Official Luthiers Forum!

This thread is in response to a request in another thread to show some pics of what I was verbally attempting to explain. I forget who, so maybe someone else will find it interesting too.

The machine itself I got from Larrivee a long time ago when they upgraded to a hydraulic motor gift system, a great improvement...

(side view)

(kinda sorta front views)

Basically a three roller rig with the motor at the back.



The vertical part has a concave plate with a compound radius cut in. This is the nut end.

Extension end..


A 3"x 108" belt runs over the plate, just like a regular vertical belt sander.

the fingerboard has witness lines drawn on it to check progress and gets centred on the plate. Then you turn the machine on being careful not to change the neck shape by pushing too hard.

Check progress, repeat as needed, hopefully in only two passes.

Sand until there's a little horseshoe over the tongue left. This assure you don't grind out your fall away. Feather the transition with a flat cork block and 220 and...



Voila!
Perfectly straight, even fingerboard, unless you err. It's definitely a high risk process to the guitar, but once you get the knack, it is extremely fast and reliable, taking only about a minute or less all told.

I'm glad I didn't have to think it up myself!

Cheers,

Ed





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ed, you are one brave fellow!

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DUDE!!! That is an impressive hunk of machinery there!!!!

I am amazed that they didn't radius them before installing the neck.

Me, I do all of mine by hand... with a radius block and elbow grease...

Bob

I thought I was brave carving necks with an angle grinder I guess it is probably not as scary as it looks. It is impressive and would certainly speed up the process. I too radius my boards after the neck is attached to the body, but I'm still doing that all by hand. Not sure I'm ready for one of these yet, but it is a new take on radiusing that I hadn't seen before and it is pretty cool.

Thanks for posting.

Josh

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
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House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

I prefer to do the radiusing after joining the neck as it helps erase any weirdness that can happen in the neck hump area. At this stage they have the final finish coats done too, so they're about two steps from the door...

Once you've done it a buncha times it's not so scary.

Thanks for sharing these secrets of the Larivee shop - very cool, wild and wonderful...!

Well, since anybody on a public tour could take photos of it, and I showed it in detail to everyone that came through, I didn't consider it a secret....

Look at you with your new toy. Nice job of putting that together Ed! Looks great. I want one,but I think I'd be afraid to stick the whole guitar to it.

Can I have one?

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Be pretty easy to build. (He says though he bought it)...

I know another guy who uses a similar system with only two rollers. All it is is a vertical belt sander. Heck, you could probably mod a commercially available sander. You'd have to get someone to CNC the back plate though.

I'm pretty comfy on it now, but I confess, I have seen, and sadly participated in the death of a few guitars using it. But once you have the knack... (Knock on wood)

You guys must have some serious workspace! Put that in my workshop and I'd be operating from half way down the street.

Well, I have a full basement. (Except for the ever diminishing jam space).

We have two shops, one strictly controlled RH glue up room, one controlled not so strictly for side bending, frame making/lining/profiling and binding. The two drum sanders, big ass jointer, and railer are all on wheels and get moved in and out of the dust making areas as needed.

We are going to build a third room with little RH control and walls that attach to the ceilings with hinges so they can swing up out of the way when we have our big music parties, which seems to be about once a year, so not too bad...