Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm curious to the the number of trimmer you guys must have in your shop.
I know that only one might be needed but for convinience sake and knowing what you know and doing what you do, how many is ideal for you? And what different applications do you use the particular ones for?

David

It kinda depends on how you define the word "need".

I think that you only 'need' one. But, I have two. I have a Bosch Colt that is my little work horse. I also have a DeWalt that I am setting up for a semi-permanent home in a binding routing fixture.

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

I have one for every operation that I do with a laminate trimmer. I "need" that many because I hate tearing down, changing bits and setting up to make one cut. I leave the bit in and the fixture attached, which leaves me time to build guitars!

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John Ressler

one set-up with a flush cut bit for trimming tops and backs flust to rims, one set-up for binding channeling and one hanging around for miscellaneous tasks so that you don’t have to mess with the other two’s set-up

I have 2 but would like to have 4 someday. They would be used as follows:

1) flush cut

2) .080 binding channel (I like thick bindings)

3) .115 purfing channel

4) and one dedicated to a Cochran circle cutter/rosette cutter that I hope to own someday

But you really only need one.

It is like guitars...how many do you need????

ONE MORE THAN YOU HAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Yeah Andy bro you're not competitive.......

Next we will be seeing who has the BIGGEST laminate trimmer......

Two that are more or less dedicated (binding rabbet and circle cutter) and one that's free for everything else. Unlike some builders, I don't dedicate one just to avoid bit changes; has to be some kind of jig that it sits in that I don't want to have to readjust.

We're not counting the full size routers here, are we?

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I have 6 lam trimmers, plus 3 other larger routers .... one is almost in the table, another has never had anything but a good flush trim bit in it (it was a crappy Skil, that I got with CC points about to expire), the last is a large 3 hp that was too good a deal to pass up (40 points off, because the carton was damaged ... all the routers were perfectly fine, but HD or somewhere wouldnt accept them in the broken packaging. Oh .. and an air powered die grinder setup for inlay .. and I want another of those too setup to route off finish for bridges.

I have one lam trimmer set up for nothing but binding ledges - all I ever do is set the height of the binding as needed, the depth never needs resetting - 85 thou.

That said, I want six more lam trimmers .... I still am changing bits and depths and stuff ... if Olson needed 60, I figure I need at least 20 to catch up !!!

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Well! I see that we have the makings of another SYNDROME!

We have WAS, TAS, GAS and now:

RAS (Router Aquisition Syndrome)

Since I have four trimmer/routers and a dremel... I have a moderate case. I do suppose it is a subset of TAS. That would be RAS-TAS????

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Steve Walden
Aspiring Builder,
Bartlesville, OK

not a new affliction syndrome, merely a singular symptom manifestation of debilitating TAS

Oh almost forgot .. two Dremels !!!! one for polishing frets, the other setup for routing bridge relief grooves ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Like Howard, I have that stays in the binding jig and one in the circle cutting jig, and a third one for the the rest. One Dremel and two big routers (one stays in the router table), and that's it. I suppose I could use one or two more laminate trimmers, but I wouldn't know what to do with 60 of them.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

A very mild case or RAS here. I have one in my binding jig ,one for flush trim,and one for Whatever.
Also have a big PC in the router table,and a Dremel for inlay.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Lots more...

I am still smarting the loss of the PC310. What a bonehead thing for them to do.

So I am buying all the new 310's I can afford. I have been working hard this year to tighten up the speed and efficiency of some processes, and not having to change or adjust bits sure saves a lot of time.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Yes, the 310 is a great tool for sure. I see they also have a model called 309 with similar specifications. Do you (or anyone else) know if this a new model designed to replace the 310? And if you have both, how do they compare?

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I think I have 5 Ryobi trimmers and a couple of PC's. Among my favorite jigs is one that has a half inch wide flat bottom bit and a base that allows the bit to ride on top of the sound board and back and trim the purfling and binding flush with the top or back. Then just a stroke or two with the scrapper and that process is done.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Very cool John .. now why didnt I think of that one !!!! next on the list once I get thru a couple circle rosette jigs and a bender for a student ....

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

I only have 1 trimmer...for now. And three other routers that get a good workout - Bosch EVS1617 for general plunge work, PC690 for fixed base, and a big bad Triton in the table, lovely tool. And a PC 310 for too many things - binding machine, rosette jig, etc. Since it's now ded, methinks I'll get a few Bosch Colts. Some day.

Hi Arnt,
The 309 was a cheaper more basic version of the 310. It has been in production for awhile, but I believe is also being discontinued.

I was just told by Tool Plus that they have over 1000 unit of PC310 in stock.

I have 6 of them... I bought 4 of them from someone on the forum during a swap meet a while back and use most of them.

1 is set up in a jig to cut rosettes

1 is setup in a jig to cut binding and purfling channels.

1 is set up to cut off excess top and back plate material

1 is set up in the plastic trimmer base to cut the channels for truss rod extensions in the body of the guitar.

1 is a spare

and lastly one has a bent shaft (I dont know how that happened) but I will keep it to use for parts.

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Reguards,

Ken H

If purchased by July 31st, you can get a $30 rebate for the 310 from PC.


http://media.ptg-online.com/20070501121638_PCB-0952%20310%20$30%20RebateForm.pdf

I have two laminate trimmers. One is dedicated to the binding jig, the other is for everything else.

I also have two routers one is dedicated to the router table, the other for everything else.

But like any tool...you can never have enough.

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Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

"89.67% of all statistics are made up on the spot."

That rebate is only through 2007.

Doh.
Thanks for catching that. Sorry folks. No rebate.

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Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

"89.67% of all statistics are made up on the spot."