Official Luthiers Forum!

We haven't had one of these "Let's see your..." threads in a while. Usually they are parts of the guitar- e.g. headstocks, bridges, binding, etc. This time, let's see your favorite jigs. Shop made or bought. For any purpose. Show them off!

_________________
ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

I've got a million but here are some little things that have made my life a lot easier.

A spacer that fits in the truss rod slot to align the saw blade or router bit for making carbon bar reinforcement slots.





A simple right angle guide for slotting the back strip for the braces.





A mini miterbox for the final cut when joining the binding at the heel.



And finally a radius dish with holes for pegs and rotating on a central pivot for carving braces. Held in position with a table clamp. Easy to stabilize the plate right where you want it.



Oh yeah, a home made tuner bushing press.

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

I just can't decide which I like better.

Here's my binding router set-up. PC-310 w/foot pedal allows two hands on router carriage at all times. Whole thing is supported by massive lumber C-channel bolted to edge of work bench.

Terence, thanks for that miter box idea for cutting the binding at the tail!

Oh ya - I'm stealing that one as well....!
OK, here's one - a fretboard radius jig that will do compound radii.
The radius is set by the pin location on the mounting board.
Tried it out for the first time on a few raw boards last weekend - works great!

Terence I owe you drink for miterbox pic

Robbie....any chance of some more details on the compound radius jig....Thanks

John

Sure John,

The design was from a set of plans that could be found here: http://www.eguitarplans.com/Fretboard_Radius_Jig_11x17.pdf

Rob

I was interested too, but only came up with
Link expired?

_________________
The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Keep them coming .Lots of great ideas and jigs Thank you ernie

The link URL is bad (has the extra period and the ellipsis). Here's one that works:

http://www.eguitarplans.com/Fretboard_Radius_Jig_11x17.pdf

Love the Tuner Bushing Press ! Simple and effective . ! Be making one myself real soon.

All great ideas everyone .

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

I would say that of all the ones I have made this one Is the best simply because it worked so well . I made this to get a tight fit on tops and backs hopefully without having to sand to fit . I use a fine blade usally and its a fit that when I cut I can glue woithout any further work .

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Sorry for being so obtuse, just not sure what's going on in WudWerkr's post above.
Preparing tops and backs - for jointing? Straight off the saw?

_________________
The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Yes , straight off the saw , I use a glueline fine rip blade from amana tool and it makes a very tight joint .

Rip and glue .

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Thanks. That must be one fine blade!!

_________________
The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

When I say Fine tooth I dont mean a Large number of teeth . Its like alot of rip blades , 30-40 T but its designed for the cabinet industry for ripping and jointing without alot of sanding . Keep in mind there are several variables . Quality of saw . Blade . Jig . But it works quite well when all 3 are there .

http://www.amanatool.com/circular-saw-blades/glue-line-rip-610301.html

I have real good results from this blade .

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

That's brilliant!

Terrence, how do you stabilize that mini-miter box? It's a very cool idea, but I don't understand what keeps it perpendicular to the binding strip and aligned with the ledge. I think your bushing press is pure simplified genius. These two jigs fall into the category of things that are just so darned obvious....AFTER you show them to me! Thanks for those! I'll try them.

Wud, I like your joining sled, too. And I like the fact that you took time to make it attractive. The push handle is very elegant and safe, too. No question of where the pushing hand goes nor of getting the hand too close to the blade. I'm going to try that.

Many thanks to both.
Patrick

Note the bottom of the sled at the base of the handle . I have a mounted tennon that runs the full length of the sled and rides in the slot of the table saw . That also helps keep things aligned .

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

I make a custom jig for the width of binding I'm using so it's a snug fit and self aligns. I glue up the binding until there's just enough left to spring out and slide the jig in. Then cut with a razor saw. Start a little long and creep up on it.

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

Got it. Thanks, Terrence.
Patrick

+1

Bob

Here are some of my favorties:

Saddle Slotting Jig:


Heel Routing Template:


And the female counterpart to the above:


Standard Soundport Adjustable Routing Template:


Body Cradle for doing binding (it has a lazy susan bearing on the bottom):


Centerline Finder (bought):


Jig for setting the neck angle on the sander:


For Thicknessing Headstocks (great for volutes):

_________________
ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com