Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi guys!
I'm thinking of purchasing a Wagner Safe-t planer to take down the sides and back on my first build. I'd there a better alternative? I have a drill press and an old Bridgeport mill. Is there a better tool out there for about the same price?
Thanks!

What wood are you using?
Any hand tool experience, planes maybe?

_________________
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.

I'm using indian rosewood, came with the classical kit I got from Lmii. Gave it a go with a hand plane, got it close but took done chunks out. Still salvageable....
I saw Robert O'Brien use one in the dvd that came with the kit....seems to work great.

Yes it works great, but make a jig like in Robbie's video and be careful with your hands.

What do you think about double sticking to the bed of the mill? Better than running it by hand on the drill press?

I've done that with some small pieces on my mini mill. For sides and back, I hope you have power feeds as that would be a lot of cranking!
Mike

Luckily I do! Got one in order from StewMac. Thanks guys!

Yes, the Safe-T-planer in a drill press will do the job, pretty roughly, and get you maybe a half millimeter from your final thickness. Then you will want to use a cabinet scraper and sandpaper to get it to a smooth, final thickness. I did my first couple of guitars this way. If you get to making more guitars after the first couple I bet you will end up buying a drum sander, which is a much better tool for this job.

When you get your system set up, I'd recommend practicing first with junk wood till you're sure you can avoid random gouging.

I went ahead and bought the thickness sander. Spouse still doesn't know how much it cost... : P

_________________
Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

I made a hold down jig to use with a Safe-T-Planer knock off, with good success. viewtopic.php?f=10117&t=44917

Alex

_________________
"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

I still use my Safe-T-Plane to rough thickness and taper my necks but I too went to a thickness sander for back and sides. It worked for getting the thickness close on some builds but not on highly figured wood I found.

_________________
Blue Ring Acoustics
blueringacoustics.ca

Works great for me to do the rough thinning. The only problem I have is my drill press is too small and I can't reach the very middle of the top / back plates. Still...much easier to plane down a small thick patch then plane the whole thing

With a Wagner planer properly set up I can get within .2mm of final thickness consistently. You MUST level the table so that it's exactly perpendicular to the quill, and have the planer sharp and properly set up. Keep in mind that the heat produced by cutting is carried off in the chips; if you're not making chips the cutter will over heat, get dull, and burn. I usually have no problems holding the wood down by hand, but do be sure that your fingers are always pointing AWAY from the tool, and never AT it. With it set low to the table the only way you can get you finger into contact with the cutters is if you point the finger at it.