Official Luthiers Forum!

"Frank Ford. calm voice of reason.

Thanks for hanging out Frank. Truly one of the greats."

+1

I am very amature and probably shouldn't ad to this. But I have found dirt cheap nice quality tools in antique shops, and antique malls. I have found really nice
antique chisels for a dollar a piece, Bailey plains for $5.00. And I watched craigslist and found amazing deals on power tools. My Best fins was a preformax drum sander 16 32 for $200.00.

I have also came across free wood in the free section of craigs list.

I have known people like that. I have a friend that Has two plains in his hangar that he has been building for 30 years. not much done on either one. On my tools. I had cheaper craftsman chisels That I have had since I was 20. The antique ones I picked up are one's I have found over time. I am very cheap. Has to be a really good deal for me to give up money. I just need to learn more about how to build. I do make allot of dust tho. I almost have my first neck done. Something I thought I could never have done. I feel really good bout it. I need to do more shaping at the heel and head stock transition.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Kent, a few cutoff pieces of conduit or copper pipe of various diameters, with coarse sandpaper wrapped around them, will get the neck-headstock transition knocked out with a half hour of work. best to do it by hand lest you go too far, IMO

*and some good low angle lighting to really expose the topography

I have started with building kits. I've built one OM-18 and have learned a ton doing it. #2 is close to done and is a much better build as a result. #3 is starting and I'm applying what I've learned from the first 2. I bought enough kit parts to build 4 guitars. After that I figure I'll be able to venture out to more of a scratch build.

The tools I have found necessary:
1/4" chisel, 1/2" chisel, a go-bar deck (but lots of clamps would do the same thing), an old plane, a scraper, lots of different grades of sand paper, wood and firm rubber blocks for sanding. A radius dish for the top and back, a mold/form in the shape of the body you are building, a binding jig, a dremel tool with a mini router base, a bunch of wooden clothes pins (clamping the kerfing to the sides), a small hand saw, a small coping saw. It's several hundred dollars in tools but I don't have any large power tools. No big planers, sanders, bandsaw... I might get some of those things eventually but so far they haven't been necessary.

I finished the first two with a french polish. I have pore filled with Z-poxy. The stuff needed for french polish is cheap (gauze, old t-shirts, mineral oil, shellac, everclear alcohol)

I've made a bunch of mistakes along the way but have learned from all of them.

I occasionally run into a situation where I need a tool to proceed. When that happens I go down to the hardware store or online and buy that tool. If I have to wait a few days for it to be delivered, so be it.

So far I've found this forum to be really helpful. There are the occasional rants but I can always just skip those move on to the next.

Welcome and enjoy the adventure.

Why am I seeing lots of quotes from Todd's posts but I can't see the posts themselves ...weird ...

maybe he got banned....
pretty sure the padma did


...i'm probably in Lance's crosshairs too, so i'm on my best behavior

What a shock!

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I for one am somewhat shocked. There was some pretty harsh language used in a couple of threads recently, but a number of parties were involved. I quite frankly did not find Todd's comments as offensive as some of the others that were posted. And as far as tools of the trade, Todd is an important resource on this forum IMHO.

Curious that the village idiot posts are still there and Todd's useful posts are purged....

i don't mean to start rumors, guys....i just said that because a)padma hasn't spouted off in a few days and b)when you click his profile, it says something to the effect that he "doesn't exist"...
in Stock's case, i'm guessing he may have better things to do on a valentines day weekend

Understand nyazzip. My comment was reactionary and premature; I hope there is a more reasonable explanation.

maybe he got banned....
pretty sure the padma did [/quote]
What a shock! [/quote]

I for one am somewhat shocked. There was some pretty harsh language used in a couple of threads recently, but a number of parties were involved. I quite frankly did not find Todd's comments as offensive as some of the others that were posted. And as far as tools of the trade, Todd is an important resource on this forum IMHO.[/quote]

I am EXTREMELY sorry for the way my post looked, as if I was referring to Todd.
I have the utmost respect for him, and his part in making this forum worth reading. (Although I may have other political leanings personally)
I was in fact referring to the other party discussed, the "Elephant In The Room"

I too am curious that "the village idiot" posts are still there and Todd's useful posts are purged....
I find it hard to believe either Lance or Todd himself has permanently deleted them.
What happened there?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

It grieves me to say this, but it would appear that Todd has officially been declared a "non-person" ... every single post he ever made on the OLF has vanished into the ether ...and there is no record of his name in the member list either.

The only ghostly trace remaining is when you click on "show all your posts" and it brings up a list of all the threads you have posted on ...if Todd made the last post on that thread then his name shows ...but it doesn't show in blue, as a hyperlink, like every other name does ...it shows in black ...no hyperlink.

A sad day for the forum IMO ...

I suspect something nefarious is afoot.

Pat

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There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

I didn't have any pipe on hand but took the different spindles from my osculating sander and they worked great.

Don't forget the basics: a block plane and a chisel.

I think you can nix the overhead router and oscillating spindle sander, though they're both nice to have. I prefer a spokeshave to files for carving the neck, but files sometimes work better on maple necks.

I also tend to agree that starting with a kit is a good way to go. I had very little woodworking experience when I started, and this approach certainly helped me. OTOH, if you feel confident in your aptitude, there's nothing wrong with diving in head first.

That's.... Shocking! Seriously.... Thousands of posts that have helped thousands of people... Gone. Wha? Whe? Huh?

Lawrence,

To echo what some others here, including James, have suggested I'll tell you what I'm doing. I am buying the tools I need as I need them, unless I can borrow a good tool from a friend or family member. When I got to a point where I needed a tool, I researched and bought that tool. I'm building on a shoestring just like you.

I may get to the end of this process and swear that I'll never ever do it again (doubtful), but at least I won't have spent a ton of money on something that I'll never do again.

I would also recommend that you invest more money in good building supplies, like the wood, than the tools right away. I spent 2x the money on one type of wood over another because I knew that there was a chance that I would never build another one-of-a-kind guitar for myself, and I didn't want to regret not getting the wood I really wanted.

I think the video Bob shared drives home the fact that instruments can be built with the most basic of tools. A lot of what I'm using are hand tools simply because they are far less expensive.

Best of luck on your build.

Cheers!
Justin