Official Luthiers Forum!

I've never had any mishaps in the past with pickup templates. But I have just destroyed 3 acrylic templates for jazz bass. One from stew mac (those terrible 3/16" thin ones) and two 1/4" ones from Guitar Parts Center. My 3/8" stew mac router bit bearing melted into the edges on all. Maybe I have a bad bearing.. but I have used this bit alot lately using mdf as a guide for straight edges and I tried it again against mdf after this episode and it worked fine.

What kind of templates do you use? Is there somewhere that I can get good quality mdf or plywood templates? I would make my own but I can't even seem to use these crap plastic templates once to make another template!

Did the MDF get hot and let some resin burn off and stick to the bearing?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I lubricate my small bit bearings with SAE 10W30, just drop it on with a sharp dowel.

I don't touch the bearing to the acrylic for longer than a second.

I haven't burned up a bearing or melted a template for about ten years.

When I make my own templates, I use plywood.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I usually use any purchased templates to make ply or MDF working templates. And double-check the bearings are running smoothly, and try to take off as little wood as possible with the bearing touching the template (various sized forstner bits and bearing bits with max 1/4" cutting depth are good here)