Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I would not post this suggestion here except for two reasons, first, I have not seen this idea anywhere else, second, everyone that I have showed it to has been amazed at the results. I thought everyone knew this trick, but seemingly this is not the case, so here goes..... OK, you get a Stanley knif...

Nice one, useful, but....$89 for a bit of plastic?

Phil.

For fourty years I have kerfed the traditional way, with the gaps pointing towards the soundhole. If it's good enough for the oldies, then it's good enough for me, or so I thought...... Last week I made some kerfing (which is the most boring job) while imbibing del vino rosso. By accident I did it b...

Allen wrote:.......... be bloody careful with a cedar top.

Yesss, Take all precaution when working with cedar, like removing your wrist watch and clipping your fingernails very short.

Phil.

I built my Fox side bender many many years ago, before heat blankets were invented. I think that my bender would NOT get a thumbs up from the Occupational Health and Safety guys today. It works for me, but I would not recommend my design to newbies, or even oldies because of the way I heat the wood ...

Just a thought. Wood, the right size to build a Weissenborn Guitar is hard to locate. Do a mock up in cardboard first. Then see if you can find the right size wood. Also...test the mock up for a good fit on your lap. I've built a few mountain dulcimers and I've found the the teardrop shape is unstea...

Ben, I recon that you are coming from the wrong angle in selecting your tools. For instance the Jointer. .... Look at the floor space it wil use, and how often you will use it. You will need hearing protection and dust extraction.... all to do a single joint that one can do in 2 mins with a sharp bl...

The stuff you get from Stewmac works. You can be a cheapskate and purchase carbon fibre rod from the local aeromodelling craft shop. AND REGRET IT BIG TIME Been there, done that. My 3 meter glider plunged from 1000 feet and scared the daylights out of some council workers when it "landed" Hobby shop...

OK. Good info folks. But.... A few comments about all these exotic tonewoods from an ameteur luthier of 40 years experience (Average 3 instruments a year) 1. I just bought some (new to me) exotic stuff from LMI. Yes I'll name names. The first pair of sides buckled and split. Yes, I learned from the ...

Out of interest woodrat. Why do you chose to use West Epoxy instead of old fashioned Araldite?

Seems to me that West Epoxy is formulated for industrial use, intended for extreme conditions. For your porpose Araldite would/should be adequate.

Phil.

Yes the Carbatec 600 drum sander needs a redesign of the spring loaded clamping mechanism for the belt. It probably works well in theory, but in practice it fails badly. I am a volunteer in our local Mens Shed, where we have one of these machines. It gets used by all and sundry as a gereral purpose ...

Graham, many thanks for your informative reply to my query. It caused me to rethink my design, where I could not get a decent break angle over the bridge without arching the "flat" top from side to side in a rather short radius. So, I'm going to use a pinned bridge. A much simpler solution, and easi...

I'm busy drawing up my plans for an Octave Mandolin with a flat top (slightly arched, but not carved) No matter how I tweak the angles, I keep coming up with a bridge 30mm in height, which seems too high to my mind. If anyone has a OM with a flat top, could they please measure the hight of the bridg...

Hi, everyone. I am a new member, this is my first post here. Brief intro, I am an amateur string instrument builder off and on for 30 years with 40-50 stringed instruments under my belt, Mountain Dulcimers (a lot) Steel guitars (many) Mandolins (a few) Hurdy-Gurdy (one) etc. Recently, I visited Ital...