Official Luthiers Forum!

We all have household products that we use in our shops and some of the things that I use and benefit greatly from were suggested to us by other members. This thread is all about what these products are and what we use them for.

Please jump in and let us know what you use in your shops and pics are nice but certainly not required.

For me I am tape happy and cannot have enough tape... I use it for everything and pictured are from bottom to top Stew-Mac "brown" tape, 2" masking tape, Stew-Mac double sided tape (the best I have ever used), 2" blue tape, 1" low tack blue tape, and more masking tape.

Mario once recommended Meguiar's "Quick Detailer" as a great way to clean and polish guitars and like all things Mario he was right - this product is excellent, benign, widely available, and inexpensive. It's like us two leggeds (thanks Padma) mostly water and a quick mist on a clean, soft cloth and your guitars will be clean and shiny.

Howard "Feed-N-Wax" is a product that David Collins recommended and it works fantastic for cleaning and conditioning fret boards and I use it too on ebony bridges as it makes the ebony darker and wetter looking. Howard Feed-N-Wax is not all that easy to find in some areas but it's worth the look.

Lysol is in my shop for a couple of reasons... First my shop frequently has visitors, probably every day..., and this is the flu season and as you may know I am a clean freak who has indeed has his H1N1 shot already.... It's just a great way to kill germs but never, never, never spray it near or on an instrument. Also I live in an area with lots of fantastic Mexican food and frequently do this for lunch.... Lysol makes the afternoons more pleasant.... Not sure why but I seem to use a can a month....



Let's hear about and possibly see pics of household products that you use in your shops please?

Thanks

oven cleaner to rapidly oxidize mahogany to a dark brown and to clear cloged sanding belts

That sounds interesting, could you expand on what you are doing. I agree it works great on sanding belts, I thought I had ruined one 80 grit belt but it was like new after cleaning.

My contribution to Hesh's list is paper towels, I use better grade towels in the shop than in the kitchen.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
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I just spray it on and let it set for about 5 min. wipe it off with distilled water and let the wood dry out. It is an combination of sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide that is the cause of the rapid oxidation

oven cleaner to rapidly oxidize mahogany to a dark brown and to clear cloged sanding belts

I love the idea of rapid oxidation (gonna try that one). I also use oven cleaner to remove pitch from saw blades - works great. One of my favorites is also Carnuba wax (furniture wax) for waxing the top of table saws, joiners etc.

Baking Soda (bicarbonate of soda) as a hardner for CA (Thanks, Mario). Waxed Paper(I don't care what anyone says). Clear Packing Tape. Vinegar for glue clean up on gluing cauls and layout boards.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Baking soda as a hardener for CA? How is this done?

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

For instance, dust your binding channel with the Baking Soda, blow out excess, put binding in place, wick in the CA. The fine powder left reacts with the CA and hardens it like spraying it with hardner.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Thanks dude.

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

[/quote]I just spray it on and let it set for about 5 min. wipe it off with distilled water and let the wood dry out. It is an combination of sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide that is the cause of the rapid oxidation[/quote]

When oxidizing mahogany with oven cleaner you don't need to neutralize the reaction with an acid? I know you said distilled water but I just want to be sure-I might try this. Also, does it work very well on any other woods that you know of?

Meguiar's Quick Detailer now contains silicones and should not be used. Stick with their professional line of products.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

when it reaches where you want it lemon juce and water will stop the reaction. The distiled water is just to remove the excess

Since we have moved a little off topic here is a couple more CA tips.

From my model airplane exploits Baking soda and thin CA is a good gap filler, but for guitars only where where it won't be seen, or will be covered.

An empty tall small diameter pickle bottle combined with about 1/2" of CA debonder on the bottom makes your CA pipets last forever, I just stand them in the bottle with tips in the debonder after using and the tips never clog up. They can even be rinsed out by sucking some in and squeezing back out. Just remove them from the jar after a few hours and allow to dry out before using with glue.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

Wow - no wonder bird poop doesn't stick to the guitars that I have used it on...

Howard would you please be more specific in letting us know which, specifically, of the professional line of products you would use and of course for what? Thanks.

I find Popsicle sticks useful when I need an accurately sized shim for clamping to my workbench. I keep adding sticks until they are at the desired height, then use masking tape to bind them together. I buy them at Michael's craft store.

I use the following household items in the shop.

Measuring cups and spoons
Wax paper
aluminum foil
plastic wrap
Zip-loc baggies
Empty plastic peanut butter jars
Empty plastic yogurt and butter tubs
Super cheap electric toothbrush from the dollar store. Cut off the bristles, glue on a small piece of wood and stick on some PSA sandpaper to make a small detail sander.
Unwaxed or scented dental floss. This doesn't have a particular use but I seem to use it often enough.
Bamboo kabob skewers. I use these for stirring and picking out pieces of glue
Plastic drinking straws for cleaning out glue squeeze out
baking soda for CA accelerent.
Old credit/id/membership cards for spreading epoxy and glue.
Epoxy putty. The uses of this stuff continue to amaze me and deserve its own post
Old wire coat hangers to cut and bend to make a bunch of one-off tools.
Digital oven thermometer to measure hide glue or heating blanket temp.
Small gram scale (drug dealer's scale?) to measure out hide glue or epoxy. Or, to measure the weight of wood samples to calculate the mass and determine the Young's modulus.

That's all I can think of without going into the shop and looking.

WD40 to remove epoxy from fingers.

I want to put in a paper towel holder for the tri fold paper towels like in comercial bathrooms so you only need one hand to remove the paper towel with.

Baking soda for filling in nut slots with CA.

Strapping tape for binding tape.

Johnsons paste wax or TreWax for cast iron machine surfaces. Beeswax for lubing the sole of a plane. Paraffin wax for the worm gears in a table saw (doesnt gunk up with sawdust).


Darrin

That's pretty good Mike - no memory problems in your shop!

Great stuff guys and I am making a list of many of your ideas for my next trip to the store...

I do the same, but with Starbuck's stir sticks! Rounds out the price of a Grande coffee!
(I should add that I have the permission of the store to take a few extras)...

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In a similar vein, Use Wilsonart or Formica Kitchen counter laminate samples from the hardware store as stackable shims or glue spreaders.

Glue won't stick to the top surface, but you can glue the back surface to things if you don't want them to slip.
They are impervious to most chemicals so you can easily clean them and are free so you don't have to clean them

-jd

I almost hate to let you all know how cheap I am.
I use the bag that my cereal comes in for wax paper.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

Filippo - is that a cellphone down in the bottom?

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

Geeze Dave that IS pretty cheap and coming from me I would be concerned....

wax paper, razor blades, paper towels, solo cups, toothpicks

I just found out that those little household sponges actually have two uses:
1) The soft side is a nice tool to even out alcohol thinned Epoxy pore filler.
2) The rough side is ideal for getting rid of any shiny spots in the dried Z-Poxy. It leaves you with a very smooth silk-mat surface. I would say that the roughness is somewhere between 400 grit sandpaper and steelwool.
And a 10 pack will set you back around $ 1.00