The Hub

Hi All, I wanted to check in with folks in the industry and ask for some advice. I have been on a building Hiatus for a number of years now (Hand Injury, Medical Issues). Things have gotten much better, and I am fully able and capable of building once again. The 2nd biggest hurdle I have had was a lack of opportunity for shop spaces to build. I now have a viable workspace and full use of my hands once again to build. The problem is that, o…

I am a retired dentist. One saying we had was, “You can’t fix what you can’t see.” And another was, “The day you start working with magnification will be the best and worst day of your practice.” The worst because you will see what you have been missing, and the best because you will never miss it again. So even though I have my Dan E. Model visor loupes, and my retired dental loupes on throughout the day, sometimes, it’s not enough. I pi…

Hey folks! I picked up a neck relief gauge from Doug in one of the earlier batches, maybe the introductory run? Some of the small feet caps that thread onto the moving legs of the tool have cracked, broken, or become worn down. I contacted StewMac about purchasing replacement parts, but they don't sell subparts for the relief gauge and otherwise won't help me. They appear 3D printed, so I was wondering if anyone with the means to print s…

It’s Factory Friday! I’ll be in the shop today from 2–4 PM Eastern for the weekly open office hours. Drop in, hang out, ask questions, talk tools, guitar building, SMF, or whatever you’re working on in your shop. No agenda. No presentation. Just shop time. Join at www.stringsmicrofactory.com/factoryfriday See you this afternoon! ✌️

Hi all. I've just joined the group....I'm pretty certain what I'm asking here has already been covered somewhere but not really sure at the moment how to search chat topics. If so, and it's easier to just point me to an older chat...please do so! I'm in my 50s, been playing guitar for as long as I can remember. I'm a trained wood-worker (amongst other things) and am looking to start a new journey into guitar repairs. At my age I can't a…

The tuner app I’ve used regularly on my smartphone for years has slowly become bloated with useless features, heavy, and totally impractical. I tried a few alternatives, but I didn't really like any of them. Since we are the kind of people who prefer to just build things ourselves when we need them, I decided to built my own tuner: completely free, ad-free, and actually effective. I even threw in some links to my social media. I think I'l…

LOOTHTOOL I've made some purchases on LOOTHTOOL, but it will not let me review. SO, the VL’s Precision Feeler Gauge Set is a rock solid 10 of 10 or five Amazon stars. Nice blades, EXCELLENT tool box, well marked, I'm thrilled!

(for background context, I'm probably in the dozens of fret jobs so far, and no I don't let frets leave my house like this) When I got started getting interested in building guitars, I got the StewMac bundle of fret files/book, which comes with the concave toothed file. Over time, I ended up getting both the Narrow/Medium and Wide/Jumbo files. I don't do it often, but occasionally I do something like shown in the picture, where I'm clearl…