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That would work too if done with reasonable precision. It wouldn’t work in my case since I use screws to lock the head and tail blocks to the mold.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I like this one as it’s easy to make and nice to have. Just a board with a 1” hole and router mounted to it. Makes the notches easy.




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Oh the 12 gauge slug gun with riot barrel used to get the RC plane out of the tree story

It did work although there was little left of the plane

I kept all my models, the original boxes, and all the spare parts into my middle 40's and sold them for a tidy sum to a master modeler....

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

Brad now that is neat. My cutouts are usually terrible. I Have tried balancing a small router on the lining but that doesn't really work.

I shall certainly try your idea next time.

Dave

Yes, it’s such a head slapper. I first saw it shared by Beau Hannam on instagram.


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Dope slap from me, too. Gotta be something wrong with something so easy.

Thanks!

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Peter Havriluk

You can do something similar by using a board as an edge guide and router with a top bearing bit. That can allow you to see where you are notching a little easier and where to stop if you prefer to not cut through the side. One less jig to store and find.

Cool Brad and this is safer than how I did it.

I would mark where I wanted to remove material and blacken the area to be removed with a sharpie so I could see it. Then I used my Dr*mel... with a spiral down-cut bit set to the height of what I was tucking brace wise mounted in the StewMac Dr*mel router base and do it manually keeping it all level or trying too. Worked OK but you have the level down much better with this idea.

Great idea!

Probably others use this, just I've never seen this posted.
2 or 3 go-bar rods help steady a top or back in a radius dish for carving braces, scrap of something helps prevent dents

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Right in one!

I was installing an endpin jack this morning, went for my simple 2-minute tool and thought this could be helpful to someone. I’ve been meaning to make a prettier version….

Best, M

Why haven't I posted this one? Quickie finish touch-up or thread locker - clear fingernail polish.

It's thick so it builds fast, works well with any finish, buffs to a nice shine easily provided you let it harden. Even has a handy brush in the cap, or use an artists brush or toothpick if need be. Can even be thinned down and sprayed from an airbrush for larger touch-ups. You can even use black or the many colored polishes available for touching up a variety of colored finishes so you don't have to buy a whole can for a touch up. Cheaper to buy, too. Works great on plastic finishes of lesser brands of instruments.

Makes a fine thread locker, too. I use it on Schaller bridges all the time that are adjustable for string spacing to keep the rollers in place. It's not permanent - a quick touch of lacquer thinner or acetone with a toothpick or artists brush softens it to move the screw or part, or when forced - it will simply pop off the chrome. Also, on electric bass strings - the thread that wraps the ball ends or the terminus of the string at the peghead sometimes wants to unravel. Fingernail polish to the rescue - it will tame that errant thread and keep it attached to the windings of the string. Less permanent than CA glue, and smells less evil.

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

This one is almost too obvious, but if you need to get pliers involved in removing a particularly stubborn saddle, a steel fingerboard guard comes in handy. Particularly where the bridge has been finished.

Here are two tips that I use all the time.

1. Get some 1/8" thick leather (generally very useful stuff for guitar makers and repairers) and glue some pieces to the jaws of a cheap set of Channellock pliers, gluing the rough side of the leather right to the teeth. Titebond works great. You know those soft touch pliers that StewMac sells? I am sure they are useful for some things, but not for heavy duty torque. The Channellock pliers with leather are both tough and tender. Wonderful tool to have.

2. We all deal with sanding corns on sandpaper. My favorite way to remove them, and save the sandpaper, is to keep a file cleaner handy, the kind that has soft bristles on one side and metal bristles on the other side. If the soft bristles won't remove the corns, the metal bristles will. Amazingly, the metal doesn't tear through the sandpaper, unless you really lean into it like a doofus. This works better than any other corn removal trick I have tried.

I thought I'd tried that before, but maybe not. I've only ever had luck removing corns one by one with an x-acto knife, so I sweep the dust off with a toothbrush to prevent them forming in the first place.

And that reminds me, I don't use coarse sandpaper anymore since discovering that sanding belts are so much better. Very little shedding of abrasive particles, so it lasts almost forever as long as you keep it clean. Get the kind without velcro backing, as that will round over edges on whatever you're sanding.

And then for fine sanding I mostly use my XXC dia-sharp stone. Hard and flat, so it produces high quality surfaces, and again lasts forever. The only drawback is that corns develop quickly if you don't brush the dust off, and once one forms, it will quickly re-form in the same spot until you wash it with water. Not a big deal if you have a sink near your work area, but if not then stick with regular sandpaper.

Here’s a tip or more of a tool. I don’t believe these are made any more but they still pop up on eBay and the likes. It is a snap on 3ASHA. I use this non stop for decades for trem spring installation. I know I have scratched many a guitar in my youth using needle nose pliers.



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Instead of pointing straws for glue clean-up....try bamboo skewers, couple strokes on sandpaper bevels the edge surprisingly well. Cheap in the BBQ aisle.

Polish your edge tools. I was scraping a violin down to size, and the 1" laminated steel chisel I was using wasn't getting it. The old plane blades I use as scrapers were no better, even after honing. The cheap 3/4" Craftsman worked great. I broke down and decided to sharpen everything.

I bought 2 double sided earMoo waterstones to replace a bunch of stones a year or so ago. One plastic shoebox to store them in with water. I started with 400 or 600, I don't remember what it is, up to 5,000. Some of them even needed the bench grinder. I don't have a big coarse stone.

After that, I remembered that I bought some lapping paper from Woodcraft. 5 mil 1 mil, and .3 mil. I only used the 5 mil a little, and then threw it in a drawer.

I went thought all three "grits" if you want to call it that, and the tools really shine on the ends. I tested the 1" chisel, and it works nice. I'm guessing that the polishing makes a smoother cut, and it should last longer.

They have to work better being scary sharp. The edges gleam.

It's probably better to sharpen every tool that you are using at the time. Doing all of them takes a while.

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Why be normal?

I bought a couple of these little gooseneck LED lights for my dad to shave with... He is too blind to use them, and just does it by feel these days. They fit in the box of a flattop or through the f-holes of an archtop easily, and allow me to see with my mirrors inside the guitar when I am doing repair. They didn't cost much - got them from Amazon. They are called "Mighty Bright", and run on 3 AAA batterys. The spring clip works very well to stabilize the light, and the gooseneck works well - very flexible. There are 2 LEDS in the head, press once for 2 lights, press again for 1 light, press a third time to shut the lights off. Very handy!

https://i.imgur.com/meiukDi.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vgICpJe.jpg

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

I was fitting a back today and can’t remember if I have posted this before but when cutting brace ends to final length you can put tape on an XActo razor saw and saw almost all the way down without worrying about damaging the top or back.

You can finish with a #11 blade.

8D7E8AA0-D4B1-45D8-90A9-A8C1968F17B3 by Terence Kennedy, on Flickr

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Another way to skin the cat that Terence just mentioned is to use a veneer saw, which has a curved blade. The curve allows you to focus the cutting on just the brace. Both ways are useful.

Or a Hosco bracing saw, same sort of thing - used one for a few years now.
Sorry about the sixe of the pic, the saw is actually my smallest one.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.