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Finally, a good day.
- Thread starter BassUrges
- Start date
Yeah, but given that finding 4 hours to even do this much was hard, I was hoping to avoid a meta-project building a tool for the project-project. I have a couple of beat-up old lathes that I bought in maybe 2015 that I was totally going build into a great CNC lathe! Also a computer to control it, a treadmill motor and speed control, and stepper motor drivers. But no progress since 2016.
Still, a planing jig is increasingly looking like the only way. I’m not paying $500 for the Woodpecker fixture and I can’t find one to borrow. I’ve already designed an arc trac in my head to make the body aerodyne-like.
Still, a planing jig is increasingly looking like the only way. I’m not paying $500 for the Woodpecker fixture and I can’t find one to borrow. I’ve already designed an arc trac in my head to make the body aerodyne-like.
Scroll through that thread - there are a lot of complicated jigs, but some simple ones too. Maybe look on youtube for "router slab thicknessing" or similar terms. A router planing fixture for thicknessing a slab can be as simple asa piece of plywood or mdf for a sled, two rails for the sled to ride on, and a way to hold the slab still. The only real trick is the rails have to be stable and true, and the slab has to be held in a consistent orientation to the rails (it can't move around or flex). Some people are using metal bar stock for the rails. Or just slice them from 3/4 mdf. You could be up and running in half an hour!
Yup... 
There's a lot of "take 3 hours to make a jig or fixture to complete a 10 minute router operation" in modern luthiery. 
It may sound crazy, but those 3 hours are nothing compared to the 14+ that would have been spent carving it by hand. 
There's a lot of "take 3 hours to make a jig or fixture to complete a 10 minute router operation" in modern luthiery. It may sound crazy, but those 3 hours are nothing compared to the 14+ that would have been spent carving it by hand. If only I planned to build dozens of basses and guitars. (My basement is actually full of tools I've used to build all sorts of things, but I build one exactly how I want it, and then I don't build any more because I have one exactly how I want it...)
