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 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 June 24, 2019May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips Grading and Resawing Lutherie Wood Resawing Lutherie Wood by Bruce Creps previously published in American Lutherie #91, 2007 See also, “Sharpening the Stellite Teeth on the 3" Hitachi Blade” by Bruce Creps “Grading and Curing Lumber” by Bruce Creps Harvesting, milling, and processing tonewood can be a wasteful business. Much of the wood used by luthiers comes from large, older trees, elders worthy of respect. As someone fortunate enough to work with these rare, high-grade woods, one of my top goals is to minimize waste by processing this valuable resource efficiently. This article concerns the Hitachi CB75F resaw, though much of what follows is general enough to be applicable to other resaws. Luthiers who buy resawn sets might glean information about how their wood is processed and what to request or avoid when ordering. A note on nomenclature: A resaw is an upright or horizontal bandsaw set up to make uniform rip cuts. The front of the saw is where you start feeding a cut. The face of a board is its wide, longitudinal surface; the edge is its narrow longitudinal surface; the end is its crosscut surface. The resaw blade is made up of its band and its teeth (terms not necessarily interchangeable). I refer to vertical-grain wood in place of quartersawn wood to avoid confusion, since a sawyer can get vertical-grain cuts without quartering a log. 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 16, 2010June 9, 2025 by Dale Phillips In Memoriam: Ray Tunquist In Memoriam: Ray Tunquist August 25, 1917 – November 7, 2010 by Tom Bednark Originally published in American Lutherie #130, 2017 A man of great importance to the art of guitar making passed away six years ago at the age of ninety-three. Raymond Elwood Tunquist of New York was a sawyer of excellence, a WWII pilot, and wonderful gentleman. Perfection of cut was his mission. For over fifty years he cut guitar-making materials of Brazilian and Indian rosewood, mahogany, and ebony for C.F. Martin, Fender, Gibson, and other makers. If you have a Martin from the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s, or ’70s, chances are Ray and his 72"-diameter bulbous-back veneer saw cut the wood. The mill yard often had stacks of rosewood and mahogany logs of great size and quality waiting to be cut by the master of sawyers. Doll Lumber and Veneer was started by Ray’s father-in-law. Mr. Doll was a German immigrant who lived in Brooklyn, New York, with his family. He started the saw mill in Brooklyn in the 1920s. Exotic wood logs came into the USA from all around the world and were cut by Mr. Doll into lumber and veneers. Ray married into the family and learned his craft in the late 1930s. Clients were log buyers and importers and Doll was known for quality of cut and better-than-average yield. J.H. Montheath, Albert Constantine, and Martin Guitar were on the client list. Two saws were used in the mill: a 60" bandsaw and the 72" circular saw, each using a carriage-and-rail system to carry the logs to be cut. The big saw had sixteen fine-tooth blade sections attached to the back so that the face was dead flat. It was powered by a 150 hp diesel engine and could cut 1/16" × 16" veneers 12' long. Ray Tunquist prepares to make a first cut. All photos by Tom Bednark. Jesse, a workman at the Doll Lumber and Veneer Company mill, rolls in a small Brazilian rosewood log. James Boyce inspects the bulbous-back veneer saw. Jim was one of the GAL’s earliest members and one of our first advertisers. He passed away in September 2015. Ray had a pilot’s license, and when he was called to service in 1942 he became a flying instructor at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennet field for about eighteen months. Then in 1944 he was assigned to transport aircraft manufactured on the East Coast to the west. He was qualified to fly Hellcats, Bearcats, Corsairs, and other aircraft. Altogether his service lasted over four years. Back to work at the mill, Ray cut thousands of logs of all species: teak, mahoganies, rosewoods, zebrawood, ebony, lignum vitae, oaks, pines, poplar, and more. The quartersawn white oak in the Frank Lloyd Wright Room at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art was cut and dried by Ray. Brazilian rosewood logs were purchased by the mill to be resawn and sold to Martin and other guitar makers. The bulbous-back veneer saw would produce flitches of veneers 5/32" thick, 5"–11" wide and 8'–10' long. Those swirl patterns you see inside old Martins tell you it came off the big circular saw. In the late 1940s the mill was moved to upstate New York for more mill space and a rural lifestyle. A kiln was also built to dry the lumber. After the 1966 Brazilian log embargo, Indian rosewood was processed. Most Indian logs were 8'–10' long and were 30" or more in diameter, ranging up to about 46". The largest log cut at Doll that I saw was mahogany, 40' long by 64" diameter. We cut the log into 10' lengths, scored the center of one end with a chainsaw, and spilt it using a giant forklift. Thousands of quartered sets came out of this log. I still have a small flitch of twenty or so sheets, 14" wide and 10' long. The sawn guitar wood was stickered for air drying. When it was dry it was restacked into flitches and shipped. The Doll and Tunquist families were most likely the only families in the country to heat their homes with rosewood and other exotic wood waste! They were thrifty old timers. Ray was a great, wonderful, very smart man who worked at the mill until the age of ninety-one. He was short on words and opinion, but a true craftsman and teacher. May Ray rest in peace and may the music produced by his wood-cutting efforts sound sweetly to all.
Posted on January 11, 2010May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Shoptalk 5 by Todd Sams, Don MacRostie, Dan Erlewine Review: Shoptalk 5 by Todd Sams, Don MacRostie, Dan Erlewine Reviewed by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #59, 1999 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Five, 2008 Video: Shoptalk 5 Todd Sams, Don MacRostie, Dan Erlewine Stewart-MacDonald At the ’99 Merlefest in North Carolina I had the good fortune to find myself manning a booth next to Stew-Mac. It was a pleasure to meet Todd Sams and get to know Jay Hostetler better. It was also astonishing to hear so many self-proclaimed luthiers confess that they had never heard of Stewart-MacDonald. Where do these luthiers buy their tools? My guess is that they aren’t buying them at all, that what they can’t find at Ace Hardware or cobble together in the shop they are doing without; that they don’t even know about the tools that could make their work better and their lives easier. 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.
