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…

For folks familiar with the Gore / Gilet books and the top thickness calculations in section 4.5. I made a web based calculator to do the nasty spreadsheet math... So this is for once you've weighed and measured your top plates and then found the long, cross and transverse resonances it gives you the target thickness to hit a particular frequency for the long resonance of the plate. Just sharing so folks don't have to do the math for bu…

About: I have created an Add-On for blender that at the moment generates fret positions and makes a fretboard according to several parameters. This makes it extremely easy to get started with modeling a Guitar in blender. If you are interested it please give it a whirl and let me know what you think about it and if you like it, what you don't, what you would like to see etc... If you do like it and would like aid its development please d…

I drew up and printed these F hole plugs for a customer a little while back, felt like showing them off here. The bottom diamond shaped piece has a M4 nut in it, and is super glued to the body of the plug at its two tips. An M4 screw threads into the nut through the counter-sunk hole in the top of the plug. The entire plug drops into the F hole, and then you can tighten the screw slightly to expand the plug so it clamps itself into plac…

Introducing Poseidon’s Horn! Coming in just shy of 18”, this tubular behemoth is the ultimate mess-free humidification device for closing up those pesky top and back cracks prior to repair. It’s dry to the touch and holds 1000ml of water! The days of finessing a Tupperware through a sound hole are over. Cheap and quick to make! Parts list (Supplies to easily make 10 of them) . Water beads - https://a.co/d/5v5Q2da . Braided sleeving - https:…

I completed a partial 3D scan of a Les Pauls top with a goal of making a mated routing template for a p-90. This is my first time working with mesh in Fusion, and I was hoping that the hive mind could point me in the right direction! STL file is below in the comments if you want to play around with the scan! Thanks Ian!

Anyone have a suggestion for a do everything vacuum pump? I'd like something that could laminate sides, brace tops, laminate double tops, etc etc. I know @member@member has a cool cheap one. I'm not sure if that's powerful enough to do all building tasks? If it is, that's cool.

I'm the proud new owner of a "new to me" Fireball Meteor CNC machine. It feels really odd to have a computer in the shop but I guess I need to get used to that. Fortunately for me, I am well versed in CAD, unfortunately not so much on the CAM side of things. My 3 kids are all experts and are steepening the learning curve dramatically, this would be overwhelming if they weren't helping. So far I'm using the Fusion 360 personal use versio…

Didnt know what Section to put this in but I thought it may fit the best here. I would like to get my air brush Set up to start some finish repairs. I was wondering those of you in limited space and just use an air brush what your setups looked like. I have limited extraction points and cant just do it outside. are the model painter desk top extractors enough for small touch up? pictures would be ace. Andy