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Cost of our HOBBY

Every day I check the mail box. Looking for one order from Gitty and one from a company in Thailand. The company inThailand sells really cheap capacitors, pots, boards, etc. However, it takes ten days or more to arrive. More usuallly. Gitty takes far less, it just seems like ten days since I am anxious. I am awaiting two sets of tuners. two sets of strings and twenty five grommits for strings.

Read an article today about tools needed to do a professional job of building CBGs. It was from someone who does this for a living. They listed real tools, band saws, drill presses, plainers, belt sanders, scroll saws, table saws, several sets of drills and a power screw driver, dramill tool, chisel set, rasps, files, and a lot more. They said a cheap set of these tools could be bought for around $1200 to $1500 and suggested one invest that just to get started.

Really?

Raise your hand if you can invest that much right now. Ok, a few of you have decent jobs, the rest of us are ordinary blue collar stiffs.

I've given up chex mix and chocolot, and ginger ale to support my weekly thirty something to forty dollar purchases.

My breakfast cereal bowl ends up in my shop, I moved my computer to my shop, and a dorm refridgerator. Beverage cans overflow the trash can.

My new second hobby is shopping antique stores, flea markets, yard sales, and junk places for tools and supplies. The last two cigar boxes I got were from junk dealers and the draw knife for doing guitar necks from a flea market. I call shopping going to Lowes. I hit the hardware isle at Wal Mart and even find myself in the electronic isle of Goodwill looking for amps and tube radios or old guitars to turn into resonators, or cannobalize.

I even watch the road side when driving down the road for hub caps or parts. Its obsessive.

The cost is far more than money, its time, its personal time, family time, its every waking thought, all our energy, its our every thought like time. Its worse than football, worse than sex even. Its an addiction. We'd almost steal to feed it, we'd beg, we'd have no shame, and we'd grovel with the dealer using every trick to get him or her down one more dime.

We have no shame.

It cost us our very soul, our dignity.

The cost is great, but the reward is worth it when our creation is done, when that first note rings out, the beauty shines forth, the marvel and miracle happens.

We again become a proud parent, we have created, have birthed, have brought forth, have enriched the world.

AH, is there anything like it my firend?

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Comment by Lonman on October 4, 2012 at 12:38pm: I am very happy to say that I enjoy this as a hobby. I cannot imagine doing this for a living, but if you like it enough to go where the sales can be made, then yes, go for it. My main tool wishlist item is a tabletop bench saw. I am fine with the drills and sanders I have. I like to re-use items I find, sometimes it make the build more meaningful. My most expensive build was the 6 string 'chess paul' electric, cost was high due to parts and kits that I had not gotten before, but at the end, the guitar turned out really nice. This hobby is just like any other, you can put in as much as you feel the need, just don't burn out. When it no longer is fun and enjoyable, then time to change your ways.

Comment by frank tennyson on October 4, 2012 at 12:31pm: Hal end ome of thoe clamp my way, and if you get a new - or bigger ued drill press or sander end them along, pretty please. Pop Tennyon,. Need my addre just shoot me an email. (The s is going out on my key board have to go back and hit it two or three time to put in in after writing anything, o uually avoid word with S in them) how how deperate I am.

Comment by Habanera Hal on October 4, 2012 at 10:02am: I already had everything I needed. I was fortunate to have accumulated and inherited a very well-equipped woodworking (never liked that word - it should be woodFUNNING!) shop over the last 50 years, so I was set. I've only had to invest in or build a few additional tools to feed my habit:

Band saw

Stew-Mac fret saw

Draw plane (which I still haven't figured out how to use properly)

Fret slotting jigs

String positioning jigs

Kerfing jig

About a half-dozen additional router bits

A bunch of new chisels

A bunch of new Forstner bits

10,000 clamps

Slab of marble for a dead-flat sanding surface

Wood Bending iron*

Bending jigs and forms*

Shooting board*

*for the ukes I'm now building

Yep, got everything I need.

I do have my eye on a table scroll saw, though.

Maybe a bigger drill press.

And a new bench sander.

A dust collection system would be a good idea.

If I break out the wall between my shop and the spare room, I could expand my workbench and add a thickness sander and planer/jointer.

Hello, my name is Hal and I'm a cigarbox guitar addict. It's been 2 days since my last build..........

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Comment by Boxy Music on October 4, 2012 at 1:14am: $1200 for tools? That kind of goes against the whole ethos - I made my first instrument because I couldn't afford to buy one! I have a few more tools now but it just makes things easier, it doesn't make things possible. I agree, there's nothing quite like creating something from nothing, but the most important cost to keep in check is the personal and family time - I have often been guilty of this in the past and I regret it.

Comment by Flippin 9's (Scot C.) on October 3, 2012 at 1:30am: OMG.... That's ME!!! I started with a hole saw a japanese rip saw, drill, bits and a few clamps. Every CGB I've made has been sold. I put 100% of it back into supplies and tools. Now.... thanks to Harbor Frieght I have three different types of power saws, drill press, router and several hand tools (rasps, files etc.).
But the best tool is CBG Nation for me. You all provide the inspiration for me, some of the great stuff people build here blows me away.
That and I love the look on the faces when people get the CBG I made into their hands and realize it belongs to them. That's what really keeps me wanting to build. It's amazing to see a grown adult look like a kid at Christmas when they first see it. LOL

Comment by Thomas "Duck" Petry on October 2, 2012 at 9:42am: Spent 25 plus years as a machinist and the rest of my working life as an aircraft mechanic, restoring old airplanes. I have accumulated lots of tools over the years, but enjoy build CBGs with a minimum of machinery. A cheap drill, a cheaper sander and an old broken band saw that was given to me that I repaired are my main tools and most of the time I use a hand saw because it's easier then clearing everything away so I can get to the band saw. The fun of these things is building with few tools and scrounged bits and pieces. If you want to do it as a business, buy tools to make it faster and wright them off on your taxes. If you are doing this because you want to have fun with instruments that you made yourself and you are hooked on these crazy little boxes that sound so sweet. Build them by hand and enjoy the process. I just finished build #9 and so far I have only bought wood for the necks from Lowe's and tuners, strings and electrics from Gitty. All of the boxes I have built were given to me, (I still have 4 more wood boxes and 3 cookie tins stashed for my fun and enjoyment). Half of my necks so far have been scavenged at no cost. If you are really into these things and creative a $10.00 bill will cover a build, (less options, dealer costs may vary). Haven't had this much fun since I built my first drag race car back in 1962.

Comment by jabes on October 1, 2012 at 9:29pm: that's a lot of money for a hobby, i think you've gone beyond hobby ,i was seeing a CBG in everything i saw, yes i look out for boxes, old furniture,etc, but the initial 'rush of enthusiasm had calmed down, i realise i don't need a pile of tools, even when i build a fully electric,fretted one it only costs me around £20...

Comment by Uncle John on October 1, 2012 at 2:22pm: Well said! It's a great hobby and it can be done on the cheap. See the low budget group. I admire the people on here who make cbgs in their kitchens with minimal - MINIMAL tools. That's the history too.

I have a nice but not too big shop and some of my dad's old tools. About all I use to make a cbg is a $100 table saw, a cheap drill, a $70 miter saw (that sucks), a hack saw, a hand held reciprocal saw (cheap) and some rasps. Pretty meager compared to some and the taj mahal compared to others.

It sure aint bout' money.

Comment by Bad Finger (Eric) on October 1, 2012 at 2:52am: I agree with your introduction. Anyone who can afford $1200 to $1500 in tools to "get started" either has too much money looking for something to do, or doesn't have their priorities straight. You can "get started" with little more than a drill, a hand saw a rasp and some sand paper. I really enjoy working everything by hand the slow way, but I'm not trying to turn out 100 guitars in a week. Or a year.

I look at my work area in the basement with guilt when I can't dedicate the time to build some guitars. I feel like I am neglecting the boxes on the shelf and the few guitars that are somewhere between started and finished. But, I've got a lot going on that makes me happy so the guilt is short-lived.

Comment by Clock The Wolf on October 1, 2012 at 1:18am: You should seriously consider entering into a life of crime as a way to fund your obsession. The best part is, if you get caught, you'll get off on an insanity defense... (°_o) !!!