the plate flat to lower production costs and allow the stand to work without the angle vise.
They should offer an angled adapter plate so you can get more tilt range from the angle vise.
Especially useful when using the neck jig and you want to fill fret ends on the treble side, and be able to tilt the jig "backwards" for that.