Official Luthiers Forum!

I have a Classical that needs a new bone nut. The standard 3/32" thick nut fits too loosely, and the 1/8" nut is too thick. I tried hand sanding the 1/8" nut, but got uneven results. Can anyone suggest a good method for evenly thicknessing a bone nut?

Thanks,

Ray

Practice.

_________________
Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

You need a flat surface, a 3/4" plywood scrap will do, onto which you lay or stick your sandpaper. Check often, when sanding apply more pressure where needed.

_________________
Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Yup, go slow and measure alot...

_________________
Here is what a Parlor Guitar is for!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEa8PkjO6_I

What everyone said. This helps me. One side for the nut, one for the saddle. Unidirectional strokes help. Sometimes one swipe is the difference between a snug and loose fit. Be careful when polishing later too. All of a sudden it's too loose.
Terry

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I use the bed of my bandsaw as the flat surface, with a new piece of sandpaper spread out, and sand with 220, then 400. I use my calipers to measure frequently, and use a respirator - I figure if I can smell it, then there's some pretty fine bone dust ending up where I don't want it. I like the look of that wooden jig/holder, but I've found leather gloves to work fine (I learned the hard way not to go without - fine sandpaper takes off a lot of skin without actually causing pain.....until later.

A scrap piece of polished granite countertop seems to work well for the base on many of my sanding needs.....

I agree with the respirator! Something that works for me is to use double stick tape on the side I'm not sanding...then my fingertips provide the pressure in the right places and no slip! While we're on the subject, how about a tute on nuts? Hesh? Hesh?

_________________
http://www.presnallguitars.com

I just use a piece of glass, that i think was once part of a picture frame, with some sandpaper taped to it. gives me a nice flat surface then I just hand sand the nuts and saddles to correct dimensions. I should make up some kind of jig so I am more accurate but I can get a tight fit usually if I just go slow and try to apply as even an amount of pressure on the nut or saddle as possible.

frets.com has some good info on making saddles and nuts, how I learned!

Matt

I an cheap I use a scrap block of surfaced hardwood and carpet tape, my cast iron table saw extention and sticky back sand paper

Terence,
I use a block identical to the one you use. It give me great control over the push and pull strokes
and applies nice pressure with a flat surface against the top side of the nut or saddle instead of my
fingers pressing in particular areas.

The best tip I can offer has already been offered, but is worth mentioning again. Check the fit
with every stroke once it gets close. A single stroke will make the difference between a nice press
fit and falling out when the strings are removed for a saddle and a loose fit to be glued in place
with a nut.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars

I think one of the wonderful things about building is ability to control consistency (or try to, anyway). In repair, every piece is a different size, some straight, some not, some tapered side to side, some top to bottom. Depending on how much I want to alter a nut or saddle slot, it's nice to square things up before making a new nut. Still, there's a lot of matching odd shaped and sized slots.

I keep a bucket-o-bone by the band saw and grab or cut up a reasonable shape and size to start with. Then I pretty much do everything freehand on the belt sander, with a set of calipers and a sometimes a pencil at hand. When I get within a few thousandths, I'll finish fit on a flat plate with sandpaper stuck to it, check fitting directly to the instrument. It really is all pretty much freehand though. It's just the way I learned to do it, and though it takes a while to get the hang of, once you do it can go quite fast. After making a thousand and some nuts this way, it probably takes me an average of 2-3 minutes from chunk of femur to fit in the slot.

I'm sure there are a lot of other better ways to do it with much less of a learning curve. I guess I've never bothered though, because as with so many techniques, once you get over the hump it becomes so simple to just do it. If I were building though, I'm sure I would process things a bit more systematically (and likely just buy the StewMac blanks already shaped close).

_________________
Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.