Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi guys!

A quick survey: what grit, and why?

I recently bought a dish from Lmi with a 50grit paper... It's kind of aggressive...

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

80 grit ... because I got huge ten foot by 54 inch wide rolls of the stuff for 10 bucks each years ago ..

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

80 grit

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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

80

80.
I guess that's a winner.

Where do you get your sanding disc for 10 bucks each?

LMI sells it for close to 40 bucks.

I think I'll piece a bunch of regular 80 grit sanding cloth together.

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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

80, then 180.
L.

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

Tai, you have to remember that stew-mac and LMI have their purposes, and mostly that is for amazing customer service and specialty tools designed specifically for guitar and instrument makers.....sand paper is not one of these specific items. Google is your friend when looking for generally basic items...

I know you are on the other side of the world, but that can't stop you from your dream (I know it's not). Don't know if you know about theANZLF (Australia/New Zealand Luthiers Forum) but you might look them up, actally many OLFers there as well. I'm sure you can check in there to see if you can get items from Aus which might just save you some shipping. Mind you many of those guys buy from the US cause it's often the only place to find some items....

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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

Yea, last time I visited Angela Walthner, if I had a dollar for each Stewmac or LMI items in her shop, I'd be really rich.

I am beginning to accept that as a luthier one can't avoid buying stuff from those suppliers, although I wonder how did luthiers survive before Stewmac or LMI was established?

As for tonewoods, I can think of other suppliers but the ones in Taiwan are super slow, as in it would take me weeks to order a plank of mahogany from them because they just wouldn't answer my email. I guess they've got bigger orders and aren't too concerned about luthier's order..

Shipping out of the US is just super expensive, I find if I do order from them, it would have to be large orders, because otherwise the shipping would add up. I actually ordered a batch of tonewood from espen.de because their shipping isn't that expensive, and their offering of German Spruce tops are quite cheap compared to LMI.

In the past I've simply glued several sheets of regular sandpaper to the radius dish and trimmed it... it works, but having one big disc of sandpaper would be more convenient.

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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

John Hall has 24" discs for $18.25

http://www.bluescreekguitars.com/shop/i ... cts_id=201

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

www.2sand.com has 24" disks for less than $10. Not self stick, if you want to glue you need some contact cement like 3m 77.
L.

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

I use 36 grit (much faster) then resand the with 80 grit before I glue the back on-works for me.

I can count on one hand how many "tools" I've purchased from LMI or Stew-Mac, mostly to do with fretting, everything else is either bought elsewhere or made by me...

What did they do before there was electricity...... they just got to work and made due with what they had.

_________________
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

You don't absolutely have to use dedicated paper, you can use stuff off of rolls or just sheets. Obviously, not as convenient. I have one dish set up one way and another the other way and they both work.

This is what I've done as well.

For sandpaper, I have just used big box store bought sheets edge-butted together and attached with 3M spray adhesive. I cut the sheets to fit and then attach one by one until the shaped portion of the dish is covered. Only takes a few minutes.

Tool rental stores that rent floor sanding equipment have peel and stick sheets in several grits. Be warned they are square. you have to make them fit. I remember 7-8 bucks each.

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Mark Ewing
Columbus Ohio
"Trees are an important and precious thing. We should build good things with them. Building good guitars with heart are the best use for them." K. Yairi.

I have learned that with enough time and enough poverty, most of the things you can buy at StewMac or LMI can either be made or had cheaper by re-purposing other tools.

Then again, the other day I was making side dots out of plastic chopsticks, and it occurred to me I should have resawed them first, as I was wasting way too much material. I suppose I'm a pretty extreme case.

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David Morris

Well, at least in Taiwan plastic chopsticks are very very easy to find...

just that those disposable ones are made of bamboo.

But some things, like the radius dish, nut files, nut spacing rule (from stewmac) is critical for those who are doing it for a living. I mean you can figure out nut spacing with calculators and calipers (I've done it before), you can make radius dish with router fixtures, but I decided to buy them because of the amount of toxic dust machining MDF would involve, and it's nice to be able to figure out nut spacing right off the bat, especially when you're doing repair work. As for nut files, sure one can use feeler gauges but there isn't much else I can think of that can replace a nut file.

As for the radius dish sandpaper, I bought 6 sheets of 60 grit sanding cloth for about 2 dollars total, and will just glue them on piece by piece.

_________________
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

I like 60 grit.

This is all, of course, very true. But for those that just can't spend the money on that stuff, it's amazing what you come up with. You're right about the nut files too. I've been using torch tip cleaners, and they're such a pain. I have an idea as to how to make some nut files, but eventually, I'd really like to buy some.

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David Morris