Official Luthiers Forum!

A heartfelt thank-you for offering, Mr. Burkett, but please consider my continued use of your family name and appropriate honorific in this setting as a sign of deepest respect and warmest regard.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

I guess I show my age by borrowing from Raymond J. Johnson, Jr.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCqh5ROtQRg

Nice!

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

What do you have against Twinkies? Tasty and also pretty good for gluing cleats to hold those cracks together. They are guaranteed to have a shelf life giving hide glue a run for its money, not to mention survival food. Might work as an effective stripper too, but I haven't tried that yet.

Nice. I approve. So what do we call you? Mr. G seems a little ‘80s rapper to be respectful.


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I have found a large number of these small ratchet clamps to be very useful:

https://www.grizzly.com/products/Jorgen ... amp/T26949

They weren’t available for a while, due to the company’s difficulties resulting in the suspension of operations, but they are apparently available again. I tried other brands, but these are the ones I like. The others were crap, but these work.

I use them for gluing on rectangular kerfed linings, bindings on fingerboards, component parts of custom herringbone, etc. They are small and easy to deal with, but they actually do clamp with enough pressure to do the job.

I mention them here because they have turned out to be far more useful than I imagined when I bought a handful of them for some reason. Once I figured out how great they work, I had to go hunting for larger quantities of them.

I love these kind of discussions, but they can get expensive.

Works for me:
Nilfisk for a shop vac. It's HEPA, powerful and quiet, available used for reasonable cost on ebay
Norton 4000/8000 waterstone. coming off the wet grinder, the 4000 cuts fast enough to make ready for the 8000. Then green honing compund on a leather strop.
Freud Diablo 7 1/4" thin kerf framing blade for the table saw.
Stewmac buffer swings down from the ceiling, saving 6 sq ft in a small shop
Abranet mesh sanding discs. No special hole spacing needed for Festool ROS

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

What really works:

Any of the stuff mentioned in this forum and other luthier circles, that are expensive, and costs a huge amount of shipping, not to mention tariff to get

What doesn't work:

Anything else that doesn't involve high shipping, picky sellers that will only sell to lower 48, high tariff.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Works:
Olfa Ultra Sharp snap-off utility blades and their cushion grip art knife/blades
Anything from Starrett, Lie-Nielsen, DMT Diamond, Mirka, West Systems, Menzerna, Whiteside(router bits), Transtint, Ron Hock
Cleanstream HEPA shop vac filter cartridges
Shellac from Vijay
HHG from Bjorn
Norland Fish glue from LV
CRC INDUSTRIAL 3-36 Industrial Lube and Rust Preventer
Sparkling clean, dedicated rip and crosscut TS blades
Micro-pipettes
Sally Beauty Supply nail polishing boards

Doesn't work:
Anything Dremel, underpowered drum sanders, dust collectors and 14" band saws.
Cheap mini air die grinders
Personal checks
Pineapple on
Light beers.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens . . . These are a few (more) of my favorite things:

1. The large rolls of 3M Stikit Gold sandpaper available online (as opposed to the smaller rolls StewMac stocks). I put rolls of 80, 120, 220, and 320 on a converted paper towel holder and that gives me all the pre-finish sandpaper I need, right there, ready to stick to a sanding block or the workbench or whatever. The larger rolls keep me from worrying about running out, and that comfort leads me to replace worn paper without a second thought.

2. PEC blem machinist squares, combination squares, square blades, etc. A great deal on very good quality USA-made tools.

3. "Harvesting" low speed electric motors from cheap Harbor Freight tools and using them as the power behind better, DIY woodworking tools. I've made a few custom sanders this way: A 12" disc sander and a 24" radius form sander (no bus driving for me). Both perform just great. Well worth the effort of building them.

4. My Vega table saw fence. If only every woodworking tool was as reliably accurate.

5. My pre-Jet Performax ShopPro 25, purchased used and fixed up a bit a few years ago. Having a drum sander this powerful and this accurate, and at this drum width, has been wonderful. I am happy to give up the extra potential sanding width of a cantilevered drum design in exchange for the higher accuracy that comes with having pillow blocks supporting both ends of the drum.

6. My workbench: 60" x 30" x 1 3/4" laminated maple top, dog holes every 6" around the edges (3" in from the edge) and up the middle, Veritas twin screw vise on one end, all on top of Lee Valley cast iron bench legs. One of the best decisions I ever made was putting this bench together, in this "open air" configuration. Extremely versatile as a clamping base, a working surface, a place to temporarily mount a parrot or patternmaker vise, and whatever else I need from a workbench (but not storage).

7. My Bishop Cochran router base (for the Bosch Colt). No need to elaborate; it's just awesome.

8. The hot hide glue pots from MusiCaravan, heated with used student laboratory hot plates. My hot hide glue game improved a whole lot when I went this direction.

9. My ClearVue dust collector. Yes, it will suck up a tape measure if you are not careful. Great dust collector.

In contrast, one of my rare, but significant, tool disappointments: Table saw "over table" dust collection, combined with a blade guard and riving knife. Yes, I would be safer if I used it more, but it is an absolute pain in the arse for most guitar-related cuts on a table saw. I don't own a SawStop, so I compensate by relying on Grrippers for every cut, and I rely on other tools (like the band saw) when either would do the job. The over table setup mostly stays bungeed out of the way.

Lots of great ideas here. I had to get my notebook out. Lots of power tool stuff. I have none of that. I'm a hand tool guy; but you never know.

I didn't see one of my favorites, Iwasaki half round files. I rarely use the small flat one I have, or any flat file. For flat I usually use a scraper. But the Iwasaki half rounds are great. I have a long one with a tang; a medium? a small one with red rubbery stuff on the end that is very handy, and a mid size one I got last Christmas with a black rubbery end that must be a coarse. I really like using them over regular files and rasps. I'll probably just get rid of most of those.

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Why be normal?

While I take exception to some likes and dislikes here, I'll simply take the easy road and offer what works for me.... My criteria? What made money for me on a consistent basis through the years.

Guitar polish - BOSS guitar detailer takes off all the weird stuff, like that hard to remove haze from old lacquer finishes. I've tried all of them - BOSS is best, and it doesn't leave water spots or smell funny.

Miller airbrush rig - a tiny pump powered by a sewing machine motor, and 2 single action airbrushes with no moving parts. Bought it in the late 70's for $19 at K-Mart and it's still going strong. I can do 2 wet coats with the small jar easily. In the 80's and early 90's I made a mountain of cash with this rig doing refins and new jobs.

Ken Donnell sandpaper file - It's basically a body shop float with a glass sole, and 2 clips to attach sandpaper strips. One of these days I'll use Stikit papers, but I haven't run out of strips yet. Great for flattening tops, back, or fingerboards. It's over 30 years old, and I only dropped it once. A nearby auto window shop put on a fresh piece of glass in 20 minutes for a tenspot.

6" and 18" Starrett scales. These are from my early days as a tool and die maker, purchased in 1977. They have never failed me. I keep cheapy scales as cleaning devices, scrapers, or backers for sanding. I cut them up, bend them, toss them when done - after all, they're cheap. Also - 18" piece of Starrett flat ground stock as a straightedge, almost as old as the scales. I bought a 24" piece for basses a decade ago, but barely use it.

Ibanez nut files - I have 2 sets, and they get used for almost every nut I've made since 1977. Dependable, easy to use - I love 'em.

Emerson disc sander. Yes - it rattles and vibrates when not clamped down, but it makes short work of roughing out a nut blank or grinding a bevel on a metal handtool. Another purchase from 1977. The place that sold it to me is long gone. Every time I use it I say to myself, "I love power tools".

That's enough for now.

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

What doesn't -

-Straight edges and rules that are not straight or accurate.
-Cheap drill bits.
-CA glue that starts funky or goes funky in less than a year.
-Finishes that do not live up to promises.

What does -

-Horizontal oscillating belt sander. Most frequent used stationary in the shop. Straightening, trimming to length and shaping everything. Even taking initial fret overhang off a fretboard. All joinery and appearance has improved since that addition.
-Starrett No387, 24" graduated straightedge, ever since that transformational day when I realized I didn't really know what was straight or accurate in the shop. Now everything gets checked against that standard. 6 and 12" Starrett rules in inch and metric are always on the bench for actual measuring.
-#11 X-Acto blades and holders
-3M Stikit Gold
-2 bandsaws, one stays set up for resaw, a 14" for everything else. Had a Delta 14, bought a 19" Griz, gave away the Delta, and 2 months later bought another 14"
-A thick slab of flat granite countertop mounted in the middle of my bench

There's lots more.

Great thread and a lot of good ideas!

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

One more thing I just thought of: A work bench that you can access from both sides.

I forgot to mention one thing that works very well for me: Dragon rasps. One of my favorite tools for neck shaping and I've tried a fair number of different tools for that task.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

The good :
The quality of jigs and tools being built by Chris Ensore elevate lutherie

The bad :

ANYTHING offered by Harbor Freight

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Stuff that works:
A good fret press system. I have the stewmac one. Honestly... I’ve gone from having to sand and level the whole board to installing and only spot leveling frets. Soooo much quicker / easier

Stuff that doesn’t:
eBay jigs. : unfortunately you get what ya pay for


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I would have said "all" sides. Free standing benches with big overhangs to facilitate clamps, waterproof Formica tops and rounded over oak trim to avoid dinging things.

Stuff that works:
Honestly everything I have ever bought from Stew Mac. While I gripe about the cost and sometimes make fun of "Why would anybody want this?" - it always works right, does the job it's supposed to, and I wonder how I ever lived without it....

Stuff that doesn't work:
The worst offenders are ANY knockoff of a Stew Mac tool from Grizzly, HF, or miscellaneous Chinese. I always think "These look just like the ones from Stew Mac" and they NEVER work right. I curse them and wreck parts... The it goes from bad to worse trying go fix them... Then - I punt and buy the tool from Stew Mac and it works exactly right where the knockoff works exactly wrong...

Picking up a guitar regularly so I don't forget the main reason I do this is because I like really nice guitars!

And my 1" garage sale Footprint chisel. I know it's a plastic handle and not made of highly prized cites wood, but it's ergonomically great and holds an edge.

SM bridge pin reamer for clearing excess nitro from tuner holes prior to tuner installation.

- Good -

- Mirka Deros Sander
- Elixir strings
- Norton sandpaper
- Mini Japanese try squares from Dictum
- Gotoh tuners
- Zap CA / super glue
- Hercules mini folding guitar stands
- Ardennes-Coticule sharpening stone
- Making your own drum sander paper by sticking duct / duck tape to the back of normal roll sandpaper... (discovered this when my band snapped and the shops were closed for the weekend.


- Bad -

- CA/ super glue from Loctite.
- Purfling from China
- Low humidity

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www.leddingtonguitars.com

Works: HSS drill bits from Lee Valley. Brad point.


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