What power tools?

OnTheRopes

I am beginning to plan improving my workshop and was wondering what power tools you find either essential or nice to have for solid body guitar building. Things like band saw, router, sander of some kind spring to mind but do you use these and what else might you suggest?

fandango

Festool - by far the best power tools money can buy.

https://www.festool.co.uk

And no I don't work for Festool. But have seen how good they are ... they're the real mcCoy ... the bee's knees ...  the dogs bollx.

Nomad

There's no definitive answer. In general, machines and power tools get stuff done faster, and sometimes more accurately. They also enable you to screw things up much more quickly.

It could be argued that none of them are essential insofar as it's possible to make a guitar using nothing but hand tools. That may be appealing to some, but I suspect that most will use power at least some of the time. However, there is nearly always some hand tool work to be done, so it's a question of where to strike the balance. The balance that works for you depends on several things, like how many guitars and how quickly, what space you have, budget, and how much noise and dust you (and others) are willing to put up with.

Dust means a need for extraction, which means more noise. Noise and dust also mean wearing protective gear quite a lot, which can get tedious. For example, you can carve a neck using heavy abrasive in an angle grinder while done up like Safety Boy, or you can carve with a spokeshave while listening to the radio. Two quite different approaches, either of which might appeal to you more. In other words, there is an aspect to consider regarding how you want to work.

So, what size is your workshop? And, are you looking at one-at-a-time hobby making, or some sort of manufacture or business?

OnTheRopes

Nomad said:

So, what size is your workshop? And, are you looking at one-at-a-time hobby making, or some sort of manufacture or business?

The workshop is about 30 feet by 20 feet with 2 floors. Currently I just have a workbench, so lots of room but I do store my pushbikes in there and a few other things.
It is hard to say if this will be a one off, hopefully not but only time will tell, I did make a guitar about 20 years ago and used my Dad's bandsaw to cut out the shape and used spoke shabes to carve the neck etc. I have a router.

I am looking not so much what I should buy as what I could buy I suppose and then I will make a selection. Stuff like band saws would be useful anyway for other wood working tasks.
Dust extraction is an important point I need to consider of course, last time I built a guitar I breathed in more dust than I would like to repeat, but I do have a good supply of respirator these days.

I know it is difficult to make money building guitars and I don't have any illusions as to this but I would like to make a few and see how it goes.

Corvus

I guess personal preferences come into it but something like-

Jointer/planer. I keep thinking about getting a better one but I just like hand planing, like hands-on work vs hands off/power tools/speed. Bandsaw, routers big & small, pillar drill. Router table can be very useful, easy to make.

I like having a disc sander, would like a disc & belt combo more. Got a couple of largish hand power sanders but very rarely use them on guitars. I do have a 3" air sander/polisher which is ace for polishing paint on guitars.

I'm making an extractor from an ash vac and chemical container drum. When my organic vapour paint masks get past best I use them in the workshop, they're more than capable against dust. My eyes get itchy easily, best thing I found so far is some ski goggles, much better than any glasses or workshop ones I've had.

Sporky

Dust should be dealt with at source - masks are secondary protection.

I'd say the most useful power/machine tools for guitar building are a router, a bandsaw, a pillar drill and a good hand drill.

Rocker

Electric power in the shed is a first essential. Some power tools need a hefty amount of current so your supply cable needs to be up to the task. Consult a local electrician who will advise.

TTony

Sporky said:

I'd say the most useful power/machine tools for guitar building are a router, a bandsaw, a pillar drill and a good hand drill.

Unusually, I find myself agreeing with the @Sporky.

Except, he should have said;

a router, another router, a bandsaw, a pillar drill and a good hand drill.

Sporky

One router good. Two routers better.

Ideally one that'll take 1/2" bits, one laminate trimmer style, one in a router table and a spare...

Corvus

Sporky said:

Dust should be dealt with at source - masks are secondary protection.

It's possible to get by with a mask and a Henry-type vac. An organic vapour mask is as good as it gets short of air-fed masks.

Sporky

Corvus said:

Sporky said:

Dust should be dealt with at source - masks are secondary protection.

It's possible to get by with a mask and a Henry-type vac. An organic vapour mask is as good as it gets short of air-fed masks.

Henry vacs let the most harmful stuff straight through. If you look at the filter bags they're called Hepaflow - they are not HEPA rated. Numatic do make some HEPA machines but they are a lot more expensive than a Henry.

 The right way to do it is to capture the dust where and as it is created.

Nomad

I tend to agree with the general run of opinion: bandsaw, pillar drill, chunky 1/2" router and a smaller 1/4" router. I don't use a hand power drill so much, but they are very useful around a workshop in any case. I made a table for my small router, which has been very handy.

Sanders strike me as something where it could be easy to end up with several because the various types are good at doing different things. A Dremel type rotary tool has its uses for inlay work if it's mounted in a router-type stand.

Beyond those, things like a planer, thicknesser, and drum sander might be useful for getting surfaces flat. They might not be needed for some types of construction, however, and there are alternatives, like a hand sander of some sort, sandpaper and a block, or hand planes. Not much call for a table saw that I can see.

I would advise considering the capacity you need from each machine. If I hadn't already bought my 10" bandsaw a few years before I got interested in guitar making, I'd have bought a bigger one - something with more power and with a taller cut capacity than 5". The one I have can't resaw sycamore to make a bookmatched body cap, for example. In an ideal world, I'd have two bandsaws - a big one for resawing and heavy work, and a smaller one with a skinny blade for things like cutting out body outlines and general smaller tasks.

In a similar vein, think carefully about the level of quality to aim for with each machine and power tool. In general, there is a lot to be said for the two phrases "buy cheap, buy twice" and "buy once, cry once", but it must be said that there are some cheaper tools out there that punch above their price bracket - definitely do the research before parting with the cash. Don't skimp on cutters, be it bandsaw blades, router bits, forstner bits, etc. Almost all of what goes on in a woodworking workshop (for any purpose) is cutting stuff up, and cutters that work well make a huge difference. About the only thing that can be bought at the budget end that performs well is standard twist drills - they're so ubiquitous, it's hard to buy a 10-quid set that's actually crap.

OnTheRopes

Thanks. Some great suggestions there, any specific size of pillar drill I should consider?

Nomad

OnTheRopes said:

Thanks. Some great suggestions there, any specific size of pillar drill I should consider?

This thread should be worth a read...

http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/93529/suggest-a-drill-press

Sporky

I love my table saw, but it doesn't get any use for guitar making.

For thicknessing you can build a router sled rather than spend a load on a planer/thicknesser.

And for sanding I'd suggest some car body sanding blocks, sticky back paper, and maybe a random orbit sander for finishing. You can get it all done by hand though.

OnTheRopes

Nomad said:

OnTheRopes said:

Thanks. Some great suggestions there, any specific size of pillar drill I should consider?

This thread should be worth a read...

http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/93529/suggest-a-drill-press

Thanks, yes it was.

OnTheRopes

Sporky said:

I love my table saw, but it doesn't get any use for guitar making.

For thicknessing you can build a router sled rather than spend a load on a planer/thicknesser.

And for sanding I'd suggest some car body sanding blocks, sticky back paper, and maybe a random orbit sander for finishing. You can get it all done by hand though.

Something like this?

I think I will probably enrol with Mark Baileys online course and that should help with ideas too 

Roland

As part of his online course Mark provides a list of possible tools. 

The advice I was given is to buy a tool when you actually need it, and then to buy the one which will do the job in hand, and anything else which you are likely to use it for.

Sporky

OnTheRopes said:

Something like this?

Yes. Mine was a ply base, side rails were aluminium box profile, carriage was more ali profile.

OnTheRopes

Roland said:

As part of his online course Mark provides a list of possible tools. 

The advice I was given is to buy a tool when you actually need it, and then to buy the one which will do the job in hand, and anything else which you are likely to use it for.

That's pretty much the way I intend to go with it but just trying to get a feel for essential and useful stuff to have. 

Roland

Router and selection of bits, random orbital sander and paper, drill (either a small one on a stand or a pillar drill), saw (bandsaw preferred, but I make do with jig and scroll saws). Last, but definitely not least, something to take the dust away. I started with a Henry stood outside the workshop door