Posted on January 10, 2010February 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Questions: Superglue Finish Interaction Questions: Superglue Finish Interaction by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #61, 2000 John Calkin of Greenville, Virginia responds to Milan Sabljic’s question regarding wenge and Willy Ware’s questions regarding superglue’s interaction with finishes. Wenge is hard, yet very brittle. Splinters are a constant threat. There’s also a striking difference in hardness between the wood from different seasons. I recently made a copy of a Gibson L-00 with wenge sides that were sort of quartered and a back that was flatsawn. Keeping the back free of ripples was a nasty task involving a lot of block sanding. It’s almost as bad as softwood in this respect. Wenge is also one of those surprise woods that attack some people. The man who gave me my first piece of wenge said it gave him an intense headache when he resawed it. The exact same board had no affect on me. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 10, 2010February 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Questions: Zero Fret Advantage Questions: Zero Fret Advantage by Steve Klein Originally published in American Lutherie #61, 2000 Greg Pacetti of Fairbanks, Alaska asks: Can you tell what the advantage is in having a zero fret at the top like on the Klein and Selmer guitars instead of a regular nut? Steve Klein of Sonoma, California responds: I feel the zero fret is the only way to have an open string and fretted string sound the same. I’ve found two other things I like about this arrangement: 1. By using a slightly higher fretwire for my zero fret, I can easily set the string height over the first fret for all the strings at once by filing the top of the zero fret down; 2. This also affects intonation by moving the string termination point forward. There are other articles that explain in more detail the reasons one might want to do that.
Posted on January 10, 2010February 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Letter: Bosch Laminate Trimmer and Cheap Mando Family Letter: Bosch Laminate Trimmer and Cheap Mando Family by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #26, 1991 Concerning Bill Colgan, Jr.’s letter and the Dremel tool: it has always been a wimpy little router, but the new one really is a dog. My new one has the same problem as Bill’s. In the middle of cutting a saddle slot the chuck began whipping around, cutting a jagged slot. Adjusting the cut to almost nothing didn’t help. Dremel has always been very good about fixing or replacing their Moto-Tools (you have to have at least two, so that you can keep working while the broken/burned-up one is in transit), but this looked like a design flaw. I splurged on a Bosch 1608L laminate trimmer, and I couldn’t be happier. The Bosch is what all Moto-Tools want to be when they grow up. Woodworker’s Supply of New Mexico (among others) sells a kit of carbide bits, 1/16", 3/16", and 1/8" cutters on a 1/8" shaft. A brass collet adaptor for 1/4" collets comes with the kit, and once you have the adaptor you can use most of your Dremel bits. You have to make all new jigs, but it’s worth it. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 10, 2010February 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Questions: Fret Shape and Tonality Questions: Fret Shape and Tonality by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #76, 2003 R.M. Mottola of Newton, MA answers Earles L. Mc Caul’s question regarding the effects of guitar fret shape upon intonation and tonality. The short answer is no effects whatsoever. There is a good (but highly technical) article on this subject by Steve Newberry in The Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Two, p. 106, “Fret Crown Radius: A Cause of Pitch Error?”
Posted on January 2, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Sharpening the Stellite Teeth on the 3″ Hitachi Blade Sharpening the Stellite Teeth on the 3" Hitachi Blade by Bruce Creps previously published in American Lutherie #91, 2007 See also, “Resawing Lutherie Wood” by Bruce Creps “Grading and Curing Lumber” by Bruce Creps With a shop-made jig you can sharpen your blade in place in less time than it takes to remove and reinstall it. You save money, conserve steel, and don’t need to fuss with fine-tuning a newly installed blade. I sharpen blades ten times, making my “cost per blade” under $13. I discard the blade after that because I have found cracks on a few blades after 12–15 sharpenings, and because the Stellite teeth taper in width so you lose set when you sharpen the teeth down to nubs. With insufficient set a band can rub the stock and heat up or wander. The blade will generally stay sharp for eight hours of production sawing of dry hardwood. I don’t go much beyond eight hours because a less-than-sharp blade may heat up and work harden the Stellite tips. The all-Stellite blade has a cutting (rake) angle of 22°, a sharpness angle of 50°, and a back (clearance) angle of 18°. For my purposes this blade is just right. I once used an alternate-tooth Stellite blade and got better performance when I increased its cutting angle from 16° to 22°. Otherwise I have not experimented with tooth geometry. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
