Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi Tai, welcome back!

My first shop was a studio in a high rise. Yeah, not a place for big machines, but I had a workbench and go-bar deck. Then moved up to a one bedroom and had another bench with a few power tools. I had to get creative with dust control with a Festool vac, but I made a few instruments there.

If I were you and wanted to stay active in lutherie, I would just have one bench, just the necessary tools and do setups and certain repairs. Pass cards out wherever musicians are and offer a great deal. They're desperate! lol

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Pat

I did the whole build a guitar in a studio before... to be honest with you carpets really make things difficult. I wish more apartments would quit using carpets. Stuff likes to get stuck in carpets and not come out. I've made go bar decks out of various things... the underside of your "workbench" would work in a pinch. Right now my "workbench" is so filled with other stuff that I'm running out of room constantly.

I'm always fearful regarding the structural ability of a third floor apartment. I have seen how they are constructed and they basically use 2x10 below the floor board. I don't know the load bearing capacity of those and I've gotten a 300lb milling machine in my room, and I constantly have fear that the entire floor would cave in somehow. It has not so far but I really want to add a lathe in another part of the room that will probably weight about 500 lbs (still a small lathe though). I don't know whether the floor will hold it.

I managed to get those machines up the stairs by taking them apart. Once you know the machine you can take them apart in big enough pieces to make it possible for a few men to get it up. The floor is a bit bouncy in that I can jump up and down and the floor bounces almost like a trampoline. Shakes the entire apartment too.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Do you really have to pay $100 a month in motor insurance? In the U.K I pay around £200/$320 a year but I am an old and safe driver.

300 LBS is not that heavy Tai. Heck some of them corn fed Texan rednecks probably weigh in at 300 pounds easy and they live on the floors above you

I was in San Antonio a few months back for a conference and while it was a pretty cool city OMG was it hot as hell out. Never made it to Austin but a buddy of mine who is a professor at one of the Universities there loves it.

UK must be different, but I think on average a full coverage costs around 100 a month, and liability only is half that. It depends on driving history (I have none), age, etc.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com