Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I’m in the middle of a complete overhaul/rearranging of my workshop so I’m probably in a similar mindset to you. The main point I’d add is to be flexible and don’t overthink layout etc. too much. I’ve been in this space a bit over a year and I’ve gone through several iterations of the layout. Agreed...

demonx wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 06, 2018 5:07 pm

With that said though, in guitar building I never use this up to the 6” capacity, so I’d never need an 8” for guitar building.

What's your method for correcting warp on boards wider than 6" -- I'd imagine this is pretty common for a typical two-piece electric blank?

I'm in the market for the same in the near future.

Tossing up between 150mm/6" and 200mm/8"... I suspect 150mm would do 99% of what I'd need it to do but there's always that temptation to go bigger for a little bit more.

The choice for me is probably between Carbatec or Laguna.

No issues at all bending the standard ladder braced back to fit the taper. No heat or pre-bending required... just clamp it as you work your way down from the tail to the headstock.

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

This video from Stewmac convinced me of the virtues of just scraping.

I sold mine 5-6 years ago but I had this unit for a few years and always got good results. Never had any issues with changing the paper. Are you trying to weave the paper in and out of the cover around the drum? I've heard others in the past vent their frustration doing it this way. The way I always...

My deck is two 600x600x16mm MDF boards, 4 threaded rods and 16 bolts and washers. Grab your go-bar rods from John at Blues Creek because that will save you hassle with hobby shops and cutting the fibreglass to length, but save yourself the astronomical shipping costs (his website says the deck weigh...

The solution I came up with, was this. The bearing is a standard size, so easily replaceable and the holding hex bolt is drilled and tapped off centre, so it works like a cam - the shaft can be rotated to adjust where on the bearing you want the blade to sit. hitachi_guides_4.jpg Mine (a Hare & For...

The wooden handles on the LMI/Stewmac reamers are held on with a small steel pin that can easily be tapped out. Works fine in a drill then, and it's reversible should you want/need to go back to handheld. Not cheap but easily obtained if you're placing an order anytime soon. And great quality... I'v...

I too would be looking at side purfling to make up the height, though if we are talking 0.1mm, scraping/sanding of the top and back as you prepare for finishing should take care this difference no worries.

Yep, if sales were to happen it'd have to be a fixed-length listing type arrangement where it's up to the luthier to renew their listing or create a new one if it doesn't sell. There's another site that offers just this (guitar-for-sale listings for luthiers), and it's had the exact same guitars lis...

Good feedback Perry -- you were certainly someone I hoped would offer some thoughts. A lot of what you've said is what I was thinking about initially when developing the site. I'd say it's certainly not intended to be a magic solution but rather part of the mix for luthiers who are already doing the...

A bit of a brief background... my day job is in marketing and web development and for around 18 months I've been working on this concept of online marketing tools for luthiers. The final product is Guitar Maker -- essentially a place for luthiers to build a portfolio and showcase their instruments. ...

A good rule of thumb for doing work for mates is either do it for free, or charge full rate. That in-between part is where things get tricky because you both have different expectations. If you do it free then having them pay the cost of any parts/consumables is reasonable, and beer is of course to ...

Thankfully I got mine sorted quickly. The quote I got on the gear motor for the twin drum model was about $500, whereas the PC board was $76. I took a punt on it being the panel (the motor seemed ok with a multimeter) and headed out to Carbatec this afternoon to pick one up. It took about 5 minutes ...

My Carbatec 635mm twin drum sander's feed motor just died on the weekend -- haven't determined if it's the electronics or the motor yet, but good to know that a replacement gear motor on the smaller Performax is $340. I'm scared to ring Carbatec for prices now...

Never bought his wood though heard good things. A bit too much of a snake oil salesman vibe for my liking... even if it's all true. I don't think that replacement policy quite qualifies as "no questions asked"... one of the more interesting ones I've read. All in all I'm personally not too fussed if...

I use a regular clothes iron, but otherwise as Allen suggested with the cardboard mask to protect the soundboard. Just place the iron on the bridge (possibly plane the bridge flat or make a flat surface with alfoil to maximise contact with the iron, or just rock the iron back and forth along the rad...

I read Cole Clark themselves disputed that $35 million profit figure... call it shoddy journalism more than anything else I think.

Ever vacuum clamp bridges? If you're setup for vacuum I'd be putting together a simple extra-wide bridge clamp so that you can locate and glue the bridge after the fretboard is in place.

Really intriguing design... keen to see this one come together!

This is one I picked up about 5 years ago from a luthier who was moving overseas. Never put it to use because I've only built one large body acoustic since then (and with a different bracing pattern), but I really like the idea and would definitely go down this route if I were batch producing. The l...

Great topic... really interesting to read over the past few days. I for one come from the school of thought that there is a living to be made in this field and it doesn't have to be minimum wage nor repair-oriented. Parts + labour (factored at what I'd expect to pay a quality employee to do the same...

The compressor vacuum (venturi) valve from LMI does work quite well. I used it for a dozen or so guitars when I first got into vacuum clamping. I was using a small cheap (Supercheap Auto) compressor to drive it; it ran almost constantly so I'd tend to set the bridge and run inside the house to get a...

I'm using a 25" scale. On mine I've shifted the nut from the headstock onto the top of the body but kept my soundhole in the same place. The end result is that my fretboards extend further over the soundhole so I generally lose a bit of room there. My fretboards are all cut such that they end neatly...

Was at my local PO this morning and saw a notice to the effect that all parcels entering the US will be subject to a special "security" fee. Yeah I saw that when I was in the post office the other day. $9 for packages over about 400 grams bound for the US. I guess this is related to the suspicious/...