iLuthier

The Luthier’s Friend is an ingeniously designed, drill press mounted, thickness sander which has been designed to meet the demands of anyone building small scale projects. It can thickness and pattern sand wood up to 2-3/4″ tall, and is suitable for all crafts that require wooden parts carefully thicknessed or profile sanded to exacting tolerances.

The Luthier’s Friend attaches to your drill press table quickly and easily and can help save you valuable production time. It also comes with a dust extraction bracket to help save clean up time (and not to mention your lungs).

Luthiers, model makers, instrument makers , woodworkers, boat builders , home shop owners , architectural modelers, and anyone working on a small scale will find it useful. With the Luthier’s Friend it is possible to thickness wood down to precisely 0.010″, make duplicate parts using templates, and shape complex parts freehand. It sets up easily on the drill press and hangs on a nail when you are not using it. The dust collection is extremely efficient as well.

The Luthier’s Friend is relatively inexpensive and costs $159. Shipping is an additional $8.75, though shipping to Alaska, Hawaii, and Canada is extra. There is also Small Parts Vise that is available for $18. Shipping on this is $8.75.

For more information be sure to check out the Luthier’s Friend website at www.luthiersfriend.com.

Gibson Epiphone EB-3 Elite elitist Bass Guitar SG EBO Japan USA US $610.00 (15 Bids) Auction Ends: Monday Feb-06-2012 16:25:21 PST   | Watch this Item

Gibson logo. Golden vinyl sticker decal for your bass, guitar project or car US $10.50 (2 Bids) Auction Ends: Monday Feb-06-2012 16:48:14 PST   | Watch this Item

Vintage 1959-61 Gibson Single Ply Black Pickguard EB-0 Single Pickup Bass Guitar US $125.00 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Monday Feb-06-2012 16:52:00 PST   | Watch this Item

Hipshot SuperTone Gibson 3-Point Bass Bridge US $45.99 (1 Bid) Auction Ends: Monday Feb-06-2012 17:00:42 PST   | Watch this Item

SG Bass Gibson Strings EBO Badass Bridge Grover Tuners CTS Pots 1978 Dimarzio US $325.00 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Monday Feb-06-2012 18:39:08 PST   | Watch this Item

70's Gibson Ripper Bass Guitar US $400.00 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Monday Feb-06-2012 19:00:09 PST   | Watch this Item

Early Pre Gibson Tobias Bass Neck Thru Thin Neck Snowflake Inlays Player Bass US $999.95 (1 Bid) Auction Ends: Monday Feb-06-2012 19:00:58 PST   | Watch this Item

Gibson The Ripper Bass Guitar, Fretless, Black, Original Case US $1,250.00 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Monday Feb-06-2012 20:11:48 PST   | Watch this Item

We’ve added another couple of dozen smaller planes to the Plane Gallery. Not all of them are strictly for luthier work but they are all small and droolworthy nonetheless. Wherever possible we’ve tried to include the makers names with the planes but this can often be difficult to determine – especially with many of the older, user-made planes. If anyone out there knows who made what, and when, just drop us a line through our contact page. Likewise if you have some pictures of your own planes – or any tools for that matter – then drop us a line at iLuthier.com.

Anyway, for the time being if you want to check out the new arrivals, just click here and go to the gallery page.

Some time in the new year we will do a tutorial on making small planes – possibly even a set of four or five violin makers planes – for iLuthier visitors. What we might then do after that is sell them on eBay or give them away to some lucky iLuthier patron through some sort of competition or what have you. That’s if we can think of something to base a competition around. Anyway, we’ll cross that bridge if and when we come to it though.

Come to think of it we might even do a couple of different tutorials on plane making, just to illustrate the different methods used to create these very useful tools.

Stay tuned for that.

ANTIQUE MINIATURE VIOLIN MAKERS PLANE US $134.66 Auction Ends: Friday Feb-10-2012 17:53:42 PST   | Watch this Item

Beautiful Brass And Rosewood Violin Maker's Plane US $69.00 Auction Ends: Sunday Feb-12-2012 7:24:35 PST   | Watch this Item

Beautiful Brass And Rosewood Violin Maker's Plane US $49.00 Auction Ends: Sunday Feb-12-2012 7:24:35 PST   | Watch this Item

Vtg Antique L&IJ WHITE Miniature Luthiers Violin Makers Plane Nice Old Mini Tool US $9.99 (1 Bid) Auction Ends: Sunday Feb-12-2012 17:20:50 PST   | Watch this Item

SMALL BRASS WOOD SCRAPER PLANE FOR LUTHIER VIOLIN MAKER US $0.99 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Monday Feb-13-2012 12:42:57 PST   | Watch this Item

Gorgeous Brass & Rosewood Large Violin Maker's Plane US $210.00 Auction Ends: Friday Feb-24-2012 18:34:33 PST   | Watch this Item

Gorgeous Brass & Rosewood Large Violin Maker's Plane US $210.00 Auction Ends: Friday Feb-24-2012 18:34:34 PST   | Watch this Item

VIOLIN MAKER LUTHIER FINGER PLANE,FLAT SOLE, 5mm BLADE, FINE SCREW CAP MODEL US $32.90 Auction Ends: Monday Feb-27-2012 7:41:43 PST   | Watch this Item

This is a simple but very effective tool to make. It might not look that flash and it’s certainly not gonna win any prizes for its beauty, but it’s very cheap to make and sure as heck works well.

To make it you will need four to six good quality hacksaw blades. Make sure they’re the flexible type and not too brittle (that’s why you need good quality blades and not those cheap Chinese ones).

Start by laying the first one on its side and then stack the rest of them on top, but alternating the direction of their teeth. This ensures that the tool will cut effectively in both directions.

Tape the ends of the stack with masking tape or, even better, duct tape if you have some of that lying around (and why wouldn’t you? It’s very handy stuff). Make sure you use enough tape so that your hands won’t be cut up by the teeth of the blades.

Once the ends are securely taped up you can try your brand new – and very low tech – tool out

To use your newly made flexible rasp, lightly flex it with your thumbs and scrape away at the wood using either a pushing or pulling motion. I find it’s much easier to use on the pull stroke rather than the push stroke, but each to their own. You’ll find that that this tool is especially good at cleaning up backs and bellies of violins and arch-tops prior to using more conventional scrapers.

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Classical Guitar Making - Bogdanovich US $58.16 Auction Ends: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 18:31:13 PST   | Watch this Item

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Step-by-Step Guitar Making - Willis US $47.39 Auction Ends: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 18:31:13 PST   | Watch this Item

Guitarmaking - Cumpiano & Natelson US $65.72 Auction Ends: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 18:31:13 PST   | Watch this Item

Guitar Soft Ice Cube Cubes Making Mold Molds + Stirrer Stick Party Soda Drinks US $5.33 Auction Ends: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 21:37:06 PST   | Watch this Item

Fret dressing. You either love it or you hate it, but with the right tools you can fly through it in no time flat.

While some people like to have an all-purpose file for initial fret dressing I prefer to have a couple of single purpose ones – one for dressing the edges of the frets at 90 degrees and the other for beveling. I just find it easier, personally, to use two separate tools rather than one. The tools are slightly lighter than a combined one and I find they’re more comfortable in the hand and easier to use. Sure, you also have to use two separate files instead of one, but files are pretty cheap and they last twice as long than if you used the one file in your dressing tool.

The 90 degree fret file is easy enough to make – as are most of the tools we’ll feature here, actually. Basically you just need to fix a file at right angles to a block of wood. To do this I use a simple back “fence” so that the file will stay in line, then I just screw another smaller piece of wood to the fence which bears down on the surface of the file (see pic), clamping it down tightly. You don’t really need a lot of pressure but you do need to make sure that the file doesn’t move. If you find that it does move then all you need to do is screw another one, or perhaps two more, bits of wood to the fence.

I should add that it’s probably safer if you cut the tang of your file off and smooth everything over with an angle grinder. I haven’t done that with the file used in these pictures but I should. Having said that though I’ve not had an accident involving file tangs ever. Still, there’s always a first time!

It’s also important to make sure that you position the back fence so that the edge of the file overhangs the edge of your wood block – but not too much as it may mar the surface of the body or the the headstock as you dress your frets. About a 3/16″ to 1/4″ overhang is probably enough.

Similarly the bevel dressing tool is made in much the same way, with the exception being that you need to cut and plane one edge at around 35 degrees to get your angle. You can do this by hand or, if you’re fortunate enough to have one, on a saw bench with a tilting arbor. Once you’ve done that you make your back fence and hold-down pieces in the same manner.

LEFT: Dual purpose fret dressing tool made by Brian Calvert of the ever fabulous “Project Guitar” website, which you can find in our featured links section. This one has been made by cutting the block to shape, then cutting a groove in middle, where the two surfaces meet, and hammering a file into the slot.

To finish off you can glue some soft leather or felt cloth to the surface of your fret dressing tools where the tool rides across the top of the frets. I personally don’t bother though as any “wear” or scratching of the frets is virtually non existent. Not enough for me to worry about anyway. What I do use though is a piece of softer wood – usually mahogany – glued to the underside of the wood block.

So there you have it! A fret dressing tool – or tools – for a few dollars or so!

Fender Pre-Cut 7.25" Radius Vintage Fret Wire 24 Pcs US $14.42 Auction Ends: Monday Feb-06-2012 20:25:10 PST   | Watch this Item

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Vintage NOS Gibson Mandolin Fret Wire - Guitar Parts US $35.00 Auction Ends: Monday Feb-06-2012 21:27:38 PST   | Watch this Item

Fender Pre-Cut 9.5" Radius Standard Fret Wire 24 pieces US $12.63 Auction Ends: Monday Feb-06-2012 22:04:04 PST   | Watch this Item

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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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