Posted on April 8, 2021May 22, 2025 by Dale Phillips Hand Sander Dust Collection Hand Sander Dust Collection by John Calkin Published online by Guild of American Luthiers, April 2021 Shop dust is a pervasive enemy that can cause damage to the lungs and sinuses. One of the silliest inventions ever is the dust collection bag that is hung on many hand sanders in an attempt to convince woodworkers that the manufacturers care about our health. They don't work, they might even blow off of the machine causing a dust cloud of their own, and the irregular port sizes make it difficult to improvise a vacuum hookup. I broke down and bought a new DeWalt DWE6421 sander along with the DWV9000 hose-to-sander adaptor and a 20' length of 2" hose, all for about $110 from Amazon. The long hose is to keep me as far away from the noisy shop vac as possible, though I still wear earmuffs while working. The rig works very well, much better than even the powerful down-draft table I used at Huss & Dalton Guitars. It's not perfect, though, and a particle mask should still be worn for safety. All photos by John Calkin Remember that the filter in the shop vac will clog up and need cleaning long before the collection tub is full. As the photo illustrates, it is way too easy to put off cleaning it for too long. I intend to be more diligent. ◆
Posted on April 7, 2021May 21, 2025 by Dale Phillips Skin Heading Ethnic Drums, Etc. Skin Heading Ethnic Drums, Etc. by Topher Gayle Originally published in American Lutherie #2, 1985 Derbeckis (A.K.A. dumbegs or Arabic tabla) are medium-sized (10" to 18") hand drums used most frequently in Middle-Eastern folk and Belly-Dance music, and also heard in jazz idioms. Two main types of the drum exist: metal bodied drums, usually Turkish, utilizing a mechanical drumhead tensioner much like that on bongos or conga (which drummers frequently want to have replaced by banjo tensioners); and the clay-bodied drums which come in a large variety of sizes and shapes. Wood-bodied drums also exist and may usually be treated as clay (for the most part). Tim Olsen asked if various skin-headed stringed instruments might be treated by this device. I have not done so myself, but I don’t see any serious complications. A radiator hose clamp chain can be used to fix the skin to the side of the body if the body side joins the top at a right angle. I used this technique on a small wooden drum with good results. Blocks were required to raise the body up to the top frame hex, since the drum was so short. The skin was brought up to tension as described below, and then the radiator clamps attached. The assembly was let dry just as is usually done. 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 December 27, 2020May 21, 2025 by Dale Phillips One Way to Make Kerfed Lining One Way to Make Kerfed Lining by Richard Ennis Originally published in American Lutherie #2, 1985 In general, linings exist in three or four types, all of which are related to one another. There is the solid type which must be bent before use; individual blocks, which might be thought of as the solid type of lining cut up to a more manageable size; laminated linings, another variation of the solid type; and kerfed linings. The kerfed lining is perhaps best seen as either a line of individual blocks linked together, or as a solid lining kerfed for flexibility. Here is how I make kerfed linings. It is a method with very little wastage and is efficient for use in a small workshop. When using the approximate dimensions given below it produces a lining that appears as a series of individual blocks linked together on a wooden ribbon. I select my timber for linings by giving first consideration to the working properties. I want to avoid ragged edges from the numerous saw cuts, but look for wood with good gluing capability, that sands well, and that is not too fractious and inclined to split. Willow, alder, and linden are all good candidates, as is tulip tree wood, sometimes marketed as “yellow poplar”. 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 May 4, 2020May 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Free Plate Tuning, Part Two: Violins Free Plate Tuning, Part Two: Violins by Alan Carruth Originally published in American Lutherie #29, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 See also, Free Plate Tuning, Part One: Theory by Alan Carruth Free Plate Tuning, Part Three: Guitars by Alan Carruth Before I get into plate tuning proper I’d like to digress a bit and discuss the rationale behind the process, and a couple of other things I find it useful to keep in mind while I’m working. And I can’t think of a better way to begin than by telling you about one of my more elaborate experiments. Fig. 15 gives the relevant information on my fourth and fifth violins. The idea was to check out the influence of asymmetric back graduations by building a pair of closely-matched fiddles with that as the only variable. The one-piece backs were cut from the same plank of bird’s-eye maple and the tops were cut from a red spruce 4×6 that I took out of the wall of my house when I put in a new chimney. The molds were routed using a template. Archings were checked for height at over two dozen points on each plate and were held to .2MM. Graduation, weight, and frequency data is as shown. The delta f mentioned is the frequency drop obtained when a 5G weight was stuck to the plate in an active area of the given mode. Fittings and so on were matched as closely as possible, and the two bridges were cut back to back from the same piece of maple. 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 March 2, 2020May 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Free Plate Tuning, Part Three: Guitars Free Plate Tuning, Part Three: Guitars by Alan Carruth Originally published in American Lutherie #30, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 See also, Free Plate Tuning, Part One: Theory by Alan Carruth Free Plate Tuning, Part Two: Violins by Alan Carruth The guitar is somewhat simpler acoustically than the violin, and perhaps more limited. As a result it has evolved into a number of more or less specialized forms to suit different musical uses. It is difficult to imagine a guitar that could “do it all” the way a good violin can. Rather, each guitar seems to have a “center,” a sound that is characteristic of it that suits it for a particular style or player. Good guitars do have a wide dynamic and timbral range, but they always retain their characteristic sound. As I see it, a good part of the art in this game is deciding where you want the “center” to be, or, alternatively, how to get the “center” you want out of a given shape or set of wood. And then you want to have a broad dynamic and expressive range, good balance, and clarity or resolution; the ability to distinguish things like inner lines. No amount of acoustic science is going to tell you what priority to put on the different characteristics of the sound, nor whether you have succeeded in the end. But if you know what you’re doing, an oscillator and a jar of glitter can help you get the sound you want. One of the main simplifying factors between the guitar and the violin is the lack of a soundpost in the guitar. This allows the top and the back to be more independent; in acoustic terms they are not so tightly coupled and can act out of phase. 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.
