Building a Lute

[TKAY]

I accidentally posted this in Anything Goes under " Ornament or Instrument."

Cheers Tom

[TKAY]

In keeping with my general philosophy ,here are some of the tools i made/used for building

A peg sharpener. The plane blade needs to be SHARP!

The top image is a 1in 30 reamer made from silver steel. Could be made from any steel and is not hardened. The grooves were put in with a dremmel cut off wheel. Drill comments later.

A basic but effective way to measure belly thickness. A bit cumbersome but proved cheap and worthwhile and accurate.

For carving the Rose I used Pfeil violin knives glued into a handle,a groove was ground in the knife to make sure it would not slip. One end was as bought but the other ground to a VERY thin chisel. worked a treat ,they were soo sharp I didn't even know I had cut myself!

Under the reamed is my modified drill. I had to drill new bridge holes after the belly was glued on which proved tricky. A local vet and medical practice soon supplied hyperdermic neadles , it is good to live where we all know each other. I silver soldered a 1.3mm drill in the neadle and another adapter onto some SS tubing as an extension. It was surprisingly efficient with the small Diam tube to twist.