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Would a 1/3 HP Jigsaw with enough patience be able to fill the job of a Band Saw (from scratch to finish for electric guitars)?

After watching a series of videos on people making guitars from scratch I figured I would give it a shot. Making a guitar exactly how I want it to be seems more appealing than spending buckets of money on every guitar I would like to own.

I have acquired the "Building Electric Guitars" Pdf + DVD by Martin Koch.
I am a full time student so money is a little tight and found one of these in a posting for $14 lol (The Jigsaw)

My woodworking experience amounts to one semester of wood-shop in middle school lol
It looks like fun though and I figure It's a much better time waster than playing video games all day while I'm not studying music theory.

Thank you very much.

I have seen it done. Use a fine cut blade that will give you a cleaner cut. Take your time and don't force the cut. It will not cut as fast and smooth as band saw. It may require a lot of sanding and finish work with rasp and files but it can be done. Good luck...Mike

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Guitars, guitars and more guitars.

You would be happier to not have to saw any of the exotic dense woods like ebony or rosewood. Maple and mahogony are popular not only because their price is reasonable and they sound and look good, they are also easy to saw. Sawing the exotics is more like metal working than like carpentry.
Buy a pack of blades, because the way you learn how to use a jig saw is by breaking blades.
If you overheat the blade it goes instantly permanently dull.

You may find that the blade will not cut square to the top of the wood. Going slow may help and using a softer wood such as basswood for the body.

Practice first on some boards the approximate thickness of the guitar you want to build.

I've used a jigsaw to do what you want to do, but I used power sanders to bring the body to its final shape.

The thing is a bandsaw has guides for the blade above and below the cut, so if set up right it doesn't deflect much from cutting vertical. Also a bandsaw blade is much longer so it won't heat up like a jig saw blade will, because a js blade is moving up and down. The finer the js blade, the nicer the cut will be but the slower you will have to go.

The big thing is keeping the blade vertical. Once it deflects the blade will want to keep tracking at an angle. The key is going slow when cutting the curves and letting the blade cut around the curve. It's easy to just swing the back end of the saw around rather than focus the pivot right at the blade because the blades are flimsy enough to let you, but instead of cutting around the curve it'll just lean over and cut a nice section of a cone.

Yes but!...Don't waist your time or money. For about the same $ you can pick up a 8 or 10 inch bench top band saw and be a whole lot happier.

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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The poor man always pays twice... it's possible, but frustrating - I had a p.o.s. bandsaw until my 3rd build... sometimes it's cool to start with something really bad (Like I did) - you really appreciate the power of a bigger saw. YES you can do it, but realize going in that it takes a r e a l l o n g t i me to cut through stuff. 1/2 inch cocobolo with a 1/4" 10 tpi blade you will get through 4 IPH (Inches per hour).

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"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Thank you all for the helpful tips and advice.

LOL! That is a bit less than what I was expecting.

I did a little searching and happened to find some used 12" Band Saws in my area for about $40 - $60.
I think they were all 1/3 HP as well. Would these happen to cut as slowly or would the upgrade be worth the $24 - $46 extra cost? Or is a larger HP Saw more important?

I built 7 guitars (more or less) before buying a bandsaw. Just steer well clear of the line drawn, rasp or sand down close, and finish up with a router and a template bit. The only thing a bandsaw lets you do is skip the second step in this three-part process. Don't get me wrong, it's an incredibly useful tool that makes a lot of tasks much easier, and a larger saw opens up opportunities for things like bookmatching and resawing (personally, I don't see a great deal of value in a bandsaw that can't resaw 8"-9" or so), makes prepping rough stock easier, and so forth, but a router and a drill press are more useful for electric builders and acoustic builders who don't (want to) resaw their own wood.

I do think it's more flexible than a tablesaw for a lot of what we do, for example, though I must admit I don't have much experience with a tablesaw, because I simply do not have the space. The footprint on a bandsaw is actually fairly tiny for its capacity, so even my little shed can house it comfortably.

Word of warning on the motivation front - I started out thinking I would just build one or two guitars, and save money and get my dream guitars. Truth? I have built a few of my 'dream guitars', or rather semi-prototypes (perfection is an elusive, dynamic goal - striving for it feeds creativity), invested in lots of tools, even more wood, and have a stash big enough to keep me happy and in piles of wood dust for decades at my current build rate. Same money would have bought several high-end electrics and acoustics with change left over. Would I do it all over again? Hell yes.

I built several solid bodies with a jigsaw,
a Bosch, which was a good one at the time (30+ years ago!!!!!).

It helps to make exit cuts at the tight turns.
Exit cuts are cuts made perpendicular to the cut you are making,
so the piece falls of, and you can start a fresh cut,
making sure the blade isn't going all kitty wompus on you.