Duff Beer Man Posted February 24, 2006 Report Share Posted February 24, 2006 I thought it would be cool to make a fourm of everyones jigs that they made, and maybe, if they want too, a possible tutorial on how to make that jig and what it does. I know it would help me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Irizarry Posted February 24, 2006 Report Share Posted February 24, 2006 I'm a no-woodworking-experience newbie and I would love to see this as well. I haven't built this (yet) but I came across it during my endless wanderings on the Internet and I thought it was a great idea - They came up with a jig to expedite creating the forearm comfort cut. The jig consists of two boards. One is simply the base. The other is attached vertically at a 15 degree angle. The guitar is then laid across the vertical board and a bandsaw used to make the cut. By itself it requires an 18" bandsaw but I'm sure someone could rig it to use some type of flush cut saw instead. After that, all that's left is a little smoothing. It also makes for more consistent results. I add this because every place I've looked has shown creating this forearm contour by hand and that simply gives me hives. I was dreading this step until I came across this jig... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supernova9 Posted February 24, 2006 Report Share Posted February 24, 2006 I'm a no-woodworking-experience newbie and I would love to see this as well. I haven't built this (yet) but I came across it during my endless wanderings on the Internet and I thought it was a great idea - They came up with a jig to expedite creating the forearm comfort cut. The jig consists of two boards. One is simply the base. The other is attached vertically at a 15 degree angle. The guitar is then laid across the vertical board and a bandsaw used to make the cut. By itself it requires an 18" bandsaw but I'm sure someone could rig it to use some type of flush cut saw instead. After that, all that's left is a little smoothing. It also makes for more consistent results. I add this because every place I've looked has shown creating this forearm contour by hand and that simply gives me hives. I was dreading this step until I came across this jig... May just be me, but I'd rather take a rasp to a piece of wood to rough the contour out and plane it smooth than invest in an 18" bandsaw and cut the guitar while it was standing vertically on edge. Duff Beer Man: Nice idea for a thread, but it's really where the Tools etc Reference forum comes into play.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Irizarry Posted February 24, 2006 Report Share Posted February 24, 2006 I'm a no-woodworking-experience newbie and I would love to see this as well. I haven't built this (yet) but I came across it during my endless wanderings on the Internet and I thought it was a great idea - They came up with a jig to expedite creating the forearm comfort cut. The jig consists of two boards. One is simply the base. The other is attached vertically at a 15 degree angle. The guitar is then laid across the vertical board and a bandsaw used to make the cut. By itself it requires an 18" bandsaw but I'm sure someone could rig it to use some type of flush cut saw instead. After that, all that's left is a little smoothing. It also makes for more consistent results. I add this because every place I've looked has shown creating this forearm contour by hand and that simply gives me hives. I was dreading this step until I came across this jig... May just be me, but I'd rather take a rasp to a piece of wood to rough the contour out and plane it smooth than invest in an 18" bandsaw and cut the guitar while it was standing vertically on edge. Duff Beer Man: Nice idea for a thread, but it's really where the Tools etc Reference forum comes into play.... If you read a little further into my post, you'll see that I don't suggest an 18" bandsaw is the way to go. I suggest that applying a little thought should make this feasible with a hand tool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted February 24, 2006 Report Share Posted February 24, 2006 I tend to, y'know, saw, chisel, then rasp/surform/microplane/shinto-rasp those things out. Anyway, in terms of jigs, I don't really have all that many. I keep meaning to set up a neck angle/pocket jig a la Myka, but tend to end up just making individual templates. Also want to make a 'proper' router/planer jig for larger boards, but to date, I kinda jury-rig it as I go alone. I've got a half-built Ribekke-style binding jig that I haven't tested yet, so really, unless you count molds and side bending forms for acoustics 'jigs', I have exactly one cheapie, simple jig (that I kinda want to replace, but it works), namely the combined radius dish cutter (for acoustic guitar building) and, remove guide rails and add other rails and a base on the router, a fingerboard radius cutting/thicknessing (in one fell swoop!) jig: Set up as a radius dish maker (two guide rails are in place, along which the router 'rides', creating the equivalent of a 25' radius for the top dish, 15' radius for the back) Or, stiffen the center section that the fingerboard rides on, add two guide rails, make a little MDF or ply base for the router (and wax the runners so it moves smoothly), and you get to thickness fingerboards: http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics4/stratele10.jpg Fingerboard in early stages of radiussing/thicknessing: http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics4/stratele11.jpg 5-10 minutes later, after completing all of the runs, you get this: http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics4/stratele12.jpg Another minute with 120 grit followed by 220 grit paper, a little more if you want to tighten up the radius a bit (15" is close enough to 12" radius for roughing in, for my electric necks), but you're done pretty damn quickly. It's a bit fiddly, and requires an even hand to make sure you don't skew the rails and all that, but it does the job. What I really want is one of Craig Holden's jigs, but I don't really have the space, and the shipping (about 180 dollars) would kill me dead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cracked Posted February 25, 2006 Report Share Posted February 25, 2006 (edited) Who's Craig Holden? I tried googling him but didn't find and Luthier links. I love seeing all sorts of jigs. Just because sometimes you see one and you say "why didn't I think of that!" because it's so simple yet saves so much time. Edited February 25, 2006 by Cracked Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted February 25, 2006 Report Share Posted February 25, 2006 Who's Craig Holden? I tried googling him but didn't find and Luthier links. I love seeing all sorts of jigs. Just because sometimes you see one and you say "why didn't I think of that!" because it's so simple yet saves so much time. http://www.cthluthiery.com/ Makes a nifty jig for doing any fingerboard radius you'd like, compound or straight, simply with a router, and by swapping a few guides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cracked Posted February 25, 2006 Report Share Posted February 25, 2006 Cool, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orgmorg Posted February 25, 2006 Report Share Posted February 25, 2006 Mattia, thanks for posting the radius dish jig. I've been thinking about making something like that. How did you get the 25' radius in the guides for the router? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted February 25, 2006 Report Share Posted February 25, 2006 Mattia, thanks for posting the radius dish jig. I've been thinking about making something like that. How did you get the 25' radius in the guides for the router? There's a spreadsheet somewhere, possibly in the MIMF library, but certainly findable by googling 'radius dish making' or similar, which gives you a way to lay out the radius guides. These days, I'd very seriously consider heading over to Tracy Leveque's webshop, http://www.luthiersuppliers.com/, and getting their radius guages, which are CNC'd accurate arches, done for you. Or, if I live in the US, just getting the dishes; shipping would murder me as it stands. Honestly, making them is easy, and making the setup for the router and cutting the dishes, while very, very messy (if you use MDF: do this OUTSIDE, or with the best dust collection system in the world if you must work indoors) takes an afternoon, tops. Marking out the guides and making sure they're accurate, however, took me quite a while. I suppose printing them out full sized via CAD drawing at a print shop or similar might make life easier, or, heck, setting up a 15' or 25' radius compass. Or maybe I should've just worked out how to do the long compass thing (again, another way of laying out the curve), and if you've got a piece of even material (say aluminum bendy ruler) and a few pins, and the basic measurements, there are ways to lay out said curve that way. Googling will reveal several methods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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