Having just completed my first build I was thinking over the things I'd do differently and the parts of the build that gave me the most trouble.  Building the box from scratch was truly simple woodworking and was perhaps the easiest major part of the build.

Making the neck and fretboard however was a different matter. Whilst my first build is fretless and don't suppose the neck and fretboard being a tiny bit out of true mattered too much, I sweated over getting it as accurate as possible by hand sanding alone.

Deciding to go fretted on my next build I began looking at planer/thicknessers and quickly came to the conclusion they were out of my budget for the time being. So I started looking on line at what other solutions there may be and stumbled across people having made their own. Whilst there were some great builds (I will probably take inspiration from them and build a bigger machine at a later date), I wanted to use what I had lying around in my workshop.

After much pondering I decided to mount my handheld belt sander in a frame so timber could be fed through underneath on an adjustable bed.

  • The timber will be pushed through, under the sander, against the rotation of the belt, which is held in by the frame (although I will probably strap it down using webbing).
  • The bed is adjusted by turning a bolt which is mounted underneath, giving me zero to about 2 inches to play with, which is plenty for neck blanks.


As the build is based upon a 4 inch sander it will only be good for necks and fretboard although I will also try it for small planks to use in box construction.

I haven't given it a proper test yet but seems to works really well, the main problems may be, making sure the felt is square to the bed and having to push timber through uphill.

Have a look at the pics.

https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1079262517?profile=original

https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1079262877?profile=original

https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1079263046?profile=original

https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1079261322?profile=original

https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1079261412?profile=original

https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1079261577?profile=original



I'd be grateful for your thoughts.

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 Glad it works ok , but that's a awful lot of sawdust to make a fingerboard blank

To take a piece of timber from 12mm to 6mm is a planing job, not a sanding job. A sharp and well set-up hand plane will do the job quicker and more accurately...there's no substitute for having the skills with traditional hand tools.

Unless, of course, you substitute something else for it.  

That being said, I would love to have a nice hand plane set up well enough that Roy Underhill would be proud to use it.   I just haven't found one for the right price and learned everything about it yet.

My whole house is sawdust!Dunno if its the AZ dust or my wannabe CBG's!It's hard to maintane a work shop and keep everything clean.I do most of my work in the front room of the house.If its sanding,filing or cutting I try to do it outside,but I prefer to work 10pm til 6am inside.

Lots of work doing a fretboard,I buy blanks and rip them to the width I need,not much sanding.

I have a Harbor Freight hand-held electric planer... It's scary to operate, and throws sawdust like there's no tomorrow... you have me thinking!

http://www.harborfreight.com/3-1-4-quarter-inch-electric-planer-910...

DO NOT f•ck about with one of these. Used properly they are a handy tool, but under no circumstances try and rig one of these up in a bench mounted jig - you are asking for serious injury. These rotational speed of the blade is very high,(16 000-32 000rpm..that's 15-20 times faster than a belt sander) so even used normally they can kick back or throw big splinters of timber out if the feed rate is too high or if you are trying to take too deep a cut. Trying to jury-rig one of these as a cheap substitute for a bench planer is madness - there's enough kinetic energy at the blade to send a piece of timber straight thru' a pair of safety glasses or into part of the human anatomy of someone unfortunate to be in the vicinity. The prospect of a flesh and bone contacting the rotating blade is horrendous. Don't even think about it.

I agree with Chickenbone. As bad as he thinks MY rig may be, I would absolutely not consider trying anything like it with a planer. Holy shit! The idea of those spinning blades anywhere near fingers sends shivers down my spine.

I feel I may have opened a can of worms here, and for that I apologise. Please be careful everyone.

I don't want to stop people being creative with tools, and I reckon I'm pretty careful with power tools, but I've had a few nasty nicks and scrapes to my hands and lost the odd fingernail over the years. I think unless you've actually experienced a close shave with a power tool, it's difficult to comprehend quite how dangerous they can be...so be careful out there.

i totally agree John, don't f##k with power tools people . this discussing had me squirming. use the right tools for the job.our local timber store will prepare and mill any wood you buy there to size-free of charge.

buy a decent plane and learn to keep it sharp, and a spokeshave. i really dont get this idea of using a rasp for shaping a neck

happy safe building guys

Couldn't agree more. I avoid power tools at all costs these days due to a few injuries. Couple of them my fault one of them faulty equipment but now I've lost all the skin off my hands, took a quarter inch strip out of my kneecap with a grinder etc I have a very healthy respect for all power tools. I even use a hand auger for drilling these days. I have two electric planes and all I've ever done is fire one up look at the blades spinning and packed it away again, no way should anyone ever try to jury rig one of those.... "Well you see Doctor it happened like this....."

No argument from me here. I have one, and after a few scary attempts at repurposing it, I decided that that blade design just isn't for the imaginative.  It is quite vicious about doing what it was made for though.

I treat amputation with more respect than road rash.

No. Your finger would be gone for a minute before you even realized it. I have a flip joiner which is a factory built hand planer/joiner combo. It has it's own push pads and all and I still am really careful with this little beast.

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