Pin-routing Guitar Fretboard

[paul heller]

Since you guys are interested in building guitars, have you seen this website:

http://www.songofthegreatlakes.com/

?

Paul

[hobbyist]

I understand how you routed the recess to place the Abalone in but how did you cut the Abalone to fit? Also how did you cut the recesses for the fret wires?

Last night on "How it is made" on the science channel they showed the manufacture of a guitar, they had a machine that cut the 22 fret slots at one time insuring they were parallel. The process of guitar making was fascinating.

Your work looks beautiful.
Ed

Thanks Ed --

The Abalone inlay is a pre-cut part from Stewart-MacDonald. I built-up the plastic templates around the actual inlay to get an exact match. The diagonal strips of plastic are glued down to the rectangular plastic sheet, surrounding the inlay. At first I had I tried to accurately hand-file the templates, but then realized it would be a lot easier this way.

The guitar that I'm building is a StewMac OOO from their kit. The kit came with the ebony fretboard already radiused and slotted. If this kit guitar doesn't scare me off, my next project will be to build one completely from scratch!

Ray

[reible]

I really really liked this post. I had not thought about do miniature projects like shown... now I have to come up with one to give this a try.

The use of the bolt and wire for the small pin was a good way to go... I don't think I have ever seen this done before. You have added some new ideas for me to think about.

Do you happen to know how this is normal done... I'm guess they don't have pin router to do this or do they??

I'm also going to pass this on to my son who has built guitars before.... I think he will find this interesting as well. I don't think he has the time now but it might spark his interest enough so that when he does he might want to use my pin router. So if you find any more interesting guitar bits to do with the overhead router please post them.

Ed

[hobbyist]

Do you happen to know how this is normal done... I'm guess they don't have pin router to do this or do they??

Hi Ed,

I have seen some discussion of pin routing in the guitar-building forums. Here's two links...

http://luthiersforum.3element.com/pages ... router.htm
http://www.doolinguitars.com/articles/pinrouter/

I believe the traditional technique is to temporarily glue the inlay to the face of the fretboard, then scribe accurately around the inlay with a small knife. You would then carefully cut the recess either by hand or with a miniature Dremel-type router using a small end mill or dental burr.

Ray

[reible]

Thanks Ray,

I'm learning a lot from this post. And, who knew there were things like "friendly plastic"???

The bad news was I noticed the Porter Cable router in the Bishop Cochran plunge base........ I want one but I don't have the cash for that sort of purchase anymore.....

Ed

[hahns]

Where did you get those tiny bits and pins? I have purchased a few small bits from stew mac but yours look different.

Thanks.

[shipwright]

Nice work Ray. Seriously, Nice Work.

Paul M

[hobbyist]

Where did you get those tiny bits and pins? I have purchased a few small bits from stew mac but yours look different.

Thanks.

Hi Hahns,

The pin is 1/32" music wire from a hobby shop. It's pressed into a hole drilled down the center of 10-32 brass screw, which then threads into the Shopsmith plate.

I bought the 1/32" milling cutter from http://www.cetdirect.com (part number 12001). Those little solid carbide cutters are really fragile. Here's a link...

http://www.cetdirect.com/catalog/produc ... _id=222032

It's mounted in the router with an 1/8" to 1/4" collet adapter from StewMac.

Ray

[derekdarling]

Here in the Pac Nort' West, some of the machinery places stock used milling bits from Boeing, some of them are that small and smaller. I think if you live near a major manufacturer like Boeing (fill in your favourite), you might be able to bid on used items like this.

[nuhobby]

This thread deserves a "bump". The author's web-page has a newer "furniture" category which shows his OPR attachment being used for mortising, too:

http://precisionworkshop.com/furniture