Official Luthiers Forum!

So I had torn rotator cuff surgery last Monday, Im stuck at home with nothing to do but watch videos. What are some of your favorite luthier related content online? I'm part of the Looth group which has all kinds of great info. Please give links as one of the byproducts of surgery is being in a narco stupor lol so not easy to navigate.

I keep going into the shop thinking oh I could maybe do this or this but end up wondering why Im standing in any given moment and what am I doing.........and what in the world makes me think I can do anything but relax.

_________________
https://www.instagram.com/fostinoguitars/
https://www.facebook.com/PuraVidaUkuleles/

When I had my shoulder replacements I managed to putter around in the shop but only AFTER I quit the heavy pain killers Didn't get a whole lot done but at least I was in the shop.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Steve has the right idea - go out in the shop, and THINK. You can make a list of jobs you want or need to do in the shop, think about how best to proceed on any projects, and write those plans down. Just sit and THINK. I recommend it.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Feel better David I know how bad that sucks. I tore mine pushing a Dyson Ball vacuum on very thick carpet.... For me I had to baby it for a long time maybe a year or so. I'm very glad it was my left arm when I'm right handed though that was a little ray of sunshine.

Not lutherie but if you have not watched Yellowstone it's fantastic (Paramount Plus). That will keep you busy for a while. The Penguin (HBO) is good too but only one season (so far).

If you can use a keyboard without hurting might be a good time to look into 3D printing since lots of folks in the Looth group are getting into 3D and putting up a library of things like cauls for specific guitars.

I hope you feel better and Happy Thanksgiving too.

Hesh.... ya Yellowstone was an amazing show about as dysfunctional as you can get. I keep thinking I want to get a 3D printer just don't want to get into months of learning Computer programs. I keep thinking the same thing about CNC as well.

Check out the Lioness or Landman. Both of these are written and directed by Tayler Sheridan who did Yellowstone.

_________________
https://www.instagram.com/fostinoguitars/
https://www.facebook.com/PuraVidaUkuleles/

https://www.youtube.com/user/twoodfrd

I had a severe tear in 2012 from a motorcycle accident. At the 1 month point I had to do PT at home, for 8-9 hours a day for 20 days- sitting in a chair-like medical device that moved and rotated my arm/ shoulder. I had to get up early in the AM so I could finish by 5:00pm. I had to re-program the machine every day to add 3 additional degrees of rotation. I did the subsequent PT religiously for a year. I was back to normal after that year. Wishing for a complete and rapid recovery for you.

_________________
Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

Dave is on the cusp of getting a 3D printer and keeps trying to entice me into it since I'm a trained programer. No thank You The Looth group has 3D evangelists in attendance and they are putting up a library of programs for stuff like cauls.

Not to be negative.... but my single most common memory of working with Dave is he puts his glasses on his head, grabs a block of wood and a micrometer and heads to Dan Earlywine's Dad's belt sander in our shop and wham, bam with a little noise and dust he has his bridge plate gluing caul in one minute or less.

I do not see how getting a 3D printer to crap one of these out while providing you with material costs and wear and tear on the machine not to mention a steep learning curve for someone with no background in CNC or programing is an improvement.

I keep telling Dave to get a 3D printer if he wants one but to be intellectually honest that he wants one to fulfill a curiosity and interest and to have fun which is great and that any panacea that it's going to make money, LOL..... or improve efficiency at least some of the time is fantasy.

What I'm waiting for is a little robot that I can stick in the sound hole and it runs around inside the instrument regluing braces or installing a pick-up and such and then climbs back out and goes to it's recharging doc. Please let me know when I can buy one of those.

Here you go. Mine is busy installing a pick guard at the moment.
He just finished installing a couple of humbuckers in a 1937 D-28. You really have to be careful, when you program these things. I am trying to decide how to break it to the owner of the D-28.

So where do I get one, StewMac?

I hear that!
Don't know how I did my left arm, but it's about a year now - it's much better, but will take some months yet.
They (the internet) say it won't heal itself, but I think it might.

_________________
The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

When I started practice as an orthopedist in 1977 we didn’t repair rotator cuffs. The current techniques at the time weren’t very good. A large percentage recovered well with rehab and a lot of time.

Typical degenerative tears never really “heal” but stabilize and the body figures out how to move the shoulder with the remaining muscles.

So yeah, with a lot of cuff tears non-operative management works well. With modern diagnostics it’s easier to pick which ones are likely to stabilize without the knife.

Traumatic tears in folks with a normal rotator cuff are a different animal and need to be fixed. They are pretty uncommon, usually it is a cuff that has degenerated over time like an old t-shirt and gives way with lesser or little trauma.

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.