1000 Dollar Question

[Christopher Perkins]

Ok, I have a budget of only 1000 to purchase all the tools I need toget started with guitar building and i am finishing up my list. Bearing this in mind, and knowing there are others much more experienced than I , I realize that I may be overlooking some things. If given this budget as a beginner, what tools would you recommend....and better yet, what tools couldn't you live without? Keeping in mind I already have a smoothing plane and a block plane....

[Steve Senseney]

Are you talking electric solid body guitars, acoustic guitars, or archtops?

How much space do you have for big or small machines?

Are you in a place where Craigs list has lots of machines listed close to your area?

[Christopher Perkins]

Acoustics to start. I've been alloted a corner of the livingroom for now, and yes, craigslist is an option around here

[Barry Daniels]

Have you looked in the library?

[Bob Hammond]

Ah, it's the Desert Island Tools question only the desert island is a corner of the livingroom.I think that major power tools are not for long consideration, and so we'll assume that you'll buy stock that is milled near to size, or a kit. A kit requires a minimum of tools. But it would be nice to have a tabletop drill press, a 12" tabletop bandsaw, a combo belt/disk sander (and a shopvac)

A sturdy workbench (24" x 36"plywood pref), with work to be held at your elbow height, with storage for tools and part. Plans available in many places.
A parrot-style bench vise would be a good choice, or a standard woodworking vise ($50).
Clamps (bar), as many as possible, at least four ea: 6", 12",18"
Chisels, none greater than ~3/4 or 1" in width
Rasps or files. You can make 'rasps & files' with 12" hardware store square steel bar stock (1/8, 3/16, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2") and PSA sandpaper (4 different grits, one each side). Round 'files' can be made from dowels & pipe.
Japanese style handsaw: e.g Vaughn @ $20 at Lowes. Small Japanese (fret) saw from Harbor Freight @ $10


Learn how to french polish -- compatible with family life and very little equipment needed.

[Eric Baack]

man, I'll have to pick up that harbor freight saw myself!!

[Christopher Perkins]

my workbench is already on its way, its the HF oak workstation with the vice, and hopefully it will be sufficient to start off with. I also realize that some power tools are a necessity, and since my wife is no stranger to this in house equipment (please hold all redneck jokes....shes a professional taxidermist) I will be allowed to have a few necessary power tools in the livingroom

[Nathan Dodd]

But it would be nice to have a tabletop drill press, a 12" tabletop bandsaw, a combo belt/disk sander

Sage advice; these are exactly my bench top power tools. A nice 1/2" router and some surplus budget for the bits you will realise you need as you go along is not so important for acoustics but you'll be surprised how often those machines make a hard job easy, and more importantly a potentially sloppy job neat with the right tempting and jigs (be warned they are powerful, fast and sometimes dangerous tools).

As a trained cabinet maker, I would have to say that no shop would be complete without a good set of chisels, jack plane and block plane. Most importantly, don't underestimate the importance of good measuring tools! 12" and 6" rules, accurate tri square large and small, if at all possible callipers and almost compulsory is at least one straightedge - if it has to be one then go for about a 24" but Dan Elerwine recommends a 12", 16" and 24".

Tools for neck shaping are desirably a spoke shave, and necessity calls for a rasp or set there of and some files.

Sandpaper in grits from 80 through about 1500 in reasonable increments (mine go 80, 120, 180, 240, 320, 800, 1500) anything above 320 is for the finishing stages.

Also, if you have bladed hand tools you'll need to sharpen them, but I guess your wife has that angle covered with the taxidermy.

Finally, i would recommend getting a book/books on the subject such as Cumpaino/Natleson's Guitarmaking Tradition and Techniques for a well rounded view of what tools do what, which ones you can substitute for power tools if necessary and how to best apply them. It's also a beautiful book. My most treasured literary possession.

[Bob Hammond]

Christopher, a guy who has a wife who's a taxidermist maybe has a leg up on the rest of us, so to speak. But my wife has put up with all kinds of crazy stuff. When she was very pregnant with Daughter No. 1, I was rushing to finish the only bathroom in the house (after I got home from work every day). I set the old clawfoot tub behind a tight hedge for convenience (with hot & cold hoses), and every afternoon I took the toilet out and then put it back in every night by 11pm. (The lady at the building supply store thought I was a apartment manager because I bought two cases of wax toilet bowl seals.) We relied on some very understanding and gracious neighbors. This happened in a Philadelphia suburb in July! Anyway, back to your question.

One thousand dollars can go very fast if you buy a lot of widgets at $20-50, so think very carefully about what you really need for some job.

You will need a method to sharpen your chisels & planes. I'd suggest the 'scary sharp method' by Brent Beach. It's surprising how quick it goes when you get the hang of it.

Go to owwm.com, to find manuals and pictures of old machinery that you might consider. Don't be afraid to buy old machines but be careful to inspect them for broken and missing parts. Parts for many old Delta/Milwaukee/Rockwell machinery are still availabe (esp the 14" bandsaw), but for other machines they may not be available. Don't reject machines out of hand if parts aren't readily available. For instance, I finally broke down and bought a tablesaw for $200. It's an 8" Yates-American M-1701, and was built like a battleship in 1956, and I would be surprised if doesn't run perfectly after another 60 years when I'm looking down from the Great Shop in the Sky.

[Bob Hammond]

Forgot to mention, the HF workbench might or might not be a good thing. It might need significant bracing. If you just ordered it, I'd cancel and look around. I'd go trashpick or find somebody who's tearing out a kitchen or bath and use a sink cabinet after beefing up the internal structure and adding a 2-3x thick MDF top, or better yet a MDO top.

[David King]

Grizzly has some really nice looking laminated maple table tops that seem quite reasonable but are probably overkill except that you could eat off them too. Their bolt together steel leg sets are rugged but wouldn't work so well for the DR table unless you had bar stools to go with them.
I'd shake down the corner antique shop for a Stanley 102 or 103 for $5 but then drop $20 for a nice A2 blade to go into it. A flat sanding surface would also be really handy, could be surplus granite or even a 2x9x12 surface plate if you can swing the shipping. I'd start looking for one of the rare Ryobi WDP1850 drill presses from the 1990s.

[Bob Hammond]

David, my little Lie-Nielsen is a very nice but expensive block plane. Would a used Stanley 60-1/2 be a better choice?

At the homebox store, a 12x12" granite or marble floor tile might be flat enough for sharpening, but a trip to a glass-glazier might score a nice piece of plate, and if a guy was respectful and nice, the glazier might grind the edges too.

[Christopher Perkins]

david, funny you mention surplus granite, as i have collected many sizes already and was wondering if they might come in handy

[David King]

They're handy if they are truly flat.

[Clay Schaeffer]

Rather than setting a dollar limit, you might want to keep most of the money in your pocket and only buy the few tools you will need as you need them. Buy good quality when you do buy them. Don't neglect the fleamarkets for good deals on older high quality tools.
Since you will be working in the living room a good quality shop vac might be a high priority purchase. I picked up a used HF bench for $10. For light duty guitar building stuff it should be O.K. and is not so large and heavy as to dominate your living space.

[Bob Hammond]

Christopher,

This looks like a sturdy knockdown bench that could be useful to you, and that could be stowed away if necessary. I'd substitute MDF stairtreads for the top surface. They're 1-1/8" thick, and ~12"w x 48"l and cost about $8 each. Their weight plus the splayed legs would make it very stable, I think. You could build this quickly with handtools too, and it would be useful elsewhere around the place.

"suitcase" sawhorse (PopMech May 1952 p 202):

http://books.google.com/books?id=kNwDAA ... se&f=false