The Hub

I’ve got a client requesting a weight reduction on his Kurt Cobain Jaguar My approach would be in 3 steps see how much I can route down the existing cavities (might not be a lot of weight loss) route under the pickguard without compromising the instruments integrity if additional weight loss is required, drill into the body with airline drill bits to gain a few more grams current total weight all including 4.2kg Any advice is welcomed 🙏🙏🙏

I was approached by a local music venue about finishing over the signatures on this Dean guitar. I have finished over signatures before, but never an entire guitar. The main challenges, as I see it, with this endeavor is prepping the existing finish. Cleaning the existing finish without disturbing the signatures will be time consuming enough, but abraiding/sanding the finish will be cost prohibitive. I have already experimented on a test…

What’s the best way to make stark white ABS binding resemble 60 year old celluloid?

Looking to get a custom fingerboard slotted, radiused and cut for block inlays, preferably in Canada. Any leads much appreciated! 🙏

Hey all, I have been working with the work station for a few months now. I love it. I found a few little things that have helped me. 1. A mic stand to support the main beam. I bought the Total Vise version and it didn't work as well. 2. Rockler Bench Cookies as rear cross member supports. They have the correct 5/16-18 inserts in them and screw on easily. Now the thread rod has a sort of hi/low setting by just flipping it for acoustic or…

Some of you might enjoy this - a full recent guitar bouzouki build. It's about 35 mins long. Plenty of woodworking tips in there for the eagle eyed. Give it a watch, the tunes are great. Nigel

We just ordered the StewMac buffer. Looking for ideas/photos for a hood(s) to remove all the particles flying off. We have a 4 inch 1250 cfm dust collection system. Thanks for any input. Tom K

I am a retired dentist. One saying we had was, “You can’t fix what you can’t see.” And another was, “The day you start working with magnification will be the best and worst day of your practice.” The worst because you will see what you have been missing, and the best because you will never miss it again. So even though I have my Dan E. Model visor loupes, and my retired dental loupes on throughout the day, sometimes, it’s not enough. I pi…

Hey folks! I picked up a neck relief gauge from Doug in one of the earlier batches, maybe the introductory run? Some of the small feet caps that thread onto the moving legs of the tool have cracked, broken, or become worn down. I contacted StewMac about purchasing replacement parts, but they don't sell subparts for the relief gauge and otherwise won't help me. They appear 3D printed, so I was wondering if anyone with the means to print s…

It’s Factory Friday! I’ll be in the shop today from 2–4 PM Eastern for the weekly open office hours. Drop in, hang out, ask questions, talk tools, guitar building, SMF, or whatever you’re working on in your shop. No agenda. No presentation. Just shop time. Join at www.stringsmicrofactory.com/factoryfriday See you this afternoon! ✌️

Trying to see if anyone has tried this device by chance and if so what was your experience with it.

After several years of fighting with my bandsaw blade jumping off every few inches of cut (it needs a new bearing on the top wheel), I decided to try something bass-ackwards. I put the blade on with the teeth facing the 'wrong' direction. Not only did that solve the problem of the blade jumping off, but it has made the cutting of pickguard material much smoother. Has anyone else experienced this kind of situation? Do you have any other…

A growing work flow in a small shop means I have in-process guitars stacked all over my work surfaces. I need to protect them and keep all the pieces together but also to have them readily accessible, and cases are less than ideal for that. Never mind the caseless guitars. I'd be grateful for advice on containers/stacking/shelves to protect and organize the growing mess. Thanks!

I don’t have CNC capabilities so I could not duplicate Dave Slimmer’s version ( https://loothgroup.com/loothprint/bridge-clamping-cauls/). Got a 12x18x1/2 inch HDPE cutting board on Amazon for under $10 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001D3LQVA), drilled a row of 1/2 holes about 5/16” deep with a Forstner, cut the HDPE into 5 sided chunks so I could orient by touch, and free handed the brace grooves on the band saw. The clamp swivel pads are 1…

The tuner app I’ve used regularly on my smartphone for years has slowly become bloated with useless features, heavy, and totally impractical. I tried a few alternatives, but I didn't really like any of them. Since we are the kind of people who prefer to just build things ourselves when we need them, I decided to built my own tuner: completely free, ad-free, and actually effective. I even threw in some links to my social media. I think I'l…