Am i the only one who loves woodworking?

[mark02tj]

For any aspiring woodworkers who dream of someday selling their work, here is a little success story for your inspiration:

http://guitarsnjazz.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/palen_article.pdf

I had a lifetime dream to be able to have my own little business on the side. Hope that I'm not being too dramatic or boastful here.

GREAT story! No, not being boastful at all.

For those that don't remember, George Benson had a big hit with the song "On Broadway" back in the 80's.

 

[KevT]

Came to this thread late, but yes I have been a woodworker since the early 70's. I now have a 900 sq. ft. wood shop that holds my tools. I have made everything from knick nacs, to furniture, to cabinets, to kayaks. The only problem now is I only seem to find time to use it in the winter when I am not working on pastures and such. It is also when I make Christmas gifts.

 

[PILOON]

A curtain to surround the lathe zone!
Why did I not think of that myself.
Thanks for showing.

 

[npalen]

The article said you use a homemade lathe to cut the wood for the guitar, but there aren't any round parts. Just curious if you don't play a guitar what made you decide to build one? I am certainly not knocking your work so please don't take it that way. I'm just asking questions.

The lathe being referrred to is one that I had built back in the early to mid nineties for turning large diameter segmented wooden bowls up to about 36" diameter. I had mounted a small CNC milling machine to the lathe to be able to make decorative cuts as well as indexing for making clock faces etc.

Then when I got into guitarmaking, I used this same setup to mill the molds for holding the guitar body parts during construction as well as cutting out the shape of the top and back plates for the guitar. (Yes, they are definitely not round) I will try to find and post a picture of this setup.

After making a number of large bowls I was looking for another challenge. Archtop guitars looked to be the answer as the top and back plates are contoured much like a violin. The challenge didn't waste any time in presenting itself but I was able to meet it using templates taken from a book and hand carving the shapes. The hand carving eventually proved to be more than my arms could stand so eventually went to rough carving them on a larger CNC router.

The finish on the guitars is nitro cellulose lacquer as used on cars back in the day. It has plasticizers added to allow for wood movement with changes in humidity. The nitro is used first as sealer and then as clear coat after the colors are applied using powdered aniline dyes dissolved in alcohol.

Thank you to those who have expressed interest.

 

[farmer2009]

There are several reasons to turn green. Finding dry wood that size is almost impossible, and even if you did it is much harder to turn. Green wood is easily peeled away in large stringy shavings. Green wood is free and dry wood is expensive. Your tools stay sharp much longer cutting green wood VS dry wood, and there isn't any dust. About not breaking an arm, a YouTube video would better explain that. <img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/files/related-topics/443995-am-i-only-one-who-image-2546137529-jpg"/> <img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/files/related-topics/443996-am-i-only-one-who-image-2627389252-jpg"/>

Very interesting, I've never been around any turning. Thanks