Most Odd Tool?

[Mitch]

What is the most strange tool you have ever used for guitar building? I thought of asking this question while I was using a rubiks cube as a sanding block.

[Woodenspoke]

What is the most strange tool you have ever used for guitar building? I thought of asking this question while I was using a rubiks cube as a sanding block.

There is no such thing as a strange tool, just strange people, LOL

[Narcissism]

I used a drum stick wrapped in sand paper to do most of my contouring. Its not really strange as much as it is ironic.

[soapbarstrat]

I don't think anyone's gonna beat the rubiks cube as most odd (considering how uneven the sides of those usually are !)

But I'll continue with the sanding block theme, only in this case, I'm talking about blocks for sanding inside contours.

These 'sanding blocks' are both oval shape.

Been using these for years.

Then much later I realized these are a larger version.

Do I have to point out you need to attach sandpaper around them (with double stick tape, or held by hand somehow) ?

'cause it's likely I'll get a PM from someone asking how these things on there own, can do any sanding.

[j. pierce]

Not that odd in the scheme of things, but this is my favorite "weird" tool:

http://www.woodcraft.com/product.aspx?Prod...p;FamilyID=4867

I've stuck sandpaper to just about everything as well. I've also got all sorts of little pieces of steel refashioned as scrapers.

[westhemann]

I have used cinder blocks to hold the center of a top down while glueing it around the forearm contour.

And I have glued sandpaper to a flat piece of nitrogen filled glass from the new airport I worked on..

[Rick500]

I've put sandpaper on just about everything that's not nailed down. And some things that are, come to think of it.

Sandpaper on a roll of duct tape, for example.

[westhemann]

You nail down your duct tape?

[Rick500]

Only if it tries to get away.

[Edit: Oh, now I see what you mean. Yeah, I worded my previous post strangely. ]

Edited March 18, 2009 by Rick500

[Prostheta]

It's a given that we look at objects and see them as cauls or useful sanding blocks for their shapes. I used a pen with sandpaper taped to it for the scalloping on my latest. I bought a granite steak frying thing purely for the flatness of the granite, so I can tape abrasives to it for creating flat surfaces. Unfortunately that's as weird as I get, or at least as weird as I think I get.

[jaycee]

I used a 35mm auger bit cover it with the middle of a toilet roll and then tapped sandpaper to that in order to give me the curve on the headstock of a fender style headstock.

[j. pierce]

How about those Nicholson rasp/chisel combos? Those are weird tools. The rasp gets in the way of chiseling, and you can't hold both ends of the rasp because one ends a chisel, and you only have a couple of inches of rasp... I can actually see them being useful for rough framing or something like that; but for 90% of the jobs I use either of those tools for, it'd be just so much more useful to have a dedicated tool...

http://www.amazon.com/Nicholson-WC34CMN-4-...4073&sr=8-2

[Narcissism]

How about those Nicholson rasp/chisel combos? Those are weird tools. The rasp gets in the way of chiseling, and you can't hold both ends of the rasp because one ends a chisel, and you only have a couple of inches of rasp... I can actually see them being useful for rough framing or something like that; but for 90% of the jobs I use either of those tools for, it'd be just so much more useful to have a dedicated tool...

http://www.amazon.com/Nicholson-WC34CMN-4-...4073&sr=8-2

lol, i have that thing. I used it for a lot of the contouring work with quite a bit of success. The rasp part of it for me was pretty useless though.

I use a sewing needle to pop any bubbles that show up when I brush on a coat of poly. I'm sure a propane torch is a better idea for that, but I don't have one, and after I set snow on fire while using a propane torch during my snowmaking years, I'm afraid of setting my porch on fire.

[Prostheta]

Hahaha....that's a CHASP. Or a RASPEL.

Stupid cheap apparently multifunction cack.

[Racer X]

I've used the glass top of a chess set, double-stick taped full pages of sandpaper to it, and ran my project body across that to get the front and back surfaces ultra-flat. Worked like a charm, too.

[Woodenspoke]

CHASP, Love it Now thats strange

But in reality you guys are the strange tools. Toilet paper roll, its a winner.

I seem to remember a friend who said he let a pancake harden in the shape of a profile he needed to sand. He used PSA paper when the pancake was hard enough. That story isn't looking so strange now.

[Southpa]

Riffler files are cool. There is a pic floating around in the archives of me sanding an SG cutaway with a can of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup wrapped in a chunk of 80 grit. And it MUST be mushroom.

[Prostheta]

I've used the glass top of a chess set, double-stick taped full pages of sandpaper to it, and ran my project body across that to get the front and back surfaces ultra-flat. Worked like a charm, too.

I did that with our kitchen worktop the other week for exactly the same purpose, and a few months back to true up the glueing surfaces of a zebrano body and a maple top :-D

[soapbarstrat]

Hmmm. Looks like everyone is too ashamed to admit they've leveled frets with a frozen stick of margarine.

Here's an "odd" one I use a lot : Empty Elmer's wood glue bottle as a dust blower. I use it to blow wood dust out of fret slots and also to blow metal dust away when crowning frets, etc. Of course, when I want 100% of the dust gone, I use a real air compressor, but the bottle is good enough half the time.

Here's another I don't use extremely often and I got the idea from someone else : Dead 9 volt battery wrapped with tape. It's a "jack" to put under a floyd trem when you want to keep it in the dive-bomb position while doing work on the guitar.

Telephone books can sometimes make a decent caul.

[Prostheta]

Good call, no pun intended :-D

[Racer X]

I've used the glass top of a chess set, double-stick taped full pages of sandpaper to it, and ran my project body across that to get the front and back surfaces ultra-flat. Worked like a charm, too.

I did that with our kitchen worktop the other week for exactly the same purpose, and a few months back to true up the glueing surfaces of a zebrano body and a maple top :-D

Yeah, you know what, it was quite advantageous, since I was not only using full sheets and getting a large area, all at once, but since I was able to use the handle attached to the guitar neck pocket to push/pull across the surface with one hand and apply even pressure with the OTHER hand, I had really good control of the sanding process. In fact, I kept the piece of glass, for further sanding projects.

[Prostheta]

Totally....plus our kitchen worktop didn't budge an inch either

[westhemann]

I paint my guitars with my big toe while watching TV...sit in my chair,set a bucket of paint down with the guitar body next to it,and dip and rub,baby...

But I have special shoes for level sanding,because they must be flat...I get them from a sheepherder in the Netherlands...he sent me a hat too,which I wear to be authentic...

[soapbarstrat]

The workers at Gibson used to wear those hats. Every once in a while, someone would accidentally sit on one, then they'd use that as a pattern for a new body design.

[Cactus]

The workers at Gibson used to wear those hats. Every once in a while, someone would accidentally sit on one, then they'd use that as a pattern for a new body design.

.. and that's how the Corvus was born.