I've got a friend at church who owns 2 very successful businesses, one of which is woodworking related. Consequently, he's got quite a bit of nice equipment. He approached me after church one day to see if I had need for a Shop Fox edge sander. I, of course, told him I did, so I went to his house yesterday and brought this home.
It's never been set up or turned on and still had the plastic on it. The best part? He GAVE it to me. For FREE!
I told him there's no way I could thank him enough. He said he just wanted to bless me with it and hopes that I get good use out of it.
So I got it put together last night and figured I'd try to assemble a fretboard radius jig today. I kept looking at the Grizzly unit, but it wouldn't mount to this machine. And besides, $300 is quite a bit of money for me at the moment. Being the tinkerer I am, I spent 2 hours and $65 at Lowe's and came up with this:
-- 1/2" black pipe (which they cut into two 24" sections and two 6" sections)
-- 2 floor flanges
-- 1.5" square tubing
-- 1/2"-13 x 36" all-thread
-- two 1/4" x 2.5" eye bolts
-- six 1/2" nuts
-- two 1/2" PVC compression T fittings
First I screwed the 24" pipe into the floor flanges.
And screwed the 6" pipe into the T section of the compression fittings.
In order for the compression fittings to slide onto the 24" section of pipe, I needed to thin the rubber bushings.
And then I put the compression fittings back together and slid them onto the pipe.
Then I drilled 1/4" holes in the 6" sections of pipe.
And inserted the eye bolts.
Then I cut my square tubing to proper length - 24"
And inserted the all-thread with a bolt in either side.
Then I attached everything to a base. I inserted the top of the all-thread into the eye bolts and secured with 1/2" nuts. I still need 2 more, though, so I can have 1 nut on both sides of the eye bolts to lock everything together.
Now I loosen the compression fittings and slide each side to the appropriate radius, then attach the fretboard to the bottom side of the tubing and swing to sand. This should take me about 30 seconds as opposed to 4 hrs. I'm pretty pumped.
