MIMF

Qinqin.

It would be remiss not to make mention of the Chein (sp?) or "dog" bridge. I seem to remember back when I was delving into HG that many think the buzzing bridge is one of the most important concepts that differentiates the HG from many other wheeled instruments. The rhythmic tapping made b...

Looks good! I am a little confused about the picture on the video. The bolt part which you saw up, you cut away both sides, and leave a little connection in the center? The coupling nut part is the part that is sawed and shaped. The center area is drilled out (on an angle) so the coupling nut can s...

So, a "no" and a "maybe." Randy, the name and rating plate holds the only written information I can see on this motor. If I pull off an end cap, is there something I could look for in the guts? Thanks, guys! Don't pull the entire end cap. If the motor doesn't have a removable pl...

Many fractional horsepower single phase motors can be reversed, but they are built to have the ability to easily change the rotation. Those motors which have the ability to be reversed will have a small diagram inside of the connection housing where the A.C. power lead is connected. Fractional horse...

I use a rotary planer (Wagner Safe-T-Planer in my case...) in a drill press to do ALL of my planing operations. This includes everything from planing entire slabs cut from a tree to make natural edge benches to thicknessing head plates, sides, backs, and tops. My hand planes haven't left their boxes...

I kind of like the guitars I've seen with a counterbore for the tuner bushing washer. I think one of the advantages is greatly reducing the chance for damaging the head stock finish.

I put together a quick minute and a half video detailing how to make a new "quick acting" spool clamp if anyone has an interest.

http://youtu.be/563LoJKD_b0

Bryan, I'm currently slowly working toward putting a slot head tenor Uke together. I'm using the Grover Uke tuners, but I did an easy mod on the string posts to adapt them for slot head use. The modification details and photo are on my website on the "Uke" page, but you'll have to check my...

When I was playing around with HG one of the hardest things to find was the raw cotton for cottening the strings. I missed it if you touched on cotton. Any problems in cottoning the strings or rosining the wheel? All the setup info I remember from the past stated the importance of that for not quick...

Prepare your inlay first, then add it to the headstock overlay prior to gluing it the the neck. Glue your inlay to the surface with a bit of CA, cut around it to create the opening, flip the overlay over and clamp the inlay (with still-attached overlay shape) into a black epoxy-filled cavity, sand t...

When I do knobs I do all the shaping and prerequisite machining first, then polish them when they are done. If I were you I'd go ahead and just drill a straight hole from the back center (it is solid stock initially?), cross-drill and tap for a course thread set screw. You might be surprised how wel...

I use Garolite a bunch for many instument building purposes. I recently did some arm rests using it and it's a dead ringer for super-nice ebony if you just specify the opaque black variety. The binding material does not show when polished.

I'd probably set up a pattern routing station with 2 or 3 dedicated routers for a small production run situation. Cheap, easy, adaptable, fast, small & portable. A pin router would be a logical first choice, but cheap, small & portable wouldn't be descriptors if those have any place in the d...

There as an extensive series of articles in Vintage Guitar Magazine where the author disassembled several Ashborns and detailed their construction. Try this for a starting place for getting the full series:

http://www.vintageguitar.com/3298/james-ashborn/

I keep a few plastic trowels on hand for spreading glue on flat surfaces. They are sold as disposable glue spreaders for tile work and have fine teeth along a 4" wide face. The great thing about using a toothed spreader is that the glue amount is consistant and correct. Little squeeze out, so n...

I hate hand slotting. I converted a cheap tile saw by retrofitting it with a jeweler's slotting blade. The whole thing cost me around $50 and has done hundreds of slots without me breaking a sweat. I'm not allowed to post my website, but the details are there if you want them.

Hi Craig, Ain't nobody here but us chickens!

Thanks, Jason. You can't keep the pivot point as the top bolt and pivot the body to change positions as the body length is too long for it to tuck neatly behind the neck below the peg box. By removing the neck and swapping the protruding studs in the body holes everything positions nicely where it s...

I've drilled literally hundreds of tuner holes using a simple hardwood guide block in conjunction with a scrap of backing board with the head stock clamped in between. Here's a quick picture showing a banjo peg head, but I use the same process for larger diameter machine holes.