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Band Saw or Drill Press?? Also Planer??


baze7

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Hmm... I don't know about where you live, etc., but often community colleges or woodshops will have a bandsaw you can use. You only use it a couple times per guitar (I only used it once) but a drill press is a very handy thing. If I had to have one at home, and the other that I borrowed, I would have the drill press at home and use a local band saw as needed.

Keep in mind, however, that I have only built one body. Based on that and other woodworking I do, I would go with the drill press. I don't know how much bandsawing you do.

Good luck!

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i would say drillpress... router (although i know you didn't list that)... then bandsaw if you get into it.... planer is more of a luxury tool if you ask me.

drillpress first because you can buy relatively cheap sanding drums to assist you in making good smooth 90 degree edges on guitar bodies, aswell it's good to know you're drilling bridge holes, and neck srew holes correctly. Lastly you can utilize the depth stops on the drill press to quickly pre drill any routes like control cavities, pickup cavities, and neck pockets with a frostner bit to save on routing time and your router bits.

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I'm with Derek on this one. If you only have enough money to buy one tool, hands down it would be a good router. You can't get by without one. It's a must have tool. You can use flush trim bit and a template and cut out a complete body perfectly. I'm not saying a bandsaw isn't something you'd want to have, but I just think you could buy something that will do so much more for you as far as building guitars go. Check out this link on how to do it. Thus you really wouldn't need a bandsaw if you have good neck and body templates. Now a drill press has alot of uses, so that might be the next thing you'd consider buying. You can use drum sander, drill 10mm tuner holes, etc. etc. So it's something that's gonna be used alot, and makes things alot easier. A planer is something that I'd buy if I didn't have access to one, if I did I'd wait till I had everything else first. A good planer is a very very nice thing to have, but can be put off till later. So basically, you have to consider how much you can do with one tool, and a router wins easily. umm.. let me see.. Cut out bodies, necks, route truss rod and carbon rods, shape peghead, neck pocket, control cavity, pickup cavities, round over the edges of the body, etc. etc. Can you think of a better tool to have? I can't... just one tip.. buy a good one if you can... And build you a good router table,, then build me one too.. haha

:D

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Yes, the VERY FIRST tool I'd buy is a router, but for the sake of this post it was either bandsaw or drill press. The router is far and away the most used tool in my shop with the drill press running a CLOSE second. Buy as much router as you can afford and learn how to use it well and it will be your best friend... in the shop that is.

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Yeah if he does has a router already, then drill press before bandsaw. A drill press is a very valuable tool in guitar building. I think you should get them all though if you can afford it; router, router table, drill press, bandsaw, planer, jointer, various power sanders, dust collector, etc. :D

Now go to your local bank and take out a huge loan.. lol

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Yeah if he does has a router already, then drill press before bandsaw.

What he said. I've been able to get away without using a bandsaw thus far, but I'm not sure I could get away without the drillpress. And going sans-router is out of the question.

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Yeah if he does has a router already, then drill press before bandsaw.

What he said. I've been able to get away without using a bandsaw thus far, but I'm not sure I could get away without the drillpress. And going sans-router is out of the question.

Ditto here. I couldn't do anything without the drill press. Or, at least nothing worth looking at. A drill press is very handy for getting acurate pilot holes for string throughs and for neck pocket screws. It's also a fool proof way to set the depth for the pilot holes in the neck. I drilled through a neck right to the fretboard once, ONCE. With the drill press, that'll never happen.

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