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#1
05-13-2016, 06:32 PM
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Guitarmaking Jigs and Tools, past and present
I thought it would be interesting to start a thread like this to possibly share of past and present ideas for shop-made jigs and tools. Some of these jigs have been decommissioned, some are still in my arsenal.
First is my linear router carriage. I wanted something to do quick work of straight line of straight-line routing, planing irregular shapes or highly figured wood, jointing, slotting, edging, etc. There's a recurring theme here, my love of cheap skate bearings! I made one carriage in wood, and one in phenolic left over from a bathroom partition job. The rails are hardware store square tube, and straight enough for government work:  A close up. Skate bearings have an 8mm ID, but metric bolts are expensive, so I used 5/16" bolts, and padded them with Teflon tape.  It takes a bit of fudging to get the rails aligned where they're not too loose creating imprecise travel, or too tight, giving variable drag.  There was a time when I actually shaped the back of a neck before routing the truss rod channel, so this came in handy. I also did a couple vintage trussrod to dual-action conversions. 
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#2
05-13-2016, 06:36 PM
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Here's my now-defunct "proportional" archtop routing jig.
The blank pivots on a 1/4" rod into a platen double-stick-taped to the blank. The blank is rotated a few degrees, which changes the angle of the template, relative to the position feeler.  What it looks like when done:  And sanded: 
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#3
05-13-2016, 06:45 PM
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The way I USED to rough an arch was with a simple attachment I made for the tablesaw. Very simple - raise the blade 1/16", run the piece perpendicular to the blade, against the guide. Raise the blade 1/16", repeat.
 Close-up:  The rest gets rasped and scraped and sanded away:  And I'm left with this: 
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#4
05-13-2016, 06:52 PM
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Fully adjustable neck carving jig.
 Cams that adjust neck thickness. A straight piece on each side controls the neck taper, which in turn controls the neck width. That would produce a conical surface. These cams will flatten or thicken a particular end of the neck. So if for example, I have 2-1/4" at the 12th fret, a conical shape would give me 1-1/8" thickness, but using a -1/4" can gives me 7/8".  Works like a rotisserie - turn, rout, turn, rout.  Surface right off the jig:  What's nice is that since the tool is normal to the surface, it will not tear out wood, which can happen against the tool flank with highly figured woods.
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#5
05-13-2016, 06:56 PM
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My over-engineered router binding jig:
 All pivots have ball bearings (my aforementioned cheap skate bearings) which allow the router to seemingly "float" to any position, with no binding or resistance. I can keep a guitar body stationary and just move the router around just like any handheld operation... only the router remains vertical. More or less. The aluminum tube was not as stiff as I'd like, and am already designing a CLS-inspired jig. Pic with router clamp installed: 
Last edited by LouieAtienza; 05-13-2016 at 07:11 PM.
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#6
05-13-2016, 06:59 PM
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My adjustable dish radiusing jig. Usurped by CNC. Though fully adjustable and no need to program. I even made a convex dish for some future project I'm working on.
 I devised the hinge that the router remains level as the hinge moves:   The end result, and again, my favorite skate bearings: 
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#7
05-13-2016, 07:05 PM
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My rosette cutter:
 This started out as the slug from the router mount for the linear guide posted above. Pieces here:  A close up of the blade holding mechanism. The blade is a cut-off from a scraper. It's durable enough to cut 1/8" Plexiglas and Lexan!  What's nice about it is the 1/4" steel rod corresponds with a hole in my workboard, with a grommet that allows the cutter to remain vertical as I turn it.
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#8
05-13-2016, 07:08 PM
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Yet another jig supplanted by CNC is my fretboard radius jig. This cuts a 12"-16" "compound" radius.
 Changing the inside base allows either loose fretboards or Strat style necks already boarded to be radiused, or modifying the radius on an existing neck: 
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#9
05-13-2016, 07:15 PM
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Fret tang remover:
 I realized that this thing already exists, and made by Frank Ford. But it does work as advertised... This is an old pic, maybe from 2010 (as most these pics were from 2009-2012). I had since modified this by adding two extra bearings, which makes the file ride a lot nicer. The two couplers act to tighten/loosen the clamp, and two set screws on the bottom adjust the tilt of the rolled fret wire, to level it at the cutting area:  Does a great job, and fast:  I should add that I use a file that has no teeth on the sides, which allows it to glide along the edge of the fence.
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#10
05-13-2016, 07:24 PM
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My first acoustic ever was an arch top, nylon strung. I didn't know at the time how the binding ledges were cut, though I did assume special jigs were made. What I wasn't sure of whether they were stationary or hand-held. I went the handheld route. Takes a little practice, but it did work:
 The ledge represents the arch differential, and the bearing surface in the middle. What was great was that it was impossible to make the channel deeper than needed. What sucked about it was that it was almost impossible to keep the bearing normal to the surface, so it took a few passes to get a consistent depth, and there was still cleaning up to do. 
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#11
05-13-2016, 07:28 PM
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My bending pipe, which I still use... I heat it with propane (or MAPP, whatever I have after a plumbing job usually.) It's only 1-1/2" gas pipe, but served me well. I cover the end with a hole saw sometimes, and I have a reducer coupling and 3/4" pipe for tight radii (like on an electric).
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#12
05-13-2016, 07:34 PM
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The "ultimate" jig!
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#14
05-13-2016, 09:12 PM
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Quote:
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#15
05-14-2016, 06:40 PM
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This is my go-bar deck. I like to call it the "hour glass" go-bar deck. One side has a 15' radius dish, the other dead flat. I simply spin it around for whatever I need. The great thing about it is, it's multi-purpose. It's also an impromptu workbench, and "drink" or "cards" table (with the optional milk crate riser)!
The two decks are MDF laminated to Baltic birch. The four stands are 8020 t-slot extrusion 1" x 1". Holding them in place are 8 1/4"-20 x 2-1/2" SHCS. The idea was to have t-slots for fixtures, lighting, etcetera... but I have no way to get the t-nuts in, so I'll have to open up the slots somewere to slide t-nuts in.  And here it is in action: 
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