Paul Henneberry
Well-known member
What jig or tool do you wish you had made sooner? I know it is often hard to interrupt the uke making process to make another jig but the result at least for me is usually an improvement to speed or accuracy and the wish that I had done it sooner.
I am making a batch of fretboards and got to the tapering the sides and profiling the overhang stage. I do a lot of template routing in my making. After having a nasty experience of tearing a lump of fretboard off because I was routing against the grain I resorted to swapping from a top bearing to a bottom bearing bit half way through and turning the template over. Never had a problem again because the bit is always going with the grain but now I had 14 fretboards on the bench and it seemed like a lot of bit swapping. So I stepped back and made a new bench top router table. This meant that I could have a top bearing bit in my big old router table and a bottom bearing bit in my new bench top router table. Finish trimming one side and the opposite end and then step to the other table and finish the job. Works a treat and I wish I had done it sooner. There are more photos and details about the process at my blog
https://jarrahdalestringinstrumentcompany.wordpress.com/2015/12/25/tapering-the-fretboard
But what jigs or tools have you made recently that has been worth the effort and that you wish you had done sooner.
Cheers
Paul
I am making a batch of fretboards and got to the tapering the sides and profiling the overhang stage. I do a lot of template routing in my making. After having a nasty experience of tearing a lump of fretboard off because I was routing against the grain I resorted to swapping from a top bearing to a bottom bearing bit half way through and turning the template over. Never had a problem again because the bit is always going with the grain but now I had 14 fretboards on the bench and it seemed like a lot of bit swapping. So I stepped back and made a new bench top router table. This meant that I could have a top bearing bit in my big old router table and a bottom bearing bit in my new bench top router table. Finish trimming one side and the opposite end and then step to the other table and finish the job. Works a treat and I wish I had done it sooner. There are more photos and details about the process at my blog
https://jarrahdalestringinstrumentcompany.wordpress.com/2015/12/25/tapering-the-fretboard
But what jigs or tools have you made recently that has been worth the effort and that you wish you had done sooner.
Cheers
Paul
Attachments
Last edited: