Official Luthiers Forum!

David,

Thanks for posting that bottom shot with the vacuum seals. I built one of
the Joe Woodworker vacuum clamping systems but have yet to fully
integrate it into my shop. Again being an eBay scroung-o-holic I may
have wound up with a vacuum pump that is slightly underpowered for
what I'm asking it to do.

The mill was also a scrounged up project that took on design changes as I
acquired the parts. I built the base and attached the rails before I found
the slide way that controls the up and down motion. Once I had all the
pieces and a pretty good idea how I wanted it to work the assembly was
not too difficult. I did not spent much time milling very piece to a fine
finish, basically I ground and filed off the band saw marks and rounded
off all the sharp edges and called it good enough.

This was basically my first real machining project and I have a lot more to
learn. Watch out, machining is as addictive as lutherie!

If I had to estimate a budget in terms of money and time I would say
$150 in parts and about 6 hours work. If I were to build it again I could
probably cut the build time in half but the parts budget would depend on
what's available to scrounge this week.

This may be common knowledge but for those of you thinking about
building a rig like this or something else; aluminum cuts at the same
speed as wood. Your blades will wear a bit faster but you can work this
stuff on the band saw, table saw, drill press and sander you already own.

Dave SKG- I would be glad to work up a mill for you drop me a PM or you
can email me from my site.

Louis

_________________
- Louis Freilicher

Oh No! Not another learning experience!

David and Louis, thanks for addressing my question.

David, I hadn't even though about the possibility of flexing the bridge downward a bit (as a result of flattening the top somewhat) while routing, and thus ending up with a saddle slot whose bottom has a slight convex curved when you remove the rig... but, now that you mention it, I'm reminded of a "Trade Secrets" email from Dan Erlewine in which he describes his method of using a jack inside the guitar, lifting the bridge area to simulate the convex bridge-flexing effect of string tension, while routing the saddle slot, so that the slot bottom will be truly flat when the guitar is strung up. When I read that I wondered whether that is a common practice among repair people; or, conversely, whether slightly curved-bottom saddle slots resulting from not using some such method are a common problem.

_________________
Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/