Official Luthiers Forum!

Anyone seen this?http://www.gmchandcraftedguitars.com/universalnutfilingjig.htm What do you think, sells for 89 GB pounds.

Seen it (Ebay?) but couldn't be bothered.
It's not so difficult to do by hand, and I wanted to up my hand skills anyway.
And remember, fine tuning slot depth and polishing your nut will still need to be done even if using this, plus the time to unbox, set up, fine tune ( slot depths) and pack away again.
So I think the time savings may be exaggerated.
After you've done it a few times it gets quicker.

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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.

You can buy just the vice for £23 compared to 23+26 shipping+import duty for stewmacs nut and saddle vice so i may just get the vice.

Why do people have this compulsion to over complicate things? I've been making Nuts for over 30 years with nothing more than a file, a few marking templates, a hand vice and a homemade pippin file. I think the total cost comes to about $25. These days it seems I should be using 382 different files to achieve the exact same thing! Oh and a fancy jig.

Looks good,
but, I feel that the luthier world is one of the most over-tooled.
Inspires me to make a nut slot miter box though,
just for starting the slots in the right place with a razor back saw.
Hmmm.

It may be like golf, I keep thinking I'll hone my putting skills once I master the drivers and irons (good luck there), but when it comes to the final score making a 4 or 5 foot putt counts just as much as a 250 yard drive. In short, I haven't worried so much with the nuts and saddles as I have with the other aspects of guitar building, and to date I've used just a bench vise, a disk sander and some files; maybe I should worry about it more, but it will probably wait until I'm more comfortable with some other techniques.

Have to agree with Michael on this one. While I understand the desire to create something to make money off, I sometimes have to shake my head at some of the expensive ideas.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

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Under Compensated Nut!

As a tool and die maker, I can appreciate the work involved conceiving of this tool, and then producing it in detail. I love it. I want one. But, then again - I've never had that much trouble making a nut. So I don't need it. And at that price, I'll never buy one.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I agree with the others. The money would be better spent on a little 1" belt sander. You can ruff shape a nut pretty fast on one. Check out FRETS.COM and see how Frank Ford does it. You can get a little sander from Grizzle for about $35 that will do the job and other jobs as well. You can make jaws for any vice. I think Rod True made a little hand vice for holding nut's and saddles while sanding them that could be put into any vice while file shaping and slotting. Can be made from wood or some Alu. from the H Depot.

I modified this pair of ViceGrip Sheet Metal Pliers years ago and love this tool for making nuts & saddles. I ground the top of the "paddles" to a 16" radius and ground some relief on one side. They work great clamped in a vice or free-hand for buffing the nut & saddle.

There you go!

I use a Panavise for all sorts of small parts work including nuts and saddles. Like others I do most of the final fit by hand. You can usually find these on ebay.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I use one of these:
http://www.sahnitools.com/images/634556 ... d-vice.jpg

I think I just glued in some Rosewood jaws. They are cheap enough. I dimension with a spare blade in a block plane although the edge might last a lot longer if it was HSS.

Still think i'll buy the vise on it's own, gotta be worth £20.

I can't image you save much time with the sawing guide, over marking with a SM nut ruler and cutting

Here's my "jig" (fixture?)... I have a few different ones, also for saddles. I use them both for rough shaping on the sander, and clamped in a vise for final shaping, slotting etc.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I use a similar jig/fixture for holding/shaping nut to Arnt's one.
But I must admit to purchasing the SM vice when I first started out, thinking I would need it (part of a biggish order)
I still use it for saddles, and funnily enough, found it handy for cutting notches in X-braces, to chisel out to a precise premarked depth.

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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.

Mike - that is a brilliant use of the sheet metal pliers!
I have an extra set that is now going to get modded....

fair enough...

This is what I use:

http://tw.page.bid.yahoo.com/tw/auction ... 5048622186

It's basically the Stewmac nut vise but at half the price SM charges on their website and no shipping charge.... I can probably sell you one of those for the same price Stewmac charges (including shipping) if you want...

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

That is a genuine Stewnac!

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Pat