Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Supported by acoustic physics they say but just trust us as we are too busy to explain??? I think in Australia if you made such claims it could be challenged under truth in advertising rules. Imagine that debate??? If someone says it is supported by physics, and backed by data, it is quite meaningle...

Perhaps we could look at this kind of stuff as Martin running a little scared of all the hand builders successfully using bolt on necks and making fun of their cheap glued on neck joins.
I'll look at it like that anyway.
Cheers
Dom

Hey Perry, the latest Fine Woodworking annual tools and shops special (#223) has a great article on spiral cutter heads. There are two types of cutter configerations, straight cut and shear cut. The shear cuts are better in highly figured wood such as curly maple and quieter and more expensive. The ...

As a workshop replacement for a laptop it would be great if I could use all my windows apps like VA, and various sound and tuning apps. I am pretty sure you can't do that with an iPad but the new microsoft system will. From Bob's specs it look like it could be far more useful than and iPad.
Dom

I like the picture of Kylie but I also like the 3M gold stuff for hand sanding. I use the SM stikit stuff. I have various blocks with leather faces and just stick it on those. I have found using small blocks, about 30mm by 60mm the best size for finish sanding the wood and for cutting back the finis...

Hey, I have just closed up a Zebrano Hauser classical and was fine tuning the frequency responses. I think I am about right now but I have still not added a bridge. Anyway, the first plot is the closed box. HauserA.jpg Main air is close to 100Hz It looks like I have a very high main top (T(1,1)2) An...

No worries Paul. Still show us your jig when done. And I'll let my design keep rattling around in my brain until that epiphany moment occurs and the pile of odd shaped bit of metal resolves itself into the correct tool. I know its in there somewhere.
Cheers
Dom

Thanks Trevor, A brief summary of what I have gleened so far. Does not seem to be anyone in those threads who are measuring the impact of baking tops apart from weight loss. There may have been some hard data somewhere, I have not found it yet. And most of the analysis of post baked tops is not rigo...

A bit of hard epoxy in the bottom of the slot should have no affect on tone.
Dom

Hey Martin, what sort of router table have you got? This a new thing?
Dom

Hey, I've been using these Freud bits and am getting really nice clean results. I've been routing in the headstock shapes recently and this bit leave a beautiful finish, even on end grain. And only 24bucks US http://routerbitworld.com/Freud-50-501-1-2-Diameter-X-1-17-64-Cutting-Heig-p/freud%2050-501...

Nice one Chris. I've been mulling over something similar but have to upgrade my sander first to a longer bed model. Or perhaps I can just extend the arm and use longer belts.
Dom

Its important to determine the dominant effect so the cooking can be fine tuned. I'm not sure if I understand what you mean with "fine tune cooking". Cheers, What i mean is that drying out resins may require higher/lower temp, longer/shorter cooking and/or different cooling than if we are just tryi...

Hey Paul, be very keen to see how you built your jib, materials etc once your done. Been thinking through building one but have not worked it all out yet.
Cheers
Dom

Sorry if i was dismissive of your thoughts Marcus, do you mean that cooked wood takes on less water stabilised under the same conditions as an uncooked piece? I didn't read your links yet but a quick summary would be of interest I think. Does it shrink the cell walls so the water spaces are smaller?...

What i am saying is they had stabilised at 45% and mass was constant over time. I cooked the tops then left them in a high humidity area until they weighed more than the stabilised weight. Then back into 45% again and this time they have stabilised at a lower weight. Actually about 10gms each half p...

No bags, but after cooking they stayed out of the dry room for a week or so and it was raining so they weighed more than pre cooking mass. These top had been sitting around the house for 3 years and then in the dry room for about 2 months at 45% before testing. So if what you mean is 'have they been...

Hey guys, I've got some results from the cooked tops we tested during the course. For those not there, we tap tested 2 Englemann tops to determine the final plate thickness and then I cooked them for about 1.5 hours at 100c then let them cool and stabilise them back to 45% humidity, then I retested ...

Instead of a constant of 0.95977 use this equation =(1/((PI()/2)^2*(3/2)^4))*(12*(1-0.02)) or 0.941461428. Use this number to also calculate El and Ec and use =3*(1/(PI()/2)^2) or 1.215854204 to calculate Glc. Using these numbers you get exactly what is in the book. I figured this out looking at the...

Is Dom the one with the tea cozy on his head? :) Yes that's me Martin, green jumper. I was bloody cold. I've never spent so much time in my workshop just sitting. A few guys had problems with VA 2009. I updated to the 2011 version and it seems quite stable. Holds the settings and won't crash. They ...

I know nothing of this frequency measuring & magic fairy dust stuff.......yet, but your spectrum looks like the Uke has a good bass reponse at this stage, am I reading that right? And the Magic fairy dust at 521Hz makes quite an arse of itself! :wink: Great stuff Craig, keep it coming :cl . Nick, n...

For those who came to the course last week, they will know that sound travels along the braces which is why they are there. Now this guy is telling us that the sound follows those little braces on the side of the guitar to the back. Brilliant.
Dom

I've tried going from 600 to 1200 as Trevor mentions in his book and just using very light strokes and it works. Its probably easier to get that on a nice water stone but when you factor in flattening your stones its quick on the DMT 1200. You can get a 6000 diamond stone as well if you want superfi...

The new small shave from HT G is very nice for doing around the heel. I have a larger flat, round and a concave all from veritas. With these I can bring a neck to finishing stage very quickly and with little dust. The small HT G is not easy to use but once you have it it will cut the small diameter ...

Hey Trevor, I tried band clamps but I only had the cloth ones not the spring steel ones. I have an nice idea for using wedges like on top and back joining plates. I'll make some pictures and post them.
Cheers
Dom