Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi all! another introductory question, if you don´t mind.

I´m gearing-up for my first guitar, and i´m having some help from a luthier friend, which is from the "just a few, good hand-tools is all you need" school. Nevertheless i was wondering if some (small) electrical tools could be of help for the novice, even if i´m going against his example. I was looking at the dremel 4000, for example, it looks tasty.

Any help, input, personal experiences will be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Miguel.

_________________
member of the guild of professional dilettantes

Yep, I'm a hand tool type as well, and a Dremel type thing is the only power tool I use regularly, with StewMac's router base.
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-RTX-B-Rotary-Storage/dp/B000MUSLCC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1294612099&sr=8-2
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bindings,_trim/Tools_for_cutting_binding_channels/Precision_Router_Bases/Precision_Router_Base.html
Pretty much required for inlay work. Rosette pockets are open enough that chiseling isn't unreasonable, but it's still way easier to router it. I'd hate to try and cut a truss rod slot without it either. Although you could do a laminated neck with the center piece the width of your truss rod and glue it where the slot is there to begin with.

thanks for the help. I´m thinking of buying a dremel (no B&D model like yours here in europe - at least none i could find). still, i´m undecided between the 4000 dremel shiny-uber-cool thing and the more modest 300... the price of the 4000 is more than twice, so... anyone can help with that?

thanks in advance,
Miguel.

_________________
member of the guild of professional dilettantes

As a relatively new builder (I'm up to nine now) I'll list the power tools that I bought in the order that I got them. I owned a good cordless drill motor and a small saber saw (which I used to make my first mold). For binding my first guitar I borrowed a standard sized router (you can rent them from Home Depot) and bought the StewMac router bits - I quickly realized that a laminate trimmer is a far better sized router and I use it a lot with flush cut bits.

You don't need a Dremel at all unless you are going to do inlay. Get one that you can unscrew the end piece so you can add a router base or circle cutter. The plastic Dremel router bases are very hard to see what you are doing - get a good one like StewMac. Ditto a circle cutter base if you are planning to do your own rosettes and soundhole.

I have access to a band saw, table saw and drill press where I work. The band saw is very handy, but you could probably limp along with a saber saw. I use the table saw (necks, fretboards) but could live without it. Drill press is nice for tuner holes (and I have started pressing frets with it) I have my plates thickness sanded at a local cabinet shop.

I added a belt sander to my workbench by the time I got to number 3.

The first couple were finished with rattle cans of nitro which is toxic and dangerous for a home builder. I bought a small compressor at a yard sale and started shooting waterbased lacquer. You can brush or FP if you don't want to spray. The first few I buffed with a foam wheel in my drill motor. I added a bench buffing wheel.

Most recent addition is a Fox bender.

So - 3/8 drill motor, laminate trimmer, band saw (or saber saw), dremel with bases, belt sander pretty much in that order.

Get the cheap one. I pretty much only ever run mine on low speed for inlay and medium speed for truss rod and saddle slots. The circle cutter would be nice to have (I use popsicle sticks with holes drilled in them and screwed to the router base, anchored to a toothpick at the center of the circle ), and a cutoff wheel is useful for making other tools (for me, cutting teeth in a plane blade and cutting a slot in a nibbling tool to be a fret tang nipper). Maybe you'd find uses for all the other accessories the 4000 comes with... or maybe they'd just go to waste.

Personally, I don't see a Dremel style tool ever being "premium", and worth paying a lot for. More like a cheap replacement for a Foredom tool.

thanks!

_________________
member of the guild of professional dilettantes

If you must have a small rotary tool, the Proxxon ones seem to be much better built that the dremels which seem by limited by their use of crummy bearings or bushings on the shaft.

Having said that, I have would question why one is needed. I can confess to having 5 routers and 2 trim routers, but currently own no working handheld rotary tools.

no wait, I just remembered that I do have a very nice pnuematic die grinder that works great -far smoother and more powerful than any Dremel or Proxxon I have used, but I don't use it for anything. It has been sitting in the cabinet for so long I almost forgot I had it.

Definitely recommend getting a lam trimmer as they are far more useful.

-jd