The Hub

After several years of fighting with my bandsaw blade jumping off every few inches of cut (it needs a new bearing on the top wheel), I decided to try something bass-ackwards. I put the blade on with the teeth facing the 'wrong' direction. Not only did that solve the problem of the blade jumping off, but it has made the cutting of pickguard material much smoother. Has anyone else experienced this kind of situation? Do you have any other…

I don’t have CNC capabilities so I could not duplicate Dave Slimmer’s version ( https://loothgroup.com/loothprint/bridge-clamping-cauls/). Got a 12x18x1/2 inch HDPE cutting board on Amazon for under $10 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001D3LQVA), drilled a row of 1/2 holes about 5/16” deep with a Forstner, cut the HDPE into 5 sided chunks so I could orient by touch, and free handed the brace grooves on the band saw. The clamp swivel pads are 1…

One of the first things I made with my 3D printer was this small sanding block with a ball handle that fits my palm. I was inspired by the little L-N squirrel tail block plane that my father gave me. I have neuropathy in my fingers, on top of arthritis, and it's uncomfortable for me to hold the little blocks of wood that I used before. I was surprised how well this works, and these two tools are always within arm's reach.

I've been building up my "2 car garage shop" for about 10 years preparing for retirement from health care. This spring I finally quit punching the time clock. Over the same time I've build 13 mandolins and 4 guitars. Now I pretty much have all my tools in place and enough wood stored to build for quite some time. My work benches are built with a heavy door for a top and base cabinets I scavenged from work. Lately I have toyed with the i…

I usually build flat top guitars and usually joint the tops and backs with a Stanley no 5 style of hand plane ( only different brand). I want to build an archtop instrument, and the wood blanks I have are longer than usual and, of course, a lot thicker. What size plane do you use for kind of job? Would it be easier with a longer plane (6 or 7)? Thanks! Jorge

This is a repost from the main feed so it is in the correct forum. The recent F5 CAD modeling video inspired me to take a stab at it. I use Fusion 360 and have already completed a full A5 model that I’m using to prepare a lot of parts for my CNC. The F5 top seems intimidating. I focused on modeling the scroll alone for now. I didn’t pay attention to following a plan, or having perfect dimensions, or getting the curves to look perfect th…

Should a CNC be able to cut a perfect looking circle? I'm trying to make solid wood rosette rings. I made the tool path a profile cut. The top and bottom of both Y positions come out uneven in width than the rest of the ring. I've tried slowing down the feed and plunge rate, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. I have an old second generation Nextwave CNC shark and use Aspire for CAD and CAM. Linear cuts seem to be accurat…

Anyone use a 3D scanner to make models for printing, or CNC? I've noticed a number of inexpensive scanners on the market that appear to be an able to scan with fine detail and accuracy. I've wondered if they could be used to scan a guitar neck, or arch top mandolin plate to then cut on a CNC after tweaking in a CAD program.

I have been adoring my new P1S But last week it started getting clogged or something. It would get a few mm up and then no more extrusion. On these prints I was using old off brand filament. I cleared the clog a few times and it kept happening. I bought some new Bambu filament and tried again today with the nozzle unclogged. And one print finished but doesn’t look so great on top. And the second print didn’t “clog” but it is spaghetti. I…