Official Luthiers Forum!

I made this in the shop today and it worked well enough to get me excited enough to share it. It needs some modifications but it works really well in its current state.









The maple part with the brass pin slides inside the mahogany part. The end of the mahogany part uses a wedge and cross pin to secure the blade just like a hand plane. The sliding maple part has a threaded insert to accommodate the locking screw that sets the size of the circle. The fixed maple parts that work with the blade are glued in place long grain to long grain. The burl cut out is as clean if not cleaner that I would have gotten with my dremel.

_________________
http://www.booneguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Boone-guitar-builder/488208541257210

Very nice, Stephen! Thanks for sharing with us!

Alex

_________________
"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

That's brilliant Stephen!

Do I forsee a new addition to the Boone Tools line?

_________________
Jim Hansen

Thank you Alex and Jim. I hope to offer these eventually. I need to be able to produce them more efficiently and I need to create a double bevel blade. I am working on a gramil design as well. This cutter works well enough that I think it will fly.

_________________
http://www.booneguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Boone-guitar-builder/488208541257210

Sweet

_________________
Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Thank you Bob!

_________________
http://www.booneguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Boone-guitar-builder/488208541257210

Very cool! I bet it cuts the circle more accurately that a dremel as well. I know my dremel bit wandered ever so slightly so I got a base for my router to eliminate that.

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Stephen,

I'm always looking for a good reason to park a fast spinny metal thing (i.e. router). I'd definitely be interested in one of these when you are ready to let the public have a go. =)

_________________
Jim Hansen

I use a similar, but less elegant looking tool to cut soundholes and rosettes. It gives me much cleaner edges than I get with the router. Mine is all friction fit so it adjusts with a hammer. Blade is a spear point with 2 bevels on the inside and the outside being flat -can be reversed for cutting OD on a rosette. I find that it takes increasing pressure as you go deeper and while the cut starts nicely, it takes a whole bunch of laps to cut thru a the soundboard and doubler.

Have you considered using a 2-toothed blade like they use on the Lie-Nielson circle cutter ? Seems like it would cut faster since it opens a kerf. It also would not need to be reversed for switching between OD and ID cuts.

-jd

Thank you Tony, Jim, and JD!


JD, I am not familiar with the Lie Nielson circle cutter or its blade. My main modification I want to make is to create a "spear point" blade that is easy to sharpen in a honing jig. I will try to find an image of what you describe and see if it is feasible. The idea of not having to flip the blade around for the inner and outer cuts is a nice one. Thank you for your input.

For the record, I posted this to show how easy it can be to make one of these for those who are so inclined. I am not trying to drum up business. I am more than happy to share how I make these and other tools for folks who want to make some tools for themselves. I am sure that an exacto blade could be substituted for my shop made one and this design will work fine. I personally worked many hours to figure out how to keep the pivot pin and the locking screw in the same axis. Seeing it turn out so simple does not mean that it was not frustrating to work out the details. I figured that any one else trying to make something like this might be helped if I shared what I came up with. If any one needs further clarification on how it works or construction details please let me know.

Thanks again everyone for looking and it really feels good to hear so many nice things.

_________________
http://www.booneguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Boone-guitar-builder/488208541257210

Stephen,

here is a picture of the LN radius cutter showing details on the tip:

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/viewimage.ph ... yout=blank

Looks like 2 tips from a saw blade. Straight line cutter uses a 3 tip blade like this:

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/viewimage.ph ... yout=blank

Looking at the picture it may be easier to make these than I originally thought. Not a simple honing to sharpen, you would have to use a saw file which means the steel would need to be softer. I normally make small blades from M2, either machine tool tips or metal cutting jigsaw blades and you can't cut that stuff very easily with a file.

-jd

If I'm reading the description correctly, the thinnest blade is .030.
http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?cat=549

_________________
Jim Hansen

Those Lie Nielson tools sure look nice!

At 15 bucks everyone should just buy those blades and make up something that works for them.

_________________
http://www.booneguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Boone-guitar-builder/488208541257210

Nicely executed tool design, Stephen. I made a thing that works the same, but which is not NEARLY so elegant, about twenty years ago. Nor was it so easily adjustable. You have inspired me to try again. I think it would be really cool to figure out a way to incorporate a micro-adjustment feature. It might be hard to make it adjust in both directions, but pretty easy to make it adjust one way only.
You know....advance it beyond the desired cut and then back it off quarter turns at a time until it's spot on. Then lock it down with your locking screw. That would be cool. I think you have inspired lots of tool builders with this thread. Are you okay with us emulating your design and adding our own tweaks to it?

Patrick

Absolutely Patrick. Tweak away! A micro adjust would be fairly simple I believe. Add an additional maple piece at the end of the housing that is currently empty, drill for a threaded insert that would allow a screw to contact the sliding pivot/locking block, and voila! micro adjust. A piece of metal set into the sliding part as a contact point would make for more durability. I think I will add this feature to mine, make another blade, and update the thread.

_________________
http://www.booneguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Boone-guitar-builder/488208541257210

That was my first thought when I saw the price while searching for a picture. I didn't create an account with Lie-Nielson to figure cost ordering direct -My normal source for things like this is Craftsman Studio and from them the blade with tax and shipping come out to $29. If it was $15 delivered, it would be on the way but at twice that price I think I'll wait and hope I remember next time I decide to order a new plane iron.

I'm still going to copy your design and maybe incorporate a fine adjust ...unless you decide to start selling them before I get around to it. Mine is functional, but ugly and a PITA to adjust while yours is so elegant.

-jd

Stephen
Thanks for sharing your circle cutter with us. I am in the middle of installing a rosette and was thinking of how to cut out the hole. So, I took a couple of hours out to make your cutter. Haven't cut the hole yet, but the tests are good.



I used a hunk of an old sawzall blade for the cutter. I need to do some serious sharpening.

I've got one of your small planes that I use for brace shaping. I love it. Thanks

After 10 minutes of using the Scary Sharp glass plate and emory paper system to sharpen my blade, I cut the hole in my top. I did two passes on the top and about three passes on the underside and the hole was done. Here's the hole as yet unsanded. Just to show how clean the cut is. The rosette wood is bocote in a western red cedar top.
Stephen, thanks, again for the design of the cutter.

Dan,

Your circle cutter looks fantastic! Very nice. I am glad that you like your mini-plane.

_________________
http://www.booneguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Boone-guitar-builder/488208541257210

That is an excellent design. Beautiful in it's simplicity.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Nicely done Stephen. Simple, and effective. You are truly developing the old school heart.

_________________
Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

This is a great thread. Thank you. I've been contemplating a similar idea but with multiple blades to ensure a perfect registration point for everything sound hole and rosette related.

Have you tried multiple blades?

-j

I have not tried multiple blades.

_________________
http://www.booneguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Boone-guitar-builder/488208541257210