So, payday has hit, so it's time for me to stop gabbin' and start building. 

I will be going out for supplies later, and I was looking online to check out some tool ideas, and I found this...

http://www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-mighty-mite-table-saw-93211.html

I live in an apartment, so I can't really have a full table saw, so I was hoping this could work for some things, such as trimming up a fret board from a 1/4" thick board.

Since many of you here have vastly more experience than I with woodworking, I thought it would be a good idea to get you opinions.  

I am not under the impression that this will be anywhere near as powerful as a normal table saw.  I am just hoping that. with my limited space, and the smaller lumber used in CBG, that this could be a decent option for me.

Thoughts?

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I read the various reviews. It sounds underpowered for CBG work. It sounds like it may work ok on the 1/4" fretboard, but not on neck boards.

Forget it, its a toy. All you need to cut wood is a good handsaw, some muscle, a steady hand and a keen eye.

Max depth of cut for this is only 3/4". To do a scarf joint on a 3 or 4 string you require minimum 1 1/2" depth of cut.

I am using an 8 1/4" portable saw. I can do a scarf joint and I can resaw lumber up to 2 1/2" thick. I would think that is your minimum. I am making my own boxes now, gluing together 1/8" tops from resawed lumber. I would love to be able to resaw up to 4 1/2" so I could use just two slices for a top,or a bottom.

The other option is a band saw. But you need one with both a fence and a mitre gage. Check kijiji for used deals.

I kinda figured it was a POS, but I wanted to check first.

Instead, I bought this...

http://www.dremel.com/en-us/tools/pages/ToolDetail.aspx?pid=MS20

The reviews for it were good, and there was a video of a guy cutting wood as thick as the 1x2's recommended for the necks with no problem.

So, we'll see how it goes.

I started with a hand saw, moved up to a jig saw with a good size blade then when the right deal came along, I got a small upright bandsaw.

 

Yea, at first I kind of hid my builds, but I dont think it was any reflection on the tools I had or used than rather my experience. Now, every now and then I build one that I will post for all to see. And while no one is ever critical of them I know they could be better and that drives me to do better and better, and thats nothing more than jumping in and getting your feet wet and getting experience.

 

Just have fun, you're going to love how they make you feel after you got one made and you are strumming on it !

I bought a used craftsman chop saw for $30 at a local reclaim center. I am finding many new uses and may not even buy a table saw. If you go with a hand saw, I would recommend some good clamps. There is nothing worse than your work moving around while trying to make a nice, crisp cut.

I'm going to say something maybe a little controversial, but what is the obsession with powertools for the simplest most basic jobs? My observation is that this does seem to be a bit of a modern American obsession...and I sort of understand the temptation to go this route, because these tools are available and cheap, but learning to use simple hand tools is a basic skill in building musical instruments. I mean, what are you going to do...just cut a piece of wood?  Medieval carpenters built cathedral spires, the Pilgrim Fathers their houses and wagons, Stradivari built his violins - all with hand-tools.  A cigar box or tin can guitar  is a crude instrument, and can be put together with the crudest, most simple tools.

Check this out - I posted it on another discussion about tools...these people put together instruments with the most basic of tools  - a knife, can opener or tinsnips, pliers and a hammer -or even a rock if they can't find a hammer. They make guitars quickly and they make music on them.

Handsaw is the way to go - my first couple of hundred guitars were made with no powertools other than an electric drill. Handtools are relatively cheap and if selected carefully and maintained will will last you a lifetime, and more importantly, the skills you learn in using them will also stay with you throughout life.

John,

It's just boys and their toys, really. Yes, there is a bit of an American obsession with power and speed. Also, there were the various incarnations of the New Yankee Workshop, a spinoff of Bob Vila's This Old House, featuring Norm Abram, Bib's master carpenter buddy, that were hugely popular on PBS in the States over the last 15 years. This led, as it inevitably does with American males, to tool envy, and wishing they too, could cut, for example, a dovetail joint quickly, cleanly, and easily like Norm did. Part of this is also due to perceived limited weekend time, and the general faster pace of American urban life. People who were raised in the country, or had parents and grandparents who used hand tools, still know how to do basic woodworking, but these skills are no longer taught in trade schools (because they've many of them shut down) or even in many high schools.

Ron, that sort of figures - I wasn't meaning to be critical of the American mind-set or way of doing things, but it always seems to be the first thing that comes up with craft hobbies, that folk seem to want a power tool or special jig so they can do it "like the pros" do it. I've been pretty slow to tool-up with workshop powertools, and tend to wait until I can afford decent stuff - I  go for cast iron and a powerful induction motor rather than a low dollar price tag..which inevitably means pressed metal, plastic parts and an underpowered unit. Cheap stuff is often weak, noisy and can produce an inferior and less accurate result than doing it with handtools. With workshop powertools, it's best to buy more capacity and power than you think you'll need..that way you actually use them more than you might originally think, as they have so much capability, whereas with a cheap underpowered tool, you might use it a few times and then consign it to the back of the shop..especially if it breaks (I know, I've  done  it couple of times and that's enough).

I'm really pleased to be able to go into schools and teach kids how to do this sort of thing with simple hand-tools, but it's increasingly difficult to spread the word in this way because it costs so much..as well as my time and the materials, it needs extra teaching staff with this sort of practical hands-on work.

Hey John, you could do a version of Jamie's School Dinners and call it ChickenboneJohn's School Carpentry or something.

John,

No worries, no offense taken. If I can't recognize what idiosyncrasies I share with my countrymen, then obviously, someone else is gonna hafta do it ;-). I am utterly susceptible to hand and power tool envy, because I come from a family of gadget-heads on my Dad's side: my great-grandfather was a machinist's mate in the merchant marine, my grandfather was a chemist and ham radio fanatic, my father was a geologist and mechanical engineer, my uncle was an architect and artist, and I'm a mixture of literally all of those, having built forts and boats as a kid, worked on my own car engines as a teenager, assembled, rebuilt and designed bicycles, roofed my parents' house, and designed and built theatrical sets from simple to fairly complex. You alluded to the ready availability and relative affordability of power tools: in the States, Lowes, Home Depot and Menard's big box stores make it easy for the average DIY-suscebtible guy to access all of these tools at reasonable prices all in one place as well - means only one trip, where a guy can legally ogle tool porn for hours without anyone getting upset ;-). Oddly, woodworking shops like Rockler and Harbor Freight are leading a resurgence in hand tools for fine woodworking, all because of Norm Abram and others who can chisel, carve, sculpt, join, etc., on both reality TV shows and the Internet. This ties in with the DIY movement, of which I regard the CBG revolution as a subset. Only reasons, in my opinion, for power tools in CBG building are 1) impatience, 2) ease of availability and use, 3) time limitations, real or perceived. I gotta admit, my power belt sander makes neck-shaping quick and reasonably accurate for rough-out, but I still hand sand and finish. I agree about purchasing quality tools, whether hand or power. I still have some of my grandfather's hand cast iron tools, as does my father's toolbox. With 3 boys in the family, we kinda had to parcel things out. Plus, having THE correct tool for the job leads to lots of social interaction and tool envy from others: people know you have the kit, so they ask for help.
There was a similiar idea about having the right "tools" when I got serious about playing guitar back in the 80's.
People thought you had to have a Marshall stack and rack units. I remember reading about and seeing all the ads with rock stars playing out of them. Nowadays anything goes in my book. If it sounds good- it's good. If your tools get the job done right ( without breaking the bank) your on the right track.

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