iLuthier

NOTE: Click on the diagrams for a larger version.

LEFT: A diagram of the finished jig.

Here’s a handy tool idea for thicknessing bandings that can then be used for rosettes or for making your own natural wood bindings for guitars and hurdy-gurdies. With this jig you can adjust the depth of cut – or rather the depth of “scrape” – quickly and easily……and all you need to make it is a few pieces of scrap wood, some glue, some screws and an old Stanley number 152 or 153 spokeshave which you can easily buy from a dealer or on eBay for $10 or so.

The base is a block of hardwood (A) about 8″ or so long. You can use a longer piece if you like but it’s not necessary. The bridge piece (B) is basically “U” shaped and can be made from scrap blocks of 1″ maple or oak or whatever you have lying around. It is mounted to the base at a 75-80 degree angle and can be screwed or glued. There is a housing notched in the above diagram for the bridge but you don’t have to do it this way if you don’t want to. It will make the overall jig stronger though.

A round-headed wood screw holds both the blade and the spokeshave cap in place (C). The adjustable thumb nuts and the mounting screws from the spokeshave are secured as shown. Holes can just be drilled directly into the bridge block for the screws and the thread size should be 1.BA but it pays to check first.

One corner of the blade is then ground back slightly so as to allow the un-thicknessed piece of wood easier access. This means that you need to start your feed at an angle and then straighten it up as you pull the wood stringing all the way through. After sharpening the blade to a edge it is then burnished in the same way that you would burnish a normal scraper or scraper plane.

RIGHT: Showing the ground-back spokeshave blade from the front of the jig.

To use the jig just feed your raw banding material from the back and at an angle as mentioned. To avoid an uneven edge try to thickness your piece from both ends of it until it is the required thickness.

As many of you might realize it’s much easier make the banding to the right thickness than trying to make the groove to fit your existing material. This way you cut your groove first, then thickness the banding to fit it.

NOTE: The above diagrams have been sourced from the book “Making Woodworking Aids & Devices” by Robert Wearing.

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First make a plywood base for your router. It’s easy to do this by using the router itself with a trammel or circle cutting guide (if you haven’t made one of these already I strongly recommend you do as they’re very helpful things to have). I usually just use 3/4″ plywood for bases as it’s stable and stiff enough for most uses.

Carefully mark out and drill the screw holes so that you can mount your plywood disk to your router base. Don’t worry about the center hole for the bit right now as you can easily put a router bit in the collet and then plunge rout the hole once the plywood base has been mounted to the router. If you don’t have a bit large enough for the collet to clear you can always drill it out to the right diameter after making a smaller “pilot” hole.

To use the jig, attach the guitar soundboard to a plywood or chipboard base. Drill a hole through the center of where you want the rosette to be on your soundboard and into the plywood/chipboard base. Make sure the hole is the same size as the pin you will use to guide your router jig. I use 1/4″ brass or steel rod and this works well.

Measure out the radius of the rosette you wish to use, allowing for the diameter of the router bit as well. Use this calculation to measure the distance out from the cutter on your new plywood router base. Unscrew the base from the router and drill a hole to fit the pin using a drill press for accuracy. Screw the plywood base back onto the router once you’ve done this.

Now insert the pin through the soundboard and into the backing jig. Position your router over the pin and make sure it slots into your newly drilled hole in the router base. Set the depth of plunge to cover the thickness of the rosette and then start the router up. Make sure though that you make your initial plunge cut where the fingerboard will cover the rosette. The reason for this is that there’s usually a little “kink” when you first plunge the router down so it’s better to have this hidden rather than fill it up afterwards. The width of your rosette is determined by the width of the router cutter you’re using so take care to make accurate calculations on the radius or diameter of your rosette.

Once you’ve made the rebate for your rosette you can now reposition the router – by drilling another hole in the base – to cut your sound hole out. You might want to use a smaller 1/4″ or 1/2″ router bit for this though.

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