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Shop/homemade tools and & Jigs

Hi, I thought it might be a good idea to show some of the many tools and jigs I have made over the years, instead of buying them They may not be your cup of tea, you may not need them, but I may inspire you to be creative in your thinking.

As I mentioned in a previous post, out of all the tools and jigs in the Stumac catalogue I have made 53 of them for myself. Often before they appeared in their catalogue. Most are not original and many are created from just seeing a photo of the tool or jig.

To kick things off I'll show some of the knives I have made or modified. Sometimes two knives come from the one blade of a bigger kitchen or boning knives.

Still to come is a host of different hand saws, a half a dozen different style clamps, power tool attachments and misc. other converted hand tools.

Feel free to add to the list.

Cheers Taff

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on January 8, 2018 at 9:01pm

Those are nice Taff.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on January 8, 2018 at 9:06pm

One other substitute tool is a Xacto small hand saw that I got in a set of Xacto knives. It just happens to be the right size for cutting fret slots and you can get one at a hobby store for about 5 bucks or less. Been using mine to cut fret slots now for close to 10 years and it's probably time to get another one. It came with a mitre box that works great for CBG fretboards.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Caruso on January 10, 2018 at 1:15pm

This is exactly what it looks like - about 2 inches of coping saw blade fit into an xacto knife handle. Sturdier than the thin blades you can buy and narrower allowing for more curvature in the cuts - used for f holes and general cutting - flip the blade to cut on the push or the pull.

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Permalink Reply by Kirk on January 11, 2018 at 3:01am

Joe, that's brilliant! I use a scroll saw blade too, but putting a piece in an Xacto handle will help a bunch!

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Permalink Reply by Joe Caruso on January 11, 2018 at 4:21am

This thread is doing its job! ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Richard Dean on January 11, 2018 at 3:24am

Joe, I've done the exacto same thing..punny, but, I never used it for guitars, don't know why I didn't make the connection for it's use that way. So, what did I use it for?

carving pumpkins

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Permalink Reply by Joe Caruso on January 11, 2018 at 4:20am

Beautiful!!! ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Richard Dean on January 11, 2018 at 4:48am

I can't take credit for that one, just an image from the net, I had done one similar, but for the life of me can't figure out where the pic is in this puter, too many hard drives and files.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Caruso on January 11, 2018 at 11:44am

Oh gosh yes trying to find pics - I know the pain.

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Permalink Reply by Grandpa on January 11, 2018 at 12:16pm

Richard, did you turn that pumpkin into a git? Ought to be good for 2-3 days. Might need a single coil, though. Don't think pumpkins are acoustically sound. Wait. If you dried it out, it could be a gourdtar.