Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by William McCauley on October 20, 2011 at 5:08am

Using a holesaw in a drill press, that is the  way I would do it. Unless you have a circle cutting jig I would not use a Dremel or a Roto Zip. I think big hole saws can be rented at Home Depot. If you are really desperate, draw your circle and drill holes inside the line. Then break or cut the piece free and dress-off the resulting hole. Not pretty, but it will work.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on October 20, 2011 at 5:26am

Thanks. I will check at Home Depot about renting the hole saw. I was just concerned that if I tried to use something too "industrial" it would crack or otherwise damage the sound board.

 

I also think I may have a circle cutter attachment for my Dremel. I have to go look for that.

 

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Permalink Reply by William McCauley on October 20, 2011 at 5:36am

If your Stella already has a sound hole the circle cutter won't do you much good. However, they are inexpensive (compared to a router or large hole saw). If you run the hole saw slow and watch the pressure on the surface, and keep the saw dust out of the cut you will be ok. I used an 1 1/8 inch one on a Cohiba box with good results (pics on my page).

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on October 20, 2011 at 5:51am

The Stella has enough room that I can put the cone below the existing sound hole, and I can position it so that the existing bridge will line up with the biscuit. So I will have a sound hole and a cone.

 

I am leaning towards using the Dremel and the circle cutter attachment.

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on October 20, 2011 at 11:10am

A fine blade in a sabre saw will cut cleanly, its what I use for F holes.  If its at all uneven you can clean it up with files and sandpaper. Test the dremel on something else first they can leave rough edges too.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Junksville Sharkey on October 20, 2011 at 10:48pm

I used a Dremel Trio to do the same sort of job and it cut perfect, no splits or tears, even the varnish on the guitar was left really neat.

Cant recommend these tools enough....I'd sure never be without one now. Great for cutting F-holes as well.

Good luck with the build, I've got one of Old Lowe's cones on the way to me, they look and sound great. Can't wait to try it out.

 

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on October 21, 2011 at 1:28am

That looks pretty good.

 

FYI, this is an actual parlor guitar I am modifying, not a cigar box.

 

eric stockon said:

if its a thin lid box i use a compass to draw the circle then i use a new x-acto knife making several passes

about 5 times around and its threw just go slow and follow the line and youll get a nice clean edge

 

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Permalink Reply by Jim Junksville Sharkey on October 21, 2011 at 2:40am

Same sort of guitar that I used the dremal trio to cut the hole. I was fitting a resonator kit. The dremal come with a circle cutting attatchment, you simply drill a pilot hole in the front, then the attatchment slips into that and you just turn it around like a big compass, it cant move because of the pilot hole so your're left with a perfectly cut circle.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on October 21, 2011 at 6:33am

Dan,

I have both a Dremel and a Rotozip with the circle cutting attachment, and they're great. Either one should work fine, but you may wanna start at a relatively low speed. Nice idea retrofitting a Stella. Went through this exact same discussion on Rand Moore's CBN group, Homemade Resonator Boxes 101 v2.

Can't wait to see the result,

Oily

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Permalink Reply by Ben on October 22, 2011 at 2:30am

Dan, doesn't the flange on Lowe's cones go over the top? I would think that this could give you a little bit of cosmetic wiggle room.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on October 22, 2011 at 2:36am

Yea, it does. I was just concerned that the saw would hang up and crack or splinter the top. I think this will be OK.

 

Ben said:

Dan, doesn't the flange on Lowe's cones go over the top? I would think that this could give you a little bit of cosmetic wiggle room.

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Permalink Reply by Ben on October 22, 2011 at 4:31am

Blue painter's tape helps with the splintering a bit. Nice fine saw blade should do the trick.

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