Lutherie Tips
~~~ Thoughts on making and repairing fretted musical instruments ~~~
Copyright © 1999 Howard Coleman (text, images and software).
I intend adding to this section. For now, here are a few useful ideas to get things started.
Epoxy Gluing Tips
Mix it on an unwanted CD. AOL CDs work fine and are in plentiful supply.
Spring clamps work well with epoxy. As the glue squeezes out slowly the spring takes up the slack and keeps the joint tight.
Use nylon fabric for wiping away excess glue. Paper tissues or cotton will put fibres (lint) onto the surface that are hard to remove.
I avoid epoxy mixed with ebony dust for gluing inlays into fingerboards as I have found that, with time, it swells slightly, probably due to using lemon oil to clean the fingerboard. It is better either to mix epoxy with a purpose made pigment or try cyanoacrylate (Superglue). Someone out there in cyberspace (mentioning no names) is telling people to fill gaps with plastic wood mixed with shoe polish. Don’t!
I have found a No 62 Skarsten scraper (Skarsten Mfg. Co. Ltd., London) to be much better than traditional cabinet scrapers for fast removal of wood etc. It can be sharpened in about 30 seconds using only a vice and a file and takes off shavings very easily without blistering the fingers. I have burnt my thumbs using a cabinet scraper too enthusiastically! A bit of advice – when sharpening keep your left hand on the end of the file to give more control and to prevent injuring yourself on the scraper blade. Skarsten scrapers have been available in the UK for at least 10 years yet I have never seen any mention of them by luthiers for some reason.
Have you tried using Japanese pull-saws like the dozuki and ryobi? They are more efficient than their Western equivalents by virtue of having very thin blades and very sophisticated teeth. I recently bought a 15 tpi dozuki. Using it takes a bit of re-learning as you have to get the angle right (about 0 -10º) and remember not to press down. In the drawing of its teeth below you can see what I mean by "sophisticated". This traditional Japanese tooth design now seems to have been copied by a western manufacturer of conventional handsaws. They have the teeth facing the opposite way though, cutting on the push stroke, which means that the blades are much thicker than their Japanese equivalents. The direction of the cutting stroke in the drawing is from right to left. Comments invited... Howard<AT SIGN>acousticnotes.org.uk
Below is a scan of three of my favourite tools: Skarsten scraper, 1/8" plough plane blade in a handle and a home-made clamp. I have eight of these clamps. They are quick to make and very good for clamping backs on as they are light in weight and the jaws can be angled slightly for sloping surfaces. You can open and close them quickly by turning both handles at once in a bike-pedalling action. I have drawn a plan on 5mm squared paper to show the construction.
Last revised: June 24, 2007.
