Woodenspoke

Wes is right Follow whatever Spoke said and you will be fine I said something

to properly replace a nut it requires tools and the ability to shape the nut. You start over sized in all dimensions and fit it to the instrument. Every instrument is different. Anyone who says they have an exact replacement nut has no clue. No respectable repair person stocks anything but blanks that they shape to fit. The method depends on the material but sand paper is the best start to get the width correct so it fits in the slot. Then nut files or some file that will create small slots or even a thin razor saw. many things about nut making on the forum if you can find it.

There are two types of guns. Ones dedicated to Air driven turbine units, they come as a package, or Seperately purchased guns which connect to an compressor. They are not interchangable.

I didnt know violins used frets?

Seems like if the label says wood glue it's appropriate for the task, right. I mean I have tried almost every glue ever made and they certainly do hold two pieces of wood together. But we are not carpeters we are luthiers. It does require a bit of thought about what products we use and how they affect the results of our hard work. In this case it is the interaction with finishing products we use not the ability to hold two pieces of wood together, any wood glue can do that. I feel like I am beeting a dead horse here. Right SouthPa. I tried to get onto the Gorilla glue web site today and its a sticky mess.I guess they cant keep the server together..... Here is what I found in an amazon ad. Gorilla Wood Glue bonds stronger, faster for wood to wood applications. It is specifically formulated for a variety of wood surfaces, is water resistant and ideal for indoor and outdoor projects. or http://blogs.popularwoodworking.com/editor...la+Glue+Co.aspx That in itself is the answer you seek. No its not appropriate for guitar construction since it is water resistant just like titebond II is. How hard is it to read a label or search online... PVA Type II and III=Bad Type I = good. Elmer's makes an indoor only wood glue called carpenters wood glue. A standard yellow type I PVA glue just like original titebond. They also make another wood glue suitable for outdoor use. Again water resistant or Type II PVA. Here are some shopping clues for you. Indoor use only= good Indoor / outdoor = bad So you now have a better understanding of what you are looking for no matter what the brand. Since these are not food products you will not get the answer directly off the bottle (not that I have looked). Use your brain and its really easy to find a yellow PVA type I glue under different brand names. Type I is usually cheaper as well.

read this http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=42613

Gorilla glue is now many different glues. If it is a yellow glue and it says waterproof or water resistant than stay far away. If it us the polyurethane glue it is even worse. I know titebod and gorilla glue are in the same store isle so why bother with anything else.

Draks reply is most likely remove it and start fresh. That is really the only way to fix it completely. As to why it cracked it was you probably cut that hole before you stained allowing the edge of the grain to dry too fast so it shrunk and was pulled apart when the rest of the top dried. . Maybe your glue was not fully cured either as a large surface should take 2 to 3 tiimes longer to cure fully, titebond needs to dry by moisture evaporation. IMO First its in a good spot so the pot covers some of it up. My suggestion is find a flat sawn piece of maple without figure and use that as a shim. Toss the Titebond II (where have you been reading on this forum that you dont know titebond II is the devil) and buy some original titebond. This will not work with II as it will block the stain. Then glue in a patch. You may need to take a razor blade and make the crack an even V so the new wood fits. Let it dry for an hour or so then sand it flat or use a scraper made from a razor blade (better choice). Dont wait for it to finish drying you need to finsih the job right away. You dont want to fight with cured glue lines if it can be avoided. The real trick is to blend in your stain into the patch. darker in those areas that are dark and light in those areas that are light. Once it looks close dont sand it. A fine artist brush is used to blend and apply the stain. I have repaired worse but without the stain. But one thing is the dark color is a plus as it will hide glue lines. But if you want it perfect then do it again.

+1 I always buy flatsaw boards and glue together two pieces with the graing moving in opposite directions. This counteracts any forces from one side or the other. It does create a center line but I found that an acceptable if not pleasant apperance in the neck.

I want to make this perfectly clear I love a bargain and regularly look through Craig's list for used tools. Other people are willing to buy an older tool and recondition it, something I dont see from most PG members. Try looking at Old Wood Working Machines, OWWM.com another forum I belong to. Honestly most of you guys want everything now and dont, either spend the time to save up for the right tool or look for a better option. This is not a cheap hobby, you need to be both a woodworker and a luthier which requires two sets of tools. Then there are people who will never upgrade what they are using now. As long as you are happy with what you have keep it, I am certainly not telling anyone to buy a new tool they feel is all they need. But if you hate it then there is a reason. the other thing is I love my tools, they are the #1 most important thing in my shop. If that is being a tool snob then I am glad I am one. Again I can think of many operations that require a larger bandsaw in guitar building... If you want to do it all a 14" bandsaw is best as a starter tool. For anyone wanting to make money in this business a 14" saw is too small. Good tools dont make poor builders better, but for those who can it sure does make it easier.

Transtint dyes work fine in shellac. Its called a tinted finish..

If you guys dont like hearing the truth dont post..Its that simple. I dont lie to people by telling tham whatever they do is the greatest, why shoud I congradulate you for making a dumb choice. I have been through literally 4 bandsaws starting with a sears 10 inch. Frankly that at least was close to a usable bandsaw. What you have picked up is a toy and it will be very difficult to do what needs to be done with respect to building a guitar. I am sure it cuts thats about all I will say for your purchase. The minimum size foe anyone interested in a bandsaw for guitar building is 14". Its been mentioned many times. That is if you care to build more than one guitar, and not curse every time you have to use it. The only small bandsaw I ever saw that was worth anything was called an Inca, no longer made, and it had 3 wheels. It was also not a $100 bandsaw. It will be your experiences when you tell the next guy, "I had something like that it didn't work very well". There is lots of information on this forum, unfortunately many people read with deaf eyes.

You can honestly design it any way you want. The factors are string height off the body and as you mentioned the bridge height. So as the bridge gets higher, to compensate for the increased height of the strings angeling the neck backward is preferred. And no has no effect on anything except whether your guitar strings will be at a comfortable height off he body

From the minimal information you have provided we can only guess. Dry fit the neck you may need to add some wood on one side or thr other and remove some wood from the opposite side untill the string comes back in line. Then paint it. You may be able to do this with shims as well. But again without guitar in hand who really knows..

Buffing for light scratches and sanding then buffing for medium deep scratches. For deep scratches learn to refinish or dont scratch your guitar

The difference with any fret material is hardness. Gold evo or stainless is a harder material and will wear slower than nickle silver. Not sure about brass but I will assume its softer than nickel silver. But brass comes in many flavors as does stainless steel. You will not find frets made out of the hardest stainless because it has to be shaped by machine. Honestly I have never seen any machines making fret wire. My assumption is it is drawn into a die using pressure.

This is the finishing zone 30% off discount coupon. This is the same stuff Stumac sells, only its probably fresher and a newer formula. OH and always cheaper than STUMAC. Both the Lacquer and Poly is good stuff. They sell stain as well (not the best price normally) Use Promo Code MX55 to Receive a Full 30% Discount During Final Check Out http://www.targetcoatings.com/shop/

Vinny Honestly I dont even know how that thing runs using ropes and pulleys. The backlash is going to be off the charts. You cant control that backlash even in Mach 3 because the stretch of the string (rope) will never be consistent from one change of direction to the next. The longer the rope the worse the problem will be. Even with a take up roller which is spring loaded it will still stretch. The harder you cut the further it will stretch. Every change of direction will bring a change in physical location for the x axis. The more your system changes direction the further out of position it will go. I have quietly watched your build but this idea is, lets just say over the top. As I have said before precision is what makes the CNC equipment. ON my mill my backlash is .004" on all axis, that is each and every time it changes direction it is a measurable amount that I can control. Most likely it is due to the Stepper connectors as they have a urethane buffer in between the shaft and motor. This is how closely you need to look at what you are doing. An example if I change direction 100 times That's 100 x .004=.4" almost 1/2". I really will not be that bad as it will offset itself on each change of direction. But the principal is the same. Then add in circular motion. you need to be precise or you will have a machine that cant duplicate a single project with accuracy. Have you thought about chains and sprockets. Cheap and readily available..here is a link for you http://www.allelectronics.com/index.php?pa...mp;x=11&y=3

Polyvinyl acetate..PVA..Like titebond original..?????? I thinks you are very confused. 3,000 million times it has been mentioned. Everyone here uses the same stuff and stain almost everything so I would be hard pressed to blame the glue. Looking to blame something so why not the glue.

Since you have never built and acoustic and I am gathering this by your question. The whole idea is silly and frankly would not work for this reason: The bracing adds strenght and allows the top to vibrate, without the bridge and strings pulling it apart. The wood in bracing is straight grain spruce wich follows along the lenght of the brace. To make the top out of a single piece would work mechanically but the grain direction would be all wrong and the top would in fact be weaker than a standard guitar. Ever see a person Karate chop a board in half. It always breaks along the grain. The same reason they dont use plywood. The same principle applys here. If all the grain is in line then it could be broken in half very easily or pulled apart.

Your options are several. First how thick is the HS and not just the how less thick is the HS compared to the tuners. We should start with, " is the HS thick enough". Then with some pictures it many be easier to give you options as different HS designs may need different fixes. More information and pictures please

I have already made cut 2d do things it was not designed to do. It just takes extra steps. Forces you to think as you say beyond the programs limits. As far as a drawing program it has very little value except for the odd hole or two. If I could figure out how to use mastercam that is the way to go as it allows you to control the tool path. lets say you have a block that is 3" square but you only need to take off .25" on only two sides. This program will do that however the tool will move around the whole block rather than work directly on each side that needs the work done. Then you have to modify the drawing to send the bit outside of the work as well. This is not a time saver. I will say I do enjoy the program CUT 2D. It will be great for inlay when I finally pick up a bit small enough to use. The Gecko system and bigger steppers are on there way. Hopefully by friday I will have it up and running again. But it was an expensive fix, and I took the more expensive route as well. Thanks for the help offer mike but I have it all pretty much down at least with the software and hardware. Finally adding that big red estop button..LOL If I can figure out how to turn on the collant pump (hardware 12vdc to Ac relay )then I will be all set.

Not impossible if you want to make your own fret wire. It takes me 10 minutes to radius a board by hand, I dont think that is such a long time.

Sounds like you are learning. Mach does have freeware Lazy cam but honestly it is a dog and 2d only. Most pro shops use a high end program like mastercam x3 or now x4, big bucks and a steep learning curve. Really depends on what you need to do. Most of my stuff is 2d so needing a 3d cam program for me is extra money for no gain. I use a mill not a router. So to recap what was said: 1. you need a design program CAD and there are many. Generaly a program that allows you to save as a DXF fileis best. 2. you need a program that will convert the design into Gcode that will run on the mill controller software called CAM. Each control system uses slightly different Gcode and you need a post processor for that system. 3. You need the controller program to run the motors, sense switches and show the posistion of the bit in the work, MACH3. Until I picked up a simple program like Cut2D i was having some issues with cam. Its a toy but it does what I need it to do. I wish I had more control over what tool paths the program makes but I dont. I work withing the limits of what I got. ON that note I just wanted to let you know I have been very busy with my small mill lately (My CNC project). Mostly adding things like a flood coolant (cools the work and cutter and stops aluminum from sticking to the bit) which uses a pump, and removing a mist coolant system that used air but kicked in my compressor every 10 minutes. That meant building a table that drained back into the pump. The table had to be coated with with epoxy and screens installed made of plexi to keep the splashing contained. I did a great job how ever I would up getting one of my servo connectors wet, wet enough to short out my Xylotex controller board..Ouch.... At least thats what I think I did, but it was 4 years old in my defense. Turns out Xylotex has no post warranty support and shelling out $155 on a now old card was a joke. So I am building a Geckodrive controller system using the new 4 axis g540 board and changing my steppers to a 385oz from the 286oz steppers I got with the Xylotex system. This new board allows 10,000 steps over the Xylotex's 8,000 (a bit smoother)and has built in short circuit protection. Not that I plan on shorting out my board again. It also has a separate break out board that is isolated from the main controller (built in) which will allow me to remove another CandC breakout box I was using for my limit switches and the charge pump connection to Mach3. That is this weeks project. I will most likey sell off all my old parts to pay for this upgrade. I am still saying ouch... So in the mean time I a rebuilding my mill by taking it all apart and cleaning out the ballscrew nuts and making sure it is all reattached and nothing is loose. Its been 4 years so it was about time any way. I have many things to do and need this machine in top shape. Managed to finally add an extra 1/2" of travel to the Y axis as well which involved removing metal from the machine. Unfortunately Its not a big mill so any additional travel in any direction is a plus. Now to fix all the water (coolant) issues I now have...Oh well live and learn.

I will wait until this is further along before I give it a thumbs up or not. I'm not really thrilled about the black spots, but if you are going for the look in the picture then who knows maybe it will work..or not...Keep us posted