MIMF

You have to love urethane foams - the kind that self destruct over time. I've had that happen on a Makita planer I own and the sanding pads for my PC sanders. I ordered some new pads for my sanders, but decided to see if I could "rebuild" the old ones. I didn't want to do the "six million dollar man...

Hi Paul, The magnets on the strip are all oriented the same way and are repelling each other. The magnets on the second strip are oriented to be attracted to the first strip (but again repelling the other magnets on their strip). I used clamps to hold the magnets in place while the glue dried. I can...

Hi Barry, The magnets did provide a good amount of clamping pressure for clamping the veneer cleat. I'm sure it would vary depending on how far apart the magnets were kept by the thickness of the sides. As a first iteration I am happy with it and I think it will work for most situations. I do see ro...

flex mag caul 1.jpg Hi Barry, I played around with the flexible caul idea we talked about. I used some round neodymium magnets I had on hand. I placed them in square corian holders and glued those to a strip of cloth. The first set I left square, but then the light bulb came on (briefly) and I thou...

Hi Barry, My thinking is that since the cleats span the entire length of the crack (unlike diamond cleats) the veneer may be strong enough. I do have some veneer that is probably thicker than .056" in mahogany (?) and some lighter and darker woods, so I could try making some thicker cleats. On the w...

If you buy some neodymium magnet discs or squares from Amazon or the local big box store you could mount them to a cloth strip and leave a small space so they could flex between the magnets and conform to the side of the guitar. As I mentioned I was inspired by Thompson's system to use veneer strips...

When I first saw the system it looked like it would work pretty well. You have shown several of the things to be taken into consideration when using it. It builds on the the idea many of us have used for crack repair. Previously we used magnets only to align and level cracks. Now they are being used...

neodymium magnets.jpg I didn't think about mapping out the brace locations. Thank you for showing that. You mentioned you need to trim the caul - are the cauls integral with the magnets, or can you buy additional cauls and attach the magnets to them? I was looking into buying some magnets to do som...

P.S. Some people like to convert the G series classicals to steel strings - the attraction is the nice rosewood that was used and the G series body is shaped more like the steel string guitar. The N series has the typical classical shape - it would make a Gibsonesque LG type steel string. Martin cla...

Hey Barry, I found the T.J.Thompson continuous cleats inspiring. Since they span the entire length of the cleat I'm thinking they don't need to be too thick. I decided to experiment with using veneers. I cut the veneer strips with scissors. Since the grain runs perpendicular to the crack, cutting wi...

Is it possible that they cut down the original bridge and then capped it with a rosewood one (epoxying the two together)? If it is well glued down and structurally sound I would just repair the crack between the pin holes and call it a day. Curiosity killed the cat and made a lot more work for the r...

Very Nice!
The "fat boy" looks like a good choice for a harp guitar conversion.
I haven't seen any Posts by Mark Swanson in quite a while. Is he still building guitars?

Good Job! You really brought that one back from the abyss.

If you have an oscillating tool you could glue a bound, tapered, but still unradiused fretboard to the neck blank, and if after radiusing find the fret slots are too shallow on the ends you could plunge cut them deeper to suit the fret tangs. I have "stoned" a couple of oscillating tool saw blades t...

The Roubo bench is a fine bench for woodworking, and I doubt you would regret having it, but there may be other types better suited for instrument making. "The Workbench book" by Scott Landis ( https://www.amazon.com/Workbench-Book-Craftsmans-Publishers-Woodworking-ebook/dp/B0042JU7NU ) might be a g...

I have come across references to that book, but have not found any way to get my hands on it. (My library's larger-scale inter-library loan program is offline for a while.) I will email that other person and see if they have more information. I did find someone on YouTube that also printed one, but...

If you make an "auxiliary bench" make it large enough to stand on. You can set it on the bench to raise the work, or you can put it on the floor and stand on it to "lower" the work.

You can check with your local cabinet shops and see if they have any cream colored 3mm PVC edgebanding or you can buy 300 ft of it from Edgeco for around $70.

Here is a CNC setup I am tempted to buy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5nyjvytlBk It has a spindle and I believe can also take a laser. It is a relatively small machine (300 X 180 X 45mm, 11.8 X 7.1 X 1.8 ins.) but could do rosettes and fretboards, headplates, and other small stuff (ukuleles anyo...