MIMF

Usually, you plane the braces off (carefully) and rebrace it at 40% humidity.

Every city seems to have a bearing shop. In my town, it’s called American Bearings. If I take any bearing in to them, they measure it and come out from the back with an exact replacement. Only once in years did they have to order it. Find your bearing shop and you’re done.

The Lenox Tri-Master and the Lenox Woodmaster CT are well worth the cost if your saw is big enough to handle them. Each will outlast many, many steel blades. Because of the carbide tip, they cut a wider kerf than the steel or bimetal blade but the tip is square and they cut straight right up until i...

Louis Iturra (Iterra Designs) (iturradesign@gmail.com) will make you blades of any length that you need. And, if you tell him what you’re trying to do, he’ll advise you on which type of blade you need. It is worth ordering from him just to get a copy of his catalog, a fantastic resource with all kin...

Again not directly answering your question: Several years ago, I cut the tip of my index finger ac ouple of nights before an important gig. Even with a bandaid pad across the tip, I couldn’t fret even an extra light silk and steel string set. But, nylon strings made a huge difference. I was able to ...

Depending on the size you need, a large tyvek mailing envelope would give you a pretty tough membrane. They are hard to rip. I don’t know if the tyvek building wraps are just as reinforced.

I generally inspect things when they’re delivered. If I discover a problem a couple of years later with something I bought from a small supplier that I don’t normally deal with, I would guess it’s a cost of doing business. But, my two major suppliers, LMI and StewMac, totally stand behind their stuf...

Osage Orange is my favorite wood for sound. It is a bit hard to work but it bends easily. I prefer to get it quartersawn. It eats steel bandsaw blades quickly. I get good performance with carbide tipped blades, though.

I’ve had better luck with 2” planks than 1”. There’s always some unevenness in the mill cuts. When I resaw, it always seems that I have less waste when I start with a wider board—the two outside surfaces are either waste or have to be cut thicker to account for the unevenness. The 1” plank doubles t...

Nice. Neat idea. How does it sound?

Perhaps how it feels when you chew might be a more reliable indicator? Other than that, may be you scratch some known mahogany and taste it? As much as I liked to work it, I had to ban Spanish Cedar from my workshop. It made my nose run so badly, I couldn’t be near it.

Now that it works, be very careful. I owned one of those Craftsman radial arm saws for a couple of weeks long ago (I bought it used). I bought it thinking it might be a good way to cut fret slots. It had way too much slop for any precision work. Besides that, it really scared me. I couldn’t figure o...

There might be some kind of centrifugal switch and a starting capacitor in the motor starter circuit. If the switch contacts are dirty or smoked, it may not be working correctly. To test the capacitor, it needs to come out of the circuit and be shorted to completely discharge it. Then, put a needle ...

Sold. Thank you for looking.

—Bob

Or, make me an offer. I just want it to go to someone who wants it.

This might be a collectors item. It works fine, I just prefer a more modern router with a speed control and a more visibly accessible base. $50 plus whatever it costs to ship.

You might try http://www.japarts.ca/ There’s a link on the page for email inquiries. He is very responsive. If the buttons are available from Gotoh, he will be able to find out.

I bend sapele (and all of my sides) on a hot pipe. I’ve not had springback issues with sapele, but I probably overbend getting it to match the mold it will go into. The curly nature of the grain does seem to make it resist bending. I have often cracked a side attempting to bend it. Fortunately, it i...

The only real disadvantage is future expansion limiting. Whatever size shop you build, you will find it’s half the size you want. If you had built your wall and then found that your shop was too small, you could have knocked down the wall and taken over the rest of the basement. Starting with the wh...

For most products, there are enough suppliers that you only have to deal with the ones with good customer service. One of my principles is that I never beg someone to take my money. One of the neatest things about the guitar building community is that it’s populated with good folks who are a pleasur...