fookgub Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 Ok, I'm not sure if this belongs here, but I guess it's related to guitar building, so... I've noticed quite a few high-school and college age kids here. I won't list any names for fear of leaving someone out, but you guys know who you are, and the majority of you are churning out some extremely professional looking guitars. I'm fortunate enough to finally live in a house (after 4 years of apartments), but with no garage or shed, I don't have a good place to do any serious work. This also prevents me from having many of the larger tools you guys take for granted (table saws, bandsaws, spray booths, etc.). Until recently I couldn't afford those tools anyway, but the real reson I haven't built a guitar yet is that I simply have no place to work. So, I'm just wondering how you guys manage to do this stuff. Are your parents into woodworking, do you use your school's stuff, or have you already aquired your own shop and tools? Come on, spill it. Btw, please don't take this as accusatory... I'm simply curious. I have to admit, though, that I get a twinge of jealousy every time I see someone post a magnificent guitar and realize they're several years younger then me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Sorbera Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 I have a portable building (32' x 12') full of tools that my grandfather left to us when he died. If it were not for him dying, I would not be in guitar building right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
custom22 Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 I am 15, and I made my first guitar at 14. I have a garage with a cheap table saw, belt sander, orbital sander, and a jig saw, mostly my dad's. I bought a welder in seventh grade when I built a hovercraft and a motorbike, so I guess i have been building stuff all my life, and I buy many of the smaller tools i need. I am fortunate to have some of the tools required, but I am considering becoming a temporary member at the local Woodcrafter shop for band saws, routers, joiners, drillpresses, etc, unless my friend lets me use his shop. Theres so much nice equipment at my school, but its controlled by a bunch of rich, snobby parents, so they are afraid to let us use any. If you have a wood shop near you, you may want to consider planning carefully which special tools you need for certain things, and do alot of the grunt work (like sanding) at home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 I don't have any large, stationary power tools - yet. Just buying my first bandsaw now, 10 guitars in. All you really need is the desire to work, and a few basic tools (router, jigsaw, cheapie drill press or drill press stand, B&D workmate). For the past 5-6 years most of my building has taken place on a roof terrace in the middle of Amsterdam; where there's a will, there's a way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 Grizzly mini router table and router and drill press I store in my house and carry outside every time I want to use them, and the same goes for all the hand tools, etc. I have a cabinet store do all my jointing, planing, thickness sanding, the big stuff. I used to have access to a bandsaw in the school's shop, but I don't have that anymore, so scarfs will start to become a problem now... It might be time to start trying Fender style heads.... Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 I wouldnt say that my work looks very professional... but anyway; I get by with a router, a jigsaw, an abundance of old, blunt and rusty files, rasps and saws and a lot of patience. A few hours, some sand paper and lots of Ben-power can compensate for most of the the imperfections left by the crappy tools/ worksmanship . Unfortunately my parents do no DIY or woodworking or anything, so all the money for tools and supplies comes out of my pocket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 Fair play to all you guy's who have posted!! Im 19 and made my first guitar at 15/16. Im fortunate enough to have a father who has always been a DIY Dad, and so I inherited his enthusiasm for wood work. He retired from the Navy a couple years ago and now is cabinet making so he has now got a table saw, big bandsaw, Planer thicknesser. However on my forst guitar he didn't have all that. so I used a mixture of router, baby bandsaw, jigsaw, angle grinder and lots of sandpaper. Im also fortunate enough to live in Dorset in the English, so I have alot of space as well as extremely beautiful surroundings (which I now appreciate alot more as Ive just come back from a trip to Australia for 7 months) Anyway, the point is, like alot of these guys you don't need much to start off. e.g. price of tools if you search around a bit Angle grinder new from screwfix/tool station (Magic place!!!) £10 small bandsaw from ebay or second hand mag £10 rounter not sure but lets say £30 jigsaw £20 electric sander £20 e.t.c alot of the prices are for new, and Im sure you might be able to borrow stuff. Where I live there's a mail order company (that just so happens to have an outlet shop close to where I live) called 'Tool Station'. you can get some great bargains there and tools from it are generally very cheap and also not too bad. Anyway happy hunting Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff Beer Man Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 My back yard is my work shop. I have two saw horses with a flatpiece of wood on it. Thats my table. I mainly use a router for all my work. I do my necks with a surform and some rasps and sand paper. And templates. Also have templates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 I'm 19. Many of my tools are currently in storage because I've just moved into a house(was in a dorm), but I've made due with what I have. A dremel, a flat surface(for sanding), a wooden radius block, assorted files and rasps, a coping saw, a fret saw, a jeweler's saw, a hand drill, and some scrapers, a 12" bandsaw(only because of the binding) that's sitting on my back porch at the moment, and a router table(which you can buy small enough to be considered portable) were enough to yield this though: Soon I'll have a shop again though. It'll be nice to be back in the a/c while I work. peace, russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 Angle grinder new from screwfix/tool station (Magic place!!!) £10 small bandsaw from ebay or second hand mag £10 rounter not sure but lets say £30 jigsaw £20 electric sander £20 I didnt know angle grinders were that cheap! I got my router, new with a free set of bits from B&Q for £9.99. I actually bought 2:); I wrecked 2 of the most useful router bits by trying to route through a nail, and when I went back to B&Q to replace them it actually worked out cheaper to buy a new router and get a whole new free set. I'm really glad I did that now as today I dropped the router and broke part of it. Also jigsaw- £11 from wilkinsons and they have an electric sander for a similar price. I bought the jigsaw- it works fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 Angle grinders are very cheap. Heck, I've got a Bosch (green, but still, pretty good tool) that I only paid about 30, 35 quid for new. Y'know, does anyone make a 'mini' angle grinder? Say 3" disk or so, or smaller body to boot? Because I'd love to have one for carving purposes that didn't have quite the heft or gyroscopic action... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 4.5" any good? http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.js...=87881&ts=48627 http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.js...=40556&ts=48722 http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.js...=17262&ts=48721 http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.js...=50168&ts=48721 ...etc Theres plenty of those Otherwise theres a really small one: http://www.diysupply.co.uk/product_info.ph...roducts_id=1136 thats like 1" or something! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 BTW, heres a photo of my garage workshop, which has recently been cleared out so I now have the WHOLE garage , and the whole of the top of that kitchen counter is now uncovered (and as you can see I'm making good use of it ) Luxury! As you can see, I'm not exactly the most organised person in the world... I should really make use of those drawers and store my tools- they're empty at the moment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 That 'really small one' is 230mm, Ben. That's like 9" or something! Anyway, I'm good with what I've got. Also: dude, clean up! That's a ton of space you've got there, compared to either my roof terrace or my new shop (a shed, which will house a large bandsaw, Oh yes). Of course, I barely have to share it with other things, so I can set it up more efficiently... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 That 'really small one' is 230mm, Ben. That's like 9" or something! I for some reason took 230mm to be 2.3 cm... which of course it isnt Stupid mistake Also: dude, clean up! That's a ton of space you've got there, compared to either my roof terrace or my new shop (a shed, which will house a large bandsaw, Oh yes). Of course, I barely have to share it with other things, so I can set it up more efficiently... I'm going to I've only had all this space for a couple of days- there used to be a load of crap covering most of it but my dad cleared it out. I have a lot of space now that I'm going to try to make good use of once its tidied. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnsilver Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 Y'know, does anyone make a 'mini' angle grinder? Say 3" disk or so, or smaller body to boot? Because I'd love to have one for carving purposes that didn't have quite the heft or gyroscopic action... Mattia, this is the smallest I could find - 4" lightweight. Grizzly grinder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darrell Posted June 20, 2006 Report Share Posted June 20, 2006 Mattia, Here are a couple 2" carvers. 2” mini grinder http://www.arbortech.com.au/view/product-i...on/Mini-Grinder http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=5092 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted June 20, 2006 Report Share Posted June 20, 2006 what DO all you guys use these angle grinders for!? Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitarfrenzy Posted June 20, 2006 Report Share Posted June 20, 2006 what DO all you guys use these angle grinders for!? Chris The only time I ever used an angle grinder in guitar building was to carve a guitars top. It works good for that. Maybe they have other uses for it too, but I don't know what they'd be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted June 20, 2006 Report Share Posted June 20, 2006 Top carving. A small grinder would be ideal for attacking the finer details, possibly even doing a touch of neck carving. I wouldn't even want to consider a carved top without my trusty grinder. Thanks for the tips guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted June 20, 2006 Report Share Posted June 20, 2006 why do i get the impression that touching a fast moving GRINDING plate to wood will do a little more than shave some off.... I get the idea that this thing will TOTALLY eat up wood and leave you with a mangled, uneven surface... Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fookgub Posted June 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2006 Thanks for the replies, everyone. I guess having no workshop isn't as good of an excuse as I thought, considering that even some GOTM winners were built on people's back porches. Anyway, now that I finally have a router table, jigsaw, and some other basic stuff, I'll be starting my first project after I move in August (a new RG style body for my Ibanez), workshop or not. So look out, GOTM 2010 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted June 20, 2006 Report Share Posted June 20, 2006 (edited) Chris: because I'm not using a metal or stone grinding disk, but a sanding flap disk/regular sanding disk mounted in an angle grinder. If I'm feeling agressive, I may buy a Lancelot chainsaw disk at some point, who knows? It may be a grinder, but that's not what I use it for. Look around. You'll find it's a very powerful tool, very precise, works great. Heck, watch this Hamer shop tour video for a perfect, well-filmed example of top carving with an angle grinder, around the 1 minute 30 mark: I'm not convinced it's not staged, though, because when I do that, it's a way, way, WAY dustier/messier operation (must be done outdoors!). Maybe I just need a fancy-ass downdraft sanding table. I also don't see how that body's being held down. Maybe Vacuum. But it's essential. (I'd ignore the somewhat pretentious bookmatching-without-a-fence-or-push-stick opening scene, but the top carving is pretty much exactly how I do it...) Edited June 20, 2006 by Mattia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 20, 2006 Report Share Posted June 20, 2006 Beat me to it I was going to link to that video in reponse to Chris's post. Its that video that made me want to buy an angle grinder, they look fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davis guitars Posted June 22, 2006 Report Share Posted June 22, 2006 my basment/ garage and i pay for all of my tools lol only a couple freebees lol summer jobs come in handy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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