Guitar jigs!

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here is the start of my radius jig. I still need to make the sled. But it well on it's way. I hope I can get it done this week.

EB

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The making of the sled. I use two 2x2 popular for the rails or guide.

I use some short decking screws to attach them.

I used 2 aluminum angle for runners on the top of the Popular wood. I screwed them on. I was going to glues them on but got to thinking I may want to change them out at some point in it's life do to wear and tear.

here it is with one of the rails attached. I'll finish this up tomorrow. I ran out of seam for today.LOL!

So sometime tomorrow, I'll finish this project up. I am even going to paint it. In trying to help it be a round for a long while. I don't plan on making another one. My son and I decided to use the aluminum on the sides and on the the underside of the 12" radius. We wound up using JB weld on it. It worked out great!

 It sure felt good to be doing stuff today. I even had someone come by to do a trade with me. He turned out to be a cool guy. I still have my moments to where I feel like I need to go sleep. So, I do. But a little at a time.

EB

[antares]

Good one Eddie. I couldn't see the router platform in Dane's design and had to infer it from the screws. Simples I know but without the detail, the mind starts to over think things.

e&oe ...

[dnic]

Looking good Eddie. It's interesting how different people perceive things. My system is slightly changed from how the one that sparked my build was made. Mine started out as a truss rod routing sled and the radius part was an after thought.

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Oct 20, 2021 7:26:46 GMT -6 dnic said:

Looking good Eddie. It's interesting how different people perceive things. My system is slightly changed from how the one that sparked my build was made. Mine started out as a truss rod routing sled and the radius part was an after thought.

I like simple. I looked at so many on You Tube that to me are way over the top. I don't build all that many guitars. But I feel this will be a big help for me.

EB

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The sled is done! Except I am putting some paint on it. Pictures of that later on.

I went ahead and boxed it. My thinking is that it will help keep things flat.

 I used a sanding sponge and some 0000 steal wool to smooth out the metal. I took off the sharp corners of the metal. The part of this jig the holds the router now goes up and down the rail super smooth. 

I drilled this hole in the base of it so I can hang it a wall later when not in use.

A word on this work bench. I have never owned on of these before. This tool has now become a huge part in my little shop. It's almost like having more hands. I am tickled at how useful it is. Yes it's a Harbor Fright  item. But, it was only $20.00. I bought two of them. One for the shop and the other for the guitar room. Yes they are not top of the line stuff. But, it works well for me. The nice thing too is it folds up when not in use. If anyone ever needs a helping hand, I would get one of these. I feel I have already gotten my 20 dollars out it.

EB

[dnic]

Eddie, that's looks a lot like the old B&D workmate.

The router sled is cool, I want to see it in action. I know I have to wait. Don't hurt on my account.

[Deleted]

Oct 20, 2021 18:27:27 GMT -6 dnic said:

Eddie, that's looks a lot like the old B&D workmate.

The router sled is cool, I want to see it in action. I know I have to wait. Don't hurt on my account.

yes. I will do a mock up and see how it does. But it should work out well. I know I didn't use a big router for this. Nut for what I do I think it will be fine.

EB

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Well, for every thing I know it;s all done. Now for some testing. I'll have to do that tomorrow. I have to go to the doctor today. But at least I got it done.

 I know it looks like I should have done this in a couple of hours. But that Covid junk really took a lot out of me.

This showing how my son recessed the router into the jig. This allowed for more adjustment if needed. We had to use longer screws for this as well to hold the router in place. I am thinking I might leave the router mounted and get me another small hand held trim router. I like these small routers a lot! It to ,e like anything else. You can't have enough routers around. LOL!

Like I side, I'll do some test with it later on. Just not today. Got to go to the doctor because of insurance says so or they won't pay for stuff. Tell me again how COVID is that important that they will close a country down, but insurance treats it like no big deal, until they have to pay for something. OK I wont go there. But I did, didn't I.... LOL!

 I hope this project works out as good as I think it will. It will sure save me hours on doing a 12" radius. Plus like Dane has said I know the sled part could be used for other things. I still want to add the side hold bolts to this. I have some of the parts but not everything I need to put them in place. The other thing I need to put a center mark on the base. On my test I'll use two sided tape to hold in place.

EB

[dnic]

Looks good Eddie. Absolutely never have to many routers.

[Deleted]

OK, I already made an upgrade to this.

I decided to make a hold down on this. My son had bought the insert but wound up not buying the screws/bolts because he didn't know how long of ones I would need. I come the old school never though away anything. I had bought some years ago a TV mounting kit. Well that kit had these 4 bolts that fit the inserts. So, I had to install them.

I marked it out then started the drilling. I needed to countersink the bolts in just a little to make them long enough. So I used a bit the was a little bit bight than the bolt head. I then drilled out the rest it.

this shows the countersink before I drill all the way though.

hey how did that happen? It fits!

here we go. all done! Now on to testing.

 I seen that Dane has this on his jig. This will save on two sided tape. I felt it is a good idea. Should help a lot in holding neck blanks and fret boards down. Or anything else I need the sled for.

EB

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Here is a short video on COVID and the jig.

EB

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Here are some pictures.

Here it the radius block I set on the work to check things out. The wood I used pine. As you can see it is dead on. I have not done any sanding to the demo wood.

another spot on the demo wood.

I used some treated  2x4 for this. Band saw did not like this stuff at all! But I cut it to the thickness I make my neck out of. The problem was I didn't need to go so thin. So in the future I'll have to make an ad on to use or make my neck blanks thicker.

ou all

I call this good to go. It all seems to work like I expected it to. Simple and easy to use. That is what I was after. I can see other uses for the sled not that I have that. For me I found that going side to side worked the best. Taking them long strokes down the whole neck was harder to control. The other thing I learned on this is keeping the router part square with the work. I think we should have made the part that holds the router wider. I thin it would make a little bit more stable. But It worked fine just like it is.

 This was so much fun to do. It's cool to have an idea and see it work out. Plus to work with my son on this is priceless! He and I had a lot of fun doing this and other projects. you all know my son did most of the work, Right?

 Ok that is it on this Jig. Now on to my router table and router. I have already started on doing some things that needs to be done. So, that is the next thing up and coming.

EB

[dnic]

It looks good Eddie, and it works! Win, win!

The bolts also help center the neck perfectly for truss rod routing.

There's this guy on YT that is producing and selling radius blocks that are long enough to bolt to an inline sander. And in use it looks like he hanging on to a bucking bronco. But people are going crazy over it. And I'm thinking wow, I've got it made with my router sled. He's even selling maple blocks with holes drilled in them for fret holding. I'm thinking if you can build a guitar you should probably be able to drill 24 holes in a block.

[Deleted]

Oct 22, 2021 21:17:56 GMT -6 dnic said:

It looks good Eddie, and it works! Win, win!

The bolts also help center the neck perfectly for truss rod routing.

There's this guy on YT that is producing and selling radius blocks that are long enough to bolt to an inline sander. And in use it looks like he hanging on to a bucking bronco. But people are going crazy over it. And I'm thinking wow, I've got it made with my router sled. He's even selling maple blocks with holes drilled in them for fret holding. I'm thinking if you can build a guitar you should probably be able to drill 24 holes in a block.

Yes I have seen that guy on YT. The thing on that inline sander to me is it would be super hard to control. Not a fan of it. And yes. I see some people that sell "their ides" off of YT that any wood worker should be able to make themselves. But like in car building it's to easy to buy things over making it yourself.

 

 Yes that is what I thought a win win. I was glad it worked out for me. I will always remember it as something I built coming out of COVID. But having COVID was not all that bad. It gave me a whole new light in what is important in my life. It showed me so many things. The top one is not to take anything I do for granite. Even the air we breath. I cannot put into words what it's like not to be able to catch your breath. I also got to see how real friends came out everywhere to help us out.

 But my top person is our son. He really came through for us. We never had to ask him. He said Dad I am on my way and you can't talk me out of it. I really don't know how well my wife and I would have done without our son.

 Well, I went on a rabbit trail. But the wife and I are doing so much better. And I am so thankful I am still here to tell my side of things. Life is about experiences and what we learn from them and how we apply what we learned to our life to make things better.

 Things as simple as making a jig to make things easier in our shops and sharing those ideas with others. Thanks Dane for showing your radius jig. It was that sharing that put a fire in me to make me want to make one for myself.

EB