Official Luthiers Forum!

Thanks again to everyone who was able to join today's roundtable meeting. We had new members James Orr & Mike O'Melia to join and introduce themselves. I was glad to hear what everyone was working on and how you spent the holidays. The recording and attendance report is below.

If you would like to submit anonymous feedback on topics, experience, etc... please fill out the form here - https://forms.office.com/r/HHEni87fAP

Highlights:

Intros:
Mike O'Melia - 1:05
James Orr - 6:25

Sharing holiday experiences:
James "Wud" Lindley - 12:10 - Sharing details on his experimental build and dealing with "opportunities"!
Byran Bear - 17:45 - Saving Christmas for mom, and the raw materials for a hammer made of Osage Orange.
Mike O'Melia - 20:40 - Sharing his journey making mandolins.
James Orr - 29:15 - New tools! Sawstop & Beadlock joiner from Rockler.
Michael Colbert - 33:15 - Christmas year-round! (Michael, please keep posting progress shots!! )
Ken Nagy - 42:18 - Archtop and cello wizardry and a tragedy with sawhorses (and a recovery).
Brad Combs - 52:25 - Veritas sanding beam & shooting board.

Demo - 56:30 - NK Forster Guitars Semi hemispherical fret end grinding tool

Here is a link to Nigel's website to purchase one of the semi-hemi wheels - https://www.nkforsterguitars.com/luthier-tools-2/

Recording:
Direct Link - https://youtu.be/f343sgqwMZk

Embedded link:


Attendance report:
James "Wud" Lindley
Bryan Bear
Mike O'Melia
James Orr
Michael Colbert
Ken Nagy
Brad Combs

Thanks to everyone who attended. Watch for the invite for next month.

Thanks all!
Brad

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Crap, I missed it! I was in the shop working and forgot all about it (insert hanging head, feeling dumb emoticon here).

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Nice work Brad. I really meant to make it but life got in the way. Nice to put a face to more of the names I've seen for many years. The semi/hemi fret jig was pretty cool but not something I've gravitated towards, yet! Always interesting.

Hi folks,

I was chatting with Nigel, turns out I was wrong about the stainless steel version of the grinding wheel. In the video I mentioned there are two versions, but there is just one. My mistake.

Michael Colbert, sorry about that!

Brad


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Yay! Good to know - there are 2 different mandrill types. One is much huskier, and more expensive!

Best, M

One additional thing - Nigel said that if anyone gets an order in this weekend he will add it to the current batch. Great opportunity to get one of these if you are interested!!

https://www.nkforsterguitars.com/luthier-tools-2/

Order form is here - https://forms.gle/USkdejmzLkp5Gr4KA


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I just watched the replay. Thanks to all for sharing. Sorry I couldn’t be there this time. Brad, thanks as always for organizing.

Thanks for another great meetup video Brad!

Loved seeing what everyone's up to and especially loved the fretboard prep & fallaway details mentioned in your semi-hemi demo Brad.

Fantastic stuff.

For the future I must stop using the words tool and jig interchangeably.

Glad you found it useful. I’ll create a new thread but for the next meetup we talked about two possible topics for demo :

1) Don Parker mentioned sharing his hide glue process which I think would be fascinating. He uses hide glue in every aspect of building.

2) Plate joining jigs / techniques this was requested during the last meetup so hoping to get 3-4 volunteers to show their jig.

Brad


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Nice fret end demo! I use a StewMac offset crowning file in more or less the same way to round over the ends, but that wheel sure does make quick work of it. And about the same price as the file nowadays. It was $100 when I bought it, and I thought that was expensive...

The buffing wheel is even more impressive, removing the shaping scratches seconds. Probably takes me 10 times that long, going through several grits of sandpaper by hand.

I'd recommend intentionally taking a few extra thousandths off the fret ends, because it gives some leeway for humidity shrinkage before they start to poke out. I consider that one of the biggest advantages of shaping the ends before installation. I take even more off the treble side on the high frets, because I like to pluck with my fingernails in that area sometimes and it's really nice not having anything to snag on.

I really went for it on this harp ukulele, which has abundant edge space (because why not when the neck is so narrow anyway).

Don't worry too much if you have to level them after installation. I do it every time. The crowning and polishing process rounds them back over.

Finally sat down and finished watching the video of this meeting. Brad cost me $87; after I saw that fret-end nipper I had to add one to my order of Glu-Boost stuff

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Ha! I love that thing.


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I've found that I have to be really careful with the Jescar fret nippers or I can gouge the side of the fretboard, or even the top of the fretboard. Great tool, but I've found myself going back to a regular flush cut end nipper since it's less apt (at least in my hands) to gouge the fretboard. Doesn't leave as nice an edge though...Works great when everything is just right, but it doesn't take much "out of whack" to start damaging wood.

At least a soldering iron and wet rag have gotten my boo boos out of the fretboard so far.

Yes, 100%

Take care to place the caul side of the tool squarely down onto the crown of the fret but while slid out a little ways from the fretboard. Close the tool so the cutter is resting on the tang / underside of the fret (if doing bound fretboard). Slide the tool in toward the fretboard (slowly) until it reaches the board and squeeze.

Getting the thing crooked or tilted and trying to close the jaws and cut in one motion is a perfect way to damage the fretboard.


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Good to know guys, thanks. Don’t need any more dings to fix.


Steve

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"