Official Luthiers Forum!

Two questions:

Do most of you use 3/32" saddles or 1/8"?

What kind of bit do you route the saddle slot with? Spiral downcut, straight bit, end mill, or what?

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Ron, I like 1/8 saddles, they have room for intonation adjusts. I use the Stew-Mac downcut bits. They work well cutting slots.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

I use .125 bits. I tried spiral cut bits, both up and downwards and they
did not work too well for me. So I've been using cheap $5 straight bits
from Ace hardware and they have worked wonderful.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

3/32", downcut, to avoid chipouts.

1/8", spiral downcut.

     Your result and type of bit you need depend on the divice you are using. Higher speeds use up or striaght. Slower speeds use down cut if you have room for the chips to get out of the way.
     Downward sprials will have a tendency to load and get hot. If you use downward cuts take the cut is 2 or 3 passes so you don't overload the chip clearance
john
PS I use solid carbide bits 3/32 and 1/8 are my choice as I do have a milling machine and I can use that to make the cuts

If you use downward cuts take the cut is 2 or 3 passes

I dissagree. Taking that many passes introduces the chance of making the slot wider than you planned if anything moves even a hair.

One pass is all I try to take. Downcut bit, using a regular router in a table. If the slot gets packed with dust(happens...), loosen it with a small file and blow the dust out.

That's all I do as well. I use a lam trimmer that has plenty of power (pc) and make one pass end to end. I get a very tight fitting saddle, with no wobble. I can pick up the guitar holding only the saddle.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

1/8" here.Like John said, cheapo from Ace hardware cuz that's what I had. I will probably get a downcut spiral for my next though.

I use 1/8" spiral downcut for SS acoustics, and 3/32" spiral downcuts for classicals.

Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

Mario, I'm curious to know more about routing them on a table. Do you use a jig to get the appropriate slant to the slot? Do you have any pictures?

I have been using a dremel to cut my slots, and I haven't been happy with the results. If I try to take it in one pass, the bit breaks, even when I go very slowly. If I take multiple passes, the second pass is never EXACTLY in the same place as the first, no matter how hard I try, and so there is a little wobble in the slot. Maybe a router setup would work better.

Yeah, Kelby, I screwed my first one up using the dremel and a downcut bit. However, what John said about the chips clearing might be what was causing my problem. I could go about a third the length ok and then it would jerk and I ended up with a pretty jagged slot. I'm going to try it again with a different type of bit while I'm waiting for delivery of my new bits that will fit my laminate trimmer.
I've thought about using my router table, too, so Mario tell us how you get it right using the table.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

http://www.proulxguitars.com/buildup/build13.htmMario38664.5844212963

Thanks, Mario, I'm getting ideas. I wasn't cutting my slot open at the ends (that would simplify it) but maybe I should. If you don't need to plunge I would think a straight bit would do fine.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Thanks, Mario! That's extremely helpful.

If you like the semi-polished look on bridges, here's something to try. First, sand the bridge to 600.

Second, put one of those small buffing wheels on your bench grinder.

Third, load the buffing wheel up with Carnuba wax (use one of the blocks of hard Carnuba wax, not any of that half-liquid paste wax crap).

Buff the bridge with the wax.

It's important to use the grinder buffing wheel rather than your usual guitar buffing wheel because (1) you don't want to waste one of those nice big expensive buffing wheels on this task, and you can't use it for anything else once you load it up with Carnuba wax, and (2) it's important to generate enough heat when you are buffing to make the Carnuba wax flow nicely, and the speed of the grinder is perfect for that.

With a pure black ebony bridge, I think this polishing method makes the bridge look a bit plastic (too polished). But if you are using some nice rosewood or cocobolo, or anything else with some interesting grain or figure to it, this method really brings out the color. And hey, if you don't like it, you can always sand it back to 320 and buff the way you normally would.

If you want to use Mario's method of a "through cut" saddle slot then a thin kerf 7 and 1/4 inch circular saw blade in a table saw also works great.