Official Luthiers Forum!

Well guys its time again for the Coveted " Doofus Of the Month " Post. Fess up fellas , we all have the stories . I really hate to give the award to someone who got hurt ( dont want to make light of danger ) .

However last Months recipent is Probably ready to " hand " it off to someone else .


I will start it off again since I did one last Night .


I have a beautifull set of Lacewood sides and back bent for a dread . I measured and marked the sides carefully and went to the band saw .

The old addage , Measure TWICE cut once was not in my mind. If I continue with this Build I will have a nice dread shape with a lower bout of 14-1/4" . rather small wouldnt ya say !


OK YOUR TURN !!!

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Thats not a doofus of the month award. You've invented a new guitar design. The mini-dred!!!

So I got the fret-cutting ruler template thing from lmi to slot my own fretboards with a table saw, and I cut up my two fingerboards. All is gerat, the slots are amazing and I'm all excited that it turned out so well. Pretty cool huh? Not really, actually. After cutting them and binding one of them, I decided to put it on my neck to see how it will look, and looks great. Except one thing. The 14th fret is not the body joint like i planned! My plans were 100% accurate so I have NO IDEA how this happened.....yet. Came out to be almost the 13th fret at the body! First I thought I completely messed up the neck measurements somehow. Then I checked the fingerboard against my first guitar, and the fret slots go off the further down they go. So I went to bed confused as ever as to how in the world I did that. But I couldn't sleep not knowing what happened, so I decided to go and check one more thing. I got the fingergoard and checked it against my first guitar again. Except this time, I put the first fret that I cut at the nut. And guess what? They lined up perfectly! Now that wouldn't be a problem if I left my fingerboards longer and cut more slots into them, but like always I had to rush and cut something like you said, measure twice cut once (NOT!), so my fingerboards are way too short and I need new ones Apparantly the first fret slot on the template thing marks the nut, that's how I understood at least, right? I used it as the first fret so that threw everything off. Oh well, all I wasted was a whole bunch of my time and some money. Coulda been worse oh and I actually did an inlay in one of them, was gonna do for both but decided to wait just a little for the second fretboard. It was like a spiral vine around the twelveth fret-dot, which also took a little time. All to waste

Lavrov, save those for a short scale project.

Enlighten Us Oh Great " Master Doofus "

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Filippo cut a board too long, once!

Not sure of this qualifies as a "Doofus of the Month" mistake as its more of a newbie mistake. But in the hope some one will learn from my mistake...
Here is a picture of my beautifully (imho) braces getting scalloped. Se how nicely it sits in my radius dish?

After a few more hours working on the braces and a few trips across town to Rick & Cats shop for some voicing advice I was a happy camper with a top ready to be glued on some sides.

A couple days later I head out to the shop to give the top a final sanding and find this:


I had thought that the first think an aspiring luthier should buy is a good set of chisels. Now I am convinced the first thing should be a GOOD hygrometer. When I glued up the braces I knew it was an unusually humid day for Seattle so I check the hygrometer in my shop, 56%, high for gluing braces but I was anxious to get some work done and figured I would be Okay. Turns out my hygrometer is off by about 15%. The RH was really about 71%.

So here is what the top looks like after tonight:


Turn out getting the braces off is a lot harder than getting them on! On the bright side, I wanted to change the bracing pattern a bit anyway, I got a lot of extra experience working with my chisels, a chance to inspect my glue joints and to top it all off I get to voice another top with out haveing to build another whole guitar.

Now I have multiple hygrometers in my shop. Most importantly though, I learned NOT to glue up braces if the humidity is over 50%. Lesson learned!!

Maybe its just my lack of experience , but the bracing on that top seemed a bit small " thinned to close to top " Im probably wrong .

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Wud Werker You may find that you will have a great little guitar there. Maybe a messup. I do that and it is a new design.

To the guy with the fretboards. Save them and make some 13 fret guitars or shortscale. Not a waste, just make a few that will work with the boards in time. Thing is you can store them until you need or want to use them.

Again, sometimes mistakes are just design change. That is my story and stick to it. Never know when a commisson comes around and those things will be handy.

I'm not getting the advice to use the fretboards on shorter scale instruments. they are already slotted for a particular scale, just missing the higher frets, no? I'd use them for 13 or 12 fretters, or just not have the end of the fretboard hit the soundhole.

Due to a plumbing malfunction, I am currently without a kitchen, workshoppe and free time to work. The bright side is, I won't be able to do anything to qualify this month.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I let my wife talk me into building her a china cabinet a year plus ago and am just now getting the thing all wrapped up. I hope to be done in the next week or so. Flat Palm to Forehead. Never again.

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ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

And we've seen how that's worked out for you

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

I cleaned my shop a couple days ago....

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Bows to the master !!

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Did he forget to take his meds?

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

[quote="muse"]Not sure of this qualifies as a "Doofus of the Month" mistake as its more of a newbie mistake. But in the hope some one will learn from my mistake...
Here is a picture of my beautifully (imho) braces getting scalloped. Se how nicely it sits in my radius dish?

Muse,

Thanks for the heads up on the humidity issue. I have to ask, did you intend to build a lefty?

Scott,

I am VERY happy to say yes, the lefty part is intentional. But thanks for checkin'.

Thanks,
Carl.

Come on, even if they are really silly?...

OK, customer for a classical asks for a 7th fret marker. I use the copper insulation wire from Romex for markers - I like how it looks.

Hole drilled in side of fret board, marker glued in, everything filed and sanded flush. Oh ^%$#, it's on the treble side. How did I do that. OK, flip over neck, drill, glue in wire, file and sand, looks perfect.

Oh (&%&, both of them are on the 8th fret, not the 7th!!!

Isn't ebony forgiving to repair? Drill out both markers, ebony dust+CA, repeat as needed, filing flush as we go. New 7th fret marker goes in, right side of neck , looks good. Boy you can really make simple things difficult sometimes.

Filippo's criterion eliminates this one though. Ebony is just too darned easy to fix.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Ah, but doesn't that represent the distinction between a mere mortal, who makes mistakes, and a master, who can successfully hide all of them?

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

No it doesnt ! This is EXACTLY what its all about !

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Did you look at yourself in the mirror and say " Doofus "

Im not disagreening with my esteemed friend , the whole point of the thread is to be light hearted , so please share your " doofus " moments .

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Ok.. Here's my most recent.... It's the reason for my "Glue in the fret slots" post....

Working on a 4-string tenor guitar... I am finally getting back around to finishing it up - it was part of MIMF's $100 Acoustic challenge last year. It's completely made of pallet wood except for the fretboard... which is literally the cheapest slotted fretboard that LMI sells.... It's some sort of dark, chippy wood......

Got my Peruvian walnut/maple binding glued on - and it's glued on wrong.. Somehow, the binding rode up a bit..... so I gotta pull it back off of one side.... The binding breaks in 4-places when un-sticking it.... Glue it back together.... 2 extra days...

Now, once the glue is all good and dried, I plane off the extra and start looking in the fret slots - which are like 25% filled with hardened Titebond.... So I start chipping it out - which has never been a problem before.. but it takes forever.... 2 extra days....

And while I am chipping it out, the fret slots start chipping out REAL bad! Remember the part about the cheapest board LMI sells... Apparently, there was more runout and swirl in it than usual.....

So.. I saved all the sanding dust from radiusing the board - and now I am filling in chips around the slots one at a time with CA and sawdust.... I can do like 2 in a day... so add another 8 days.... Then, gotta re-radius the whole thing again.... Another day

So I have like 16 days involved in a fretboard that would normally to make the same progress that would usually take me about 10-minutes.... but I saved like $7.00 on that fretboard a year ago....

Thanks

Hi, thanks for this very unique post!
My doofus occured yesterday:

I spent 2 hours to make a perfect marquetry with mosaïc for a rosette, with lots of b/w/b purflings..

I used the Stewmac rosette cutter with my dremel to make the contours, I started in the inside and..
when I tried to make the contour of the outside, my paper with the wood glued to it moved from the center without me noticing it.
So as I was going to complete the outer circle I realized that my rosette was not round anymore...

It went directly to the trash... I was in a killing mood..

This was a souvenir pic before the disaster happened.
RIP Rosette..

Stuck the new 80 grit sandaper on my 15' radius dish and sanded the rims for the back.

Only I stuck the sandpaper on the wrong side of the dish and sanded the rims - flat.

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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'm not sure who was starring in that video, but I sure cringed when he ran that neck along the jointer.

Good way to lose a finger. Or a whole handful.