MIMF

Great idea! Simplicity at its best!

When I prepared to install the Waverly tuners in my latest uke build , I found that the 4 pre-drilled headstock holes of the manufactured neck are 9.8 mm while the Waverly collars are 9 mm. I have considered plugging and re-drilling, gluing tiney splines around the hole sides or finding collars that...

I built a jig for placing the bridge. I got it set up with a preliminary compensation, clamped everything down and strung up the number one and four strings and this setup tuned correctly when plucked open and harmonic. The action on this set up is a bit high and I’m hoping that doesn’t affect how i...

Is there some kind of jig I can build? Or is there some way to get the compensation right in real time on the uke before gluing bridge down? I am using D’Addario Nyltech strings THANKS! I radius the back of my guitars and carefully clamp the finished guitar onto the radiused form on either side on ...

I need to understand where to place the bridge on the Tenor Uke I am finishing. On past builds, I just located the bridge by making a pattern on the plans out of tracing paper and using that to determine where the bridge goes. I think I understand that, for starters, the saddle has to be 2 X the dis...

This is my fifth build. I have had minor problems with the finish on all of them, but this one has me on the ropes. I tried wipe-on poly, which was not satisfactory and I stripped the soundboard. I then went to a woodcraft specialty store and was advised to apply a vinyl sanding sealer first. I test...

I have a partially failed titebond III glue joint. The easiest way I can think of to re-glue this joint is to spread glue under the failed area, apply pressure and let it dry. Can you re-glue a titebond joint in this manner and have it hold?

Why am I a frustrated Luthier wanna-be? Every stringed instrument project has disappointments and it is frustrating. I spend time on every build covering up mistakes and I can always see them when the build is done. Anyway, this guitar with the strange saddle and warped soundboard is now done. I man...

I adapted the bridge by working the footprint. This is just the opposite of what was suggested here. Anyway, that's what I did and I got the bridge more or less fitted. Today, I just decided to glue the bridge on and am including a picture here. I used HHG as suggested. Time will tell how successful...

Beate writes: "Back to the top: if You try to egalize that deformation on the top You will cut through the outer laminate layer" The bridge footprint is somewhat egalized after I sanded down to bare wood. I can put the bridge in place and it fits pretty well. Think I'll glue it down with H...

I'm in the process of shimming the bridge so I can install a better saddle. I've tried to flatten the soundboard, especially in the area occupied by the bridge. When I place a 12" straight edge across the soundboard, spanning the area through the location where the bridge will be attached, I ca...

whoops! after feeling around inside, I found a bridge plate.

this guitar doesn't have a bridge plate. I'll put one in.

As a favor, I've taken on the repair of a laminated guitar with a loose bridge. The Guitar is a "Carlos" model 240 made in Korea and besides having a problem with the top, the saddle is different and I need some help figuring it out. First question: how to I get the soundboard flattened ou...

Last night, I tried my #62 with a 30-degree grind on my plane iron. No joy. I ground this blade to the 30-degree angle using a high speed grinder and finished up with japanese water stones. It was very sharp. I decided to try out my bailey # 4 1/2 with a 30-degree blade. I tried regrinding the 25-de...

I'm in trouble, again. I am trying to thin a Western Red Cedar Uke soundboard with my Stanley #62 plane and I'm getting tearout. The plane iron is sharpened to 25-degrees and I've sharpened another iron to 30-degrees thinking that this might eliminate the tear-out. I haven't yet used this 30, becaus...

No Joy today. I built a new table for the drill press out of melamine. This table is larger than the one I built yesterday and I'm pretty sure the material is perfectly flat. However, when I planed a piece of scrap, the planer left grooves. So I'm thinking there's something wrong with the drill pres...

It's been a long time since I gave mine away to an MIMF member. But I wonder if the scoring is caused by one or more cutters that are ground to a different thickness and/or diameter. I wonder if they should be ground on the bottom surface, and not in the gullet. The instructions that came with the ...

What I thought were burn marks on the cutters were just deposits and polished out. I'll try sharpening again-all the way into the gullets.

Wagner cutter.jpg Wagner Sharpening jig.JPG Wagner cutting disk.JPG I sharpened my Wagner Safety Planer blades for the first time, but avoided grinding all the way into the gullet because the grinding wheel doesn't fit the gullets (see picture), It seems to me that when sharpening the cutters, they...