Official Luthiers Forum!

Yup, that's what I did on my last trip to Vancouver.

Happy shopping, I bet you can't leave the store with only the stiffners!!

Shane

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Canada

I absolutely agree Mattia, that is why I would measure over 6 inch increments, the length of my larger calipers. Of course I will also check with a 24 inch steel rule over the entire length as best I can.

Shane

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Canada

[QUOTE=Shane Neifer] Wow! there must be a bit of a rush on the blade stabilizers! I bought two sets a week or two ago from the Vancouver store but they mail out from Ontario only I think. I will get at teh sled and templates and let everyone know how it goes.

Shane[/QUOTE]

Hmmm, well, well Shane, I just wonder who might be responsible for creating such a rush?? LV probably only normally move 2 or 3 sets of stabilisers a month, all of a sudden, 50 OLF'ers come busting through the door.

Cheers Kim

I would doubt that anyone could achieve the accuracy that CNC machinery is able to do .A print out ??? Don't think so .Cutting anything to a drawn line is always a bit doubtful when absolute accuracy is needed.
For the amount $$ required to purchase an accurate template cutting system like LMI or Stewmac,i feel is great value.If we are to spend so much time and effort on building these instruments , the last thing you need is the notation to be inaccurate

It surprised me to find the difference in scale length, given temperature changes to the template (Lexan ) Quite considerable!! A steel ruler is not what I used to measure ! , as of course they shrink/expand.

KiwiCraig

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CRAIG LAWRENCE of AUSTRALIA
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Ya but Craig, wood moves too! I am researching and gearing up for my next build already, a Barbero Flamenco. When Brune measured the instrument, if memory serves me right, the scale was off a little, a couple of thou here and there. I am not at all advocating that you accept error, but there will be area in the process at any rate. I will always feel that woodwork is not meteal machine shop work. We can get as accurate as we can but the even just the different densities in a single piece of wood will cause very small amounts of 'drift' if you blades, hand or machine, are not razor sharp. I will check the scales that I print out and I am very confident that I will be able to make a template that well within anybodies acceptable tolerence. Martin didn't have CNC's in 20', 30's and up until whenever. No one complains about their accuracy. But that is the great thing about this form of woodworking expresion, there are not a lot of manufactured alternatives but they do exist. It is acceptable to buy your jigs and just as acceptable to make them yourself.

Shane

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Canada

Regarding using a printout: I drew up my guitar plan in CAD, and have been making extensive use of printouts and plots to help with bending molds, female molds, templates (body, headstock, tailblock, etc.)

For the large ones, I went to the most experienced printer in town, with the highest quality plotter. In my drawings, I drew long, dimensioned lines on the X and Y axes, so I would have something of known length to physically measure on the plot. Each time, they have needed to recalibrate the plotter to produce accurate drawings.

Then, someone pointed out that the paper can change size with humidity changes. That doesn't matter if you're plotting out a house floor plan at 1/4"=1' scale, but accuracy is pretty important with scale length and fret distances when you're plotting 1:1. (I guess at worst, if the paper grows or shrinks, as long as you locate the bridge properly, it wouldn't matter. You'd have a "new" scale length, proportional to itself.)

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Thanks Rod for the answer about the stiffeners, when i,m back from lee valley, i'll have a little something for you Daddy!

Serge