Official Luthiers Forum!

So I'm getting a kick out of seeing other's use of unlikely tools for lutherie. What are yours? Here is mine: an anvil. Works great to apply good weight when flattening plates prior to use and to apply vertical pressure during plate joining. I'm told by my father that it has been in the family since the late 1800's. Sure looks like it but I also would guess this is the first time it's been used for building guitars.

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Doug

Don't let fear or common sense stop you from trying to build something

What's me unlikely luthier tool?

truth be knowen...me actually use me brain once
in a while...thats if me can find were me left it.

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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A 4" paper shell hemi for making firework shells still with spoolette (time fuse) sticking out of it, because it was lying around at the time and it made just the right radius (3.5" diameter) to trace the neck heel profile....

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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

Would a clothes iron count or is it too obvious?

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

Not a tool, but rather a supply. Good ole TN Shine

this:



it's a milling machine:
http://www.micromark.com/microlux-high- ... ,9616.html

A small pan, which I put some water in and heat up for use as a heat source to steam out dents with no risk of scorching. I also use it to heat up water for hide glue on the stove, before transferring to the slower heating electric glue pot.

I am just adapting this to my guitar building.
It is working very well for rosette pocketing and inlays. Next I need to learn 3D CAD design to make bridges, etc

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

I have a few, the monocoat iron like Todd, dumbell weight plates and a kettle bell weight, and the best a 24" vernier caliper for checking fret spacing.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

I was using my luthier's hair drier today to bend tiny uke sides (170mm scale). It's also handy for warming wood while using HHG.

The luthier's hair drier is the one you buy because borrowing your partner's leads to sharp pains in the side of the head.

YES!!!!

I snagged a used mini mill several years ago, all sorts of tooling, clamping, Palmgren vise, for $200. Love it to death!

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https://soundcloud.com/jeffreylsuits/he ... -runnin-13

I have a favorite framing hammer that has adjusted the attitudes of a couple unruly builds.

I modified an espresso maker into a steam generator but I have never needed to use it.

Bob

A stick of dynamite. Not a guitar tool but for disposal of guitars that fails to meet my quality standards....

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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

This here brick is my official test weight for all my deflection tests. There's an interesting story behind how I got a brick with my name on it, stop by the shop sometime and I'll tell you about it.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

A little strip of steel cut off a pallet strap. I used it to make a narrow scraper to work in the confines of the slots in the head. (Not a clear picture, but the only one I have.)

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Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

Brian, I hope your story does not involve a cemetery.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Yep my friend , I have used mine a couple of times . If you cannot find it, question the female that happens to be around . I believe they hide them on us at times !


I use Drinking straws , Q-Tips and Tooth Pics quite regularly

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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/

A mini deep fat fryer for a hide glue double boiler.

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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.

I use an small ultrasonic cleaner for cleaning metal guitar hardware (like bridges) that are covered in crud and corruption.
A little distilled water, and 3 drops of Dawn gets the job done right.
I bought it for $5 from Boeing Surplus back when they went to computer drafting.
It was previously used to clean the heads of drafting pens.

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

I use a baby bottle warmer for my hide glue!

Well, I'm jealous. I have a section in my notebook labeled "two brick deflection". I always use the same two bricks. (I'm very scientific.) But my bricks don't have my name on them. I guess a Sharpie would do the trick, but having it molded in--that's Stew-Macish. (Come to think of it, why doesn't Stew-Mac sell "deflection bricks"?)

Come on Brian, I'll never make it back East for a visit. What's the story?

Ok so here it is, readers digest version......one day there is a knock at the door. I answer it and there is a fellow standing there with a plastic sopping bag. He asks if I am Mr Howard? I wearily answered yes....and asked how I could help him. The Lutherie was not officially open yet, I had not gotten any permits yet so there was no sign. We just had a painted crate on the front porch with the name "HOWARD" on it in big purple letters. That was our landmark and how I told customers to find me. I knew there was not a guitar in the shopping bag so I was very leery of what type of fishing trip this guy was on. He starts explaining how he was a traveling salesman.....Oh great , just what I didn't need. But I am generally polite, sometimes very short but polite. Normally I would have said no thank you and shut the door at that point. But I was curious what his game was, what did my name have to do with it? After all this marketing ploy worked here because of the box with the name on....but it wouldn't work for anyone else on the street as they were just numbers without names. Figured I'd at least get a free marketing lesson out of it or so I thought. I listened as he explained. He was from Ohio, but for a brief period as a child he lived a few blocks up the street from my location. He still lived in Ohio but came through this way every 3 weeks or so on his sales route. Even though it was a detour he liked to see the old neighborhood. He noticed that someone had bought the house we lived in and had been fixing it up. That was me, this place was an eyesore with boarded windows and all when we bought it. Then he saw the box on the porch with the name on one trip and it clicked. When he was a child in Ohio there was an abandoned brick plant down the street, The Howard brick co. and there were piles of old bricks and everybody would just take them and use them for whatever. Most were just plain unmarked bricks but a few had the name Howard in them. He had this brick for a long time, it was part of his record shelf when he went to college and had been used to prop things up or hold them down for a long time at his house. But when He saw the name he knew the brick belonged to whoever lived here at this house with the same name on a crate as was on the brick. He opened the bag and showed me the brick. At this point I'm expecting him to ask for money for the brick so I remained kind of aloof and he hands me the bag, smiles and says "here, this belongs to you" tells me again how nice the house is looking, smiles and walks back to his car. I've never seen or heard from him again.......When I started deflection testing I needed a test weight and well, why not? it weighs 2556 grams and is my standard weight. I have two other non-Howard bricks wrapped in cardboard that I use for things like deflecting nonadjustable Martin necks when I level the frets, puts just the right amount of relief in.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/