Pete Howlett
Well-known member
45 minutes and less than $5 worth of materials using stuff alrerady in workshop you can make yourself one of these....
Poor man's Luthier's Friend....
- Thread starter Pete Howlett
- Start date
mketom
Well-known member
Thank you!! I was just thinking of buying a Luthier's Friend. You are a true luthier's friend!
OP
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Pete Howlett
Well-known member
There are 2 advantages to the commercial Luthier's Friend - the sander drum which runs on a simple lower bearing and the fine adjustment. If you are using it for light work then the former is not need . The latter is doable but only necessary if you need fine tolerances. I'm only using this for thicknessing headstocks with the fence set up using guages of the correct thickness.
Moore Bettah Ukuleles
Well-known member
What...You and Ken having a contest?
If it's just for thicknessing headstocks, I cut a notch in the cover of my drum sander to allow me to do that. With the feed belt off of course.
I like what you've done here but if I had one more tool or jig the walls of my shop would burst. I bought some jewelers saw blades the other day and spent an hour trying to decide what to throw out to make room for them..
If it's just for thicknessing headstocks, I cut a notch in the cover of my drum sander to allow me to do that. With the feed belt off of course.
I like what you've done here but if I had one more tool or jig the walls of my shop would burst. I bought some jewelers saw blades the other day and spent an hour trying to decide what to throw out to make room for them..
dave g
Well-known member
I'm gonna be copying that! The new thickness sander (with it's pinch rollers) won't be able to do headstocks like the old home-made one.
Timbuck
Well-known member
I've been removing the pinch roller assembly to do this job on the Jet..It only takes 5 minutes to remove the dust cover and undo the 4 capscrews holding the roller frame
..But it is a pain to do co's I have to put it all back again afterwards and adjust....and the screws are not easy to get at
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Pete Howlett
Well-known member
Hence my solution. It was eithert that or spend £200 making a similar one to that used at the Gibson factory.... a sort of mini thickness sander running on linnear bearings with a dedicated drum.
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Pukulele Pete
Well-known member
So Bob's your uncle .
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Pete Howlett
Well-known member
And Fanny's your aunt
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Pete Howlett
Well-known member
It's why I won't break down that sander Ken - it is a very compact build. In my experience, if a fiddle around with stuff I can never restore it to its original settings... just like my phone
Moore Bettah Ukuleles
Well-known member
And hence my solution. By removing a very small part of the cowling of your drum sander, a headstock will easily fit under the pinch rollers. At least on the Performax 16/32.
Timbuck
Well-known member
On the Jet 10-20 the pinch rollers rise up the uke neck and hit the drum as the headstock is fed in....Not Nice
..I'm looking for a simple mod to make the front roller quickly detatchable...I'll see what I can come up with
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Moore Bettah Ukuleles
Well-known member
Just another reason to get the bigger model....On the Jet 10-20 the pinch rollers rise up the uke neck and hit the drum as the headstock is fed in....Not Nice
olgoat52
Well-known member
Do you thickness nuts and saddle blanks with this too? Doing them veritically seems like it would be a pain. (ie tape it a board, pull it off, test and tape it back on again, etc etc.) Neat idea.
Timbuck
Well-known member
if you know the thickness of the board and tape, you dont have to pull it off to test you just measure the "whole thickness" and deduct the "board plus tape" thickness.
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Pete Howlett
Well-known member
Nuts and saddles are done on the drum sander no problem in a simple 'carrier'...
olgoat52
Well-known member
The tape and gap never seem that uniform so when you want a snug fit for the saddle, it is pretty hard to measure it. Usually I would try to sneak up in it. Thanks Ken.
Tarhead
Well-known member
Looks good Pete. I would use this bottom bearing sanding drum buried in a hole in the deck instead of pushing laterally on the unsupported Drillpress quill if this is something being used frequently:
http://www.luthiersfriend.com/robosander/robosander.html
$20 for a 2" is cheap insurance against potential damage..
http://www.luthiersfriend.com/robosander/robosander.html
$20 for a 2" is cheap insurance against potential damage..
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Pete Howlett
Well-known member
Good point. Problem with those drums is that they loadings are sleeved and don't have the flexibility of the Carroll. With this is in mind, I take care over feed and cut rates to reduce the wear issue. Like all of my processes I aim at complete efficiency in this case, getting the saw to do all the work and the sander just to trim and finish.
