Official Luthiers Forum!

Interestingly I was thinking about some of the many mistakes I've made during my many years of woodworking and thought that the only real mistakes are when someone gets hurt or injured. All others can be corrected. Repaired or start afresh. The issue is that while I was thinks of these mistakes I was routing the neck and headstock and forgot to flatten the work piece for the headstock. The pic shows what happens when thinking of something other then the task at hand. No one hurt, an easy fix and a new headstock template to be made. I'll get over the embarrassment.

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Michael Lloyd

“I was born to ignorance, yes, and lesser poverties ...
I was born to privilege that I did not see ... I didn’t know it, but my way was paved” – John Gorka

Many mistakes made over my woodworking career. Here is the latest, about 4 weeks ago. Can you see the boo-boo in the first shot? I was concentrating too much on taking a picture that I didn't notice that the bridge was backwards in the jig. The end result was quite disheartening. The third picture shows the repair under some shellac, and the last one shows that it is not tooooooo obvious once the strings went on

I was very struck by Hutches ‘cri de coeur’ if you’ll excuse the expression as I had just had yet another problem with the spraying of Nitro.

But when I started out on this - and I really wanted to build guitars - I decided I really needed to develop a kind of Zen attitude to it. I had done a fair bit of furniture building and knew that mistakes would be made and that my natural reaction would be anger, but recognized that this was not going to get me very far, so I have worked quite hard at keeping a grip. I think that this is actually what distinguishes a craftsman from a hobbyist. Not wishing to be rude to anyone. As people have already said one needs to look carefully at why it happened and try to take the right steps to get past it.

Sorry if that sounds a bit glib and believe me I don’t live up to it a lot of the time but it is what I aim for.

Dave M

To err is to be human. But it's also human to smash everything and start over again too

Oh the Humanity!
https://video.nationalgeographic.com/vi ... 45504a0000

After my own screw-ups - and there were many - I'd have preferred to take some time away from the task, but that was not permitted at Greenridge. The Boss made it crystal-clear that there was far more grief to be had for failing to take prompt corrective action than for the mistake itself. I suppose I learned that lesson growing up in my parent's household and later as a medical professional, but applying it to what I initially thought of as a hobby was a painful process.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

In a work environment "fixing" a mistake often needs to be done right away, and often consists of making a new part, sometimes even in starting over. As a hobbyist we have the luxury of cogitating on it a while, and possibly coming up with a solution that requires less severe measures.
Work environments generally tend to be less creative in their solutions and value production over innovation.

The three months I spent as a 'build' student were lovely...slow-paced and lots of time to discuss options. Once I switched status to repair student, the pace of work and emphasis changed, as I was no longer paying to learn. There was certainly an emphasis on standard approaches to common repairs, but I think the point being made was more along the lines of efficiently identifying the 95% or so of repair jobs which follow standard 'recipes' (with associated estimate) and getting to work without delay. The 5% or so of jobs that needed Mr. Clay's more creative solutions also had to meet the bar of customer willingness to commit to a time-and-materials basis of billing, as well as our acceptance of greater risk on the outcome.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

I love the great responses to this thread. I don't have any reason to jump back onto this as I'm enjoying what I'm doing right now. When I'm done fiddling with plane making and I build the plane to fix the mistake I'll get back to it. That's my plan and I may stick to it

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Hutch

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

I'm coming up on the 10 year anniversary of this guitar being finished. There are so many errors with the build... sometime you walk away, and stay away for some time... but if you stick with it, you learn patience and perseverance and can be really proud of the recovery.

viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=35351&view=previous

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Finally got back to it. Hopefully I'll stay on it now. I added a rather wide piece of Brazilian rosewood with cherry sides for a backstrip. I'm in the process of making a matching heel wedge. The one I made is only .047" before sanding. I wonder if I should make another the same thickness as the sides to glue directly to the tailblock.

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Hutch

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

One of the best 'recovery' stories I heard, happened many years ago. A young aspiring luthier got a job working for Alembic. While drilling the holes for a Tune-a-matic bridge, he accidentally drilled one of the holes right through the body. He went to 'the boss' expecting to get blasted. The boss took a quick look at it and told him to drill the other hole the same way, countersink the holes from the back, inlay MOP dots and add fifty bucks to the bill for 'custom inlay'.
Me? I've had everything from 'learning experience' to 'take it out back and burn it'.
Your build is looking real good.

banjopicks wrote:
" I wonder if I should make another the same thickness as the sides to glue directly to the tailblock."

If you have the material that is what I would do. Then you don't have to worry about making it perfectly flush or sanding through it.

I'm going to do it. Thanks for your input.

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Hutch

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

If I'm not making mistakes, I'm not working. However, when I notice one, I try to let it percolate (or fester) in my mind. Ask a question here. always seems the best path forward.

I’m building two guitars right now. One for a friend, one inspired by my baby girl to commemorate what her birth brought to my life. Both very important to me.

Two weeks ago I was gluing the top to the rim of my daughter’s guitar and realized I hadn’t notched the linings for one of the upper X arms. Who does that? Even though I hadn’t even finished setting all the clamps, the glue had already set. When I finally pried it free, the top split and an 8” crack reached towards the sound hole. I was sick. First time in a long time I had to stop working.

Tonight I fit the back. The top’s been on the rim for about a week, and I learned how to repair a decent crack. Thank god for friend’s like Hesh who’ve been around the block a time or two.


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