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Barbecue meat thermometer with a long lead for monitoring bending temps, soon to be stripped to expose the thermocouple. It even has a pager for when the set temp is reached, but I doubt I'll use that.

Crock pot for HHG.

Kill-a-watt to monitor power to the crock pot.

Hair dryer for heating parts for gluing with HHG.

Paper towels, razor blades, glitter.

Web cam for interior inspections, which frees me from needing to see a mirror through the soundhole.

Bondo squeegee for spreading Z-poxy.

Newspaper gets a nice sheen on ebony FBs.

Wool from old sweaters for the core of the muñeca for French polish .

Dry mount press for flattening warpy tops and backs.

Plastic straws cut at an angle to clean up LMI or Titebond squeeze-out on inside corners.

Low, wide-mouth jars for storing muñecas.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Drywall compound as easy to dye pore filler

Dry Spackle for pore filling when french polishing

Oven for baking tops and preheating before hide gluing

Cup of hot coffee for preheating small parts for hide glue (set cup of coffee on part for a few minutes)

microwave for rapidly drying thin pieces of green wood

paper plates for mixing epoxy (large surface keeps it cool to maximize working time)

clear packing tape for clamping epoxy glue-ups (truss rod -epoxy will not adhere to the tape (not even the sticky side) )

-jd

[quote]Geeze Dave that IS pretty cheap and coming from me I would be concerned.... /quote] that was funny. !!

On the oven cleaner used to oxidize mahogany, are you doing this to a closed mahogany box, sanded and getting it ready for finish?

Thanks,
Joe

Michael-
Thanks for that reminder!
This is one of many 'chemical stains' - potassium permanganate or potassium dichromate - both strong oxidizers- will also stain mahogany. If you are looking for that 'traditional' Gibson mahogany brown, this is one way to go.
You do want to be careful when playing with the 'chemistry set', though! (Poisons and carcinogens, so probably not something you want around the house)

Scroll down this page http://www.woodfinishingenterprises.com/techinfo.html for more info.

EDIT: Sorry, not trying to hijack the thread here.

Cheers
John

old towels as a quick soft clean surface to lay stuff on

t-shirts i get from work or vendors to wipe up gunk

empty milk jugs for distilled water for sanding

do clothespins still count as a household object?

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"Everyone wants to BE something, but nobody wants to BECOME something" - William Cumpiano

Draino or other Lye solutions can also be used to oxidize wood... The use of strong bases to oxidize is not limited to mahogany either, it works great with Cherry and Maple. Just apply until you get the color you want, then neutralize with an acid such as vinegar and wash clear.

this is the same principle as fuming white oak using Ammonium hydroxide for Stickley furniture, only on a smaller and safer scale.

-jd

I use an old stainless steel spatula and a heating blanket to remove bridges and fingerboards,

Tim

Hesh, where did you find the Feed-n-wax locally?

Zach-
I'm not Hesh, but Howard has a 'dealer locator' at their website, which might be useful.
http://www.howardproducts.com/dlrloctr.asp

I found it at one of the HD-type box stores here.

It is a great product for fingerboards- not as good as the Gurian fingerboard oil from the olden days, though.

Cheers
John

I tried that with my zip, but nothing came up. I just tried the zip for the other half of Tosa and three stores came up, as well as three store by my office. I must live in a blackhole. Looks like any True Value or Ace should have it.

Zach I got mine at an Ace Hardware. I live in a small town now that still has some REAL hardware stores, the Mom & Pops. I love these places to just look around and say to myself - what can I make out of that...

Great stuff guys and my list that you are making for me is growing in leaps and bounds!

I wanted an indoor workshop for the neater parts of building and planing. The dusty part of building guitars will have to stay in the garage.
I went to Ikea and they have wood that people have donated for recycling - you can take the free wood (fake wood) if you like for free. They also sell the boards that are in better shape in their clearance section for about 5 dollars. I picked up a nice table top and put it on top of two half size filing cabinets in my home office. So now I am not far from my building bench, and I don't have to suffer in the cold garage. The table top is about 2 feet by 4 - small but big enough to work on the "indoor" tasks.
I picked up a few extra pieces to make a nice looking workboard, or two. and some more pieces for a shooting board and planing board. It is all chipboard or compressed wood and nice and heavy, and flat !

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Love all the ideas, I have a 6.00 cloths iron , i use to set on the frets and heat up the fingerboard to loosen . also worked well on bridges, have to be very carefull not to get close to finishe if your trying save it.

Alot of the stuff i use has already been mentioned .

The only other thing i have done is used the "tank" on the toilet in my shop to soak a short piece of wood before bending .

and glad to say it didnt turn out " crappy"

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Thats funny but if your going to tell people your using the bags I would say it is because you want to save the environment. Now I am going to follow your lead and start saving bags, to save the enviroment. of course.

James my friend I have a household iron in my shop too and agree with you completely - they are hand to have around.

Here are some more things that I use:



Everclear is excellent for French polish and also great when banjo players come over... 3M Super 77 is what I use to glue my labels in my guitars. 3 in one oil is always handy to have around and I use if on the bushing on my Performax, the screw on my Fox bender, and other things that benefit from some light oil. Rubbing alcohol I use often for removing tape residue, degreasing small parts etc. and a funnel is very useful for getting HHG flakes into the squeeze bottles.

I'm in the waxed paper camp as well. I also use:

single edge razor blades
blue paper towels
paper condiment cups for mixing epoxy
(always practice a safe lunch and use condiments)
bamboo skewers
small jelly jars for mixing shellac or wiping varnish
green 3M tape for almost everything including binding tape
strapping tape -- I use this mostly for backing sandpaper strips for flossing
old table knives for all sorts of prying
tray type food warmer for keeping braces and bridges toasty prior HHG
old wooden yardsticks for sticker material
compressed gas containers for saving wine bottles (keeps varnish fresh)
(this is my local replacement for Bloxygen)

there's probably more as I too fall into the frugal camp

oh yeah, 25 lb bags of Winchester chilled lead birdshot -- a household item in the UP

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

YES, YES, YES!!! Man, I love this forum. I hadn't even thought about that - that's brilliant. I'm back in the game! Thought I'd be stuck until my replacement belts for my 10 20 arrived. Thanks. Michael!

I also like these for removing HHG squeezout. Previously made the mistake of wetting a spruce top slightly and using a scraper.... not a good plan - tears out nice long strings of spruce.

Rubber gloves,

I've used a hair curling iron to bend maple bindings.
clothes iron to loosen glue.
eye droppers for shellac.
popsicle sticks as applicators of gooey stuff, shims, etc.
clothespins, of course.
large-sized pencil sharpener to make little circles out of wood. (http://hphotos-snc1.fbcdn.net/hs093.snc ... 1422_n.jpg)

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"...you have to get over your strict adherence to your largely imagined notion of absolute perfection..."

Has anyone mentioned a clothes iron for flattening wood and ungluing things?

Coffee filters for removing impurities (and wax) from shellac. Black magic marker for marking fret tops before recrowning. Flat toothpicks for scooping small amounts of sawdust into blemish fills. Styrofoam sheets cut from packing material for padding clamping cauls (conforms to interior bracing on a bridge glue). Bed sheeting stretched over pile carpet for a padded bench top. My clothes iron has a custom built cradle so it can serve as the hot plate for my hide glue when it's not warming a fret board for removal (or keeping my coffee warm). I don't have a Corian counter top, but I go to the cabinet shops that install them, and bum scraps to use as sanding blocks--flat, hard, waterproof, machinable. My computer is a household item, and I use it to browse guitar forums when I should be in the shop.

Parchment paper, toothpicks,popsickile sticks,linen rags,hot pot,toothbrush,barbaque brush,automotive towel rolls,wifes hair dye bottles.

I save the clear plastic containers that pre-packaged cold cuts come in. These have a snap-on lid that stays on pretty well. I store all manner of small parts and tools that I want to keep together- like nut and saddle files, etc. I label them with a Sharpie, and stack them up. I probably have 20 of them by now. Really cheap organizational tool!