New member wanting advice! (On starting out)

[Asomodai]

Hey guys.

My name is Rob, i am 25 from Bristol! I have some experience working with electronics (Troubleshooting and fixing) and a small amount of woodworking experience. I guess you could say I am a bit of a pencil pusher (Ie i have a background in Systems anaylsis and requirements engineering)

For years now i have been at the mercy of so called guitar luthiers in Bristol who take an age to do poor routing for ridiculous sums of money on my bass guitars.

So i have taken it upon myself to start learning how to do this kind of stuff myself!

My Grandfather has a workshop that i get to play around in from time to time. I learnt some of the basics of things but nothing particularly heavy duty.

Anyway, i have set aside around about 200-400 quid trying to put together a setup to do stuff with wood (Specifically bass guitars) It is not a full time setup and will only be used maybe once a month.

Now its not alot of money so i will probably have to go about second hand in some of this stuff.

I have identified a need for.

- A Solid work bench, with wood clamps.
- Decent router that i can work with templates (Must be steady as a rock as my hands sure ain't!)
- Standard tool set, Screwdrivers, allen keys, wrenchs etc. Assorted screws.
- Electric sander
- Heat gun. (A good one, i like stripping finishes)
- Hand drill (Preferably)
- Ear defenders/Safety gloves/safety equipment.
- Small extractor/hoover

Optional is a band saw/pillar drill.

Is there anything obvious i have missed?

As far as a Work bench i would love to have something with a nice backboard to hang various tools within easy reach. Thats pretty much the only requirement. Also i am unable to bolt anything to the walls or floors.
If i bought a work bench without built in wood clamps (Which i understand are terrible) How would i go about installing the wood clamp to the desk? Is it something as simple as clamping it on, or drilling a hole and bolting it on?

So any advice you can give me? Any brands i should be looking into or avoiding? I will be working with instrument grade wood, so any mistakes would be costly!

 

[p111dom]

Check this guy out on you tube. He has a series of videos on making a guitar which while thats not unusual, he has a host of great cost saving techniques. Watching all episodes takes about 2 hours but is well worth it. Whatever he has is what you should start with as really, he doesn't have that much.

 

[GazPal]

Can you be a little more specific in terms of the work you intend to carry out? Primarily electric? Acoustic? Build, repair, set-up?

Things such as a bench, guitar neck rests and jigs can easily be made, but you may find you'll need to increase your budget by a fair margin if considering tooling up with things like vice/vices, fret and nut files/decent, planes, sharpening kit, laminate trimmer and rebate & trimming + down spiral bits for banding/binding and inlay work, etc.

Try www.frets.com for acoustic based info regarding repairwork. :wink:

 

[Asomodai]

Can you be a little more specific in terms of the work you intend to carry out? Primarily electric? Acoustic? Build, repair, set-up?

Things such as a bench, guitar neck rests and jigs can easily be made, but you may find you'll need to increase your budget by a fair margin if considering tooling up with things like vice/vices, fret and nut files/decent, planes, sharpening kit, laminate trimmer and rebate & trimming + down spiral bits for banding/binding and inlay work, etc.

Try www.frets.com for acoustic based info regarding repairwork. :wink:

At the moment all i want to concentrate on is routing out bodies for pickups, jack sockets and the like on already cut and shaped bodies. Stripping finishes etc. Anything to do with the neck is far too much in advance of what i want to do.

 

[GazPal]

At the moment all i want to concentrate on is routing out bodies for pickups, jack sockets and the like on already cut and shaped bodies. Stripping finishes etc. Anything to do with the neck is far too much in advance of what i want to do.

In all honesty you can probably get away with investing in a decent plunge router (I'd recommend one, but since retiring I'm not too up to date on what's currently available), bits and raw materials for such things as a small working bench/surface, jigs and templates.

A laminate trimmer such as Bosch GKF600 http://www.axminster.co.uk/bosch-bosch- ... rod784588/ may prove useful if you come to find yourself working on bound instruments, e.g. tele specials, Rickenbacker, etc..

 

[Asomodai]

At the moment all i want to concentrate on is routing out bodies for pickups, jack sockets and the like on already cut and shaped bodies. Stripping finishes etc. Anything to do with the neck is far too much in advance of what i want to do.

In all honesty you can probably get away with investing in a decent plunge router (I'd recommend one, but since retiring I'm not too up to date on what's currently available), bits and raw materials for such things as a small working bench/surface, jigs and templates.

A laminate trimmer such as Bosch GKF600 http://www.axminster.co.uk/bosch-bosch- ... rod784588/ may prove useful if you come to find yourself working on bound instruments, e.g. tele specials, Rickenbacker, etc..

I wont be working with binding at all! Very few basses have body binding. I do like the look of it, but its not essential. Just trying to make basses more functional then anything.

I'll look into some plunge routers!

 

[GazPal]

I wont be working with binding at all! Very few basses have body binding. I do like the look of it, but its not essential. Just trying to make basses more functional then anything.

I'll look into some plunge routers!

Much depends on whichever bass guitar designs and nature of the work in which you're going to be involved. Binding tends to come with the territory if stripping back the finish on previously bound instruments - a number of basses are bound, unless you're working on you're own - so it's well worthwhile noting the necessary tools for future reference. :wink:

 

[Dan-K]

If you want all this for 200-400:

- A Solid work bench, with wood clamps.
- Decent router that i can work with templates (Must be steady as a rock as my hands sure ain't!)
- Standard tool set, Screwdrivers, allen keys, wrenchs etc. Assorted screws.
- Electric sander
- Heat gun. (A good one, i like stripping finishes)
- Hand drill (Preferably)
- Ear defenders/Safety gloves/safety equipment.
- Small extractor/hoover

I think you will have to seriously consider second hand/freecycle etc. A decent router like a DW621K is about 200 straight away. However a second hand one can be had for under 100. Similarly you can probably pick up a free hoover on freecycle. This forum is often a good source of quality used kit also. Welcome to the slope

 

[BelgianPhil]

From one newbie to another
I got a workbench from freecycle
a shop vac from freecycle
a plunge router from my father in law that he bought 3 or 4 years ago at aldi and was still in the box
a drill press from my father in law again
two (brand new) G-clamps rescued from the skip at work
i had a £20 drill and i bought a £20 sander

Sure i'm not going to make anything remotely as fine as other members on this forum, but then again, with my skills at the moment i'm not going to make anything nice with expensive tools either.

 

[walshy2]

Hi Rob I know how hard it is just starting out! but here is a website I have join which has help me. It like having your own personal instructor. Hope it helps. Only problem its a one of payment, but well worth it. woodworking coffee table

 

[cjp]

I have been looking at building bass guitars myself for a while, and after reading "make your own electric guitar & bass" by Dennis Waring & David Raymond (recommended) and helping out a friend with electric guitars I will try and offer some advice. A couple of perhaps non-obvious things I can see missing form your list - (this assumes you would eventually plan to make the whole thing, if your working with pre-made body blanks, necks, you can drop some of these):

Safety equipment. Don't skip on the eye protection and dust masks - exotic woods often used in guitar making can be toxic, an irritant to the eyes and lungs. If you use power tools don't forget the ear protection.

A really long drill bit to make a wiring hole from the battery compartment to the pickup cavities.

Soldering tools for the electronics.

If you want to make any neck-through body designs, you'll need a way to square up the edges for gluing. Hand planes will work, but you'll want to be able to secure the work firmly. Ideally you'd have access to a jointer. In any case you'll probably want some planes to shape other area's anyway. Also you'll then need clamps to glue the wings on!

Spokeshave(s) and files for the neck & headstock and for refining the body curves.

Another load of clamps to glue the fretboard down, though I guess you could make something to weight it down.

Spraying equipment. Especially if you plan a lacquered finish. I guess you can use aerosol lacquers for this but my friend reported only partially success with these - perhaps others have had better luck?

If you plan to make anything out of real wood then a bandsaw might open up more wood options if it has a decent re-sawing capacity. Says the man who doesn't yet own one and instead spends hours looking longingly at the slabs of bubinga and zebrano. I'll have my Yamaha TRB5-PII replica one day, I willl! ;-) Of course once you get into this route your on a slippery slope of tool acquisition - just like me!

Oh no, now you've got me looking at old Alembic bass guitars online. Sigh. I'll be gone for hours. :roll:

Hope that helps a bit.

Charlie

 

[OPJ]

Welcome to the forum.

Only thing I'd add is to put a bandsaw higher up your list. You should be able to get a decent 12" or 14" machine for £100-200 on eBay and, with the right selection of blades, it'll serve you well for a whole load of purposes. You're going to need one to shape the bodies and it'll be far more reliable and accurate than any jigsaw. :wink:

Sounds like you'll be doing a lot of routing so, you'd be better off spend a good amount of money on one. Stick to the known brands (Makita, DeWalt, Bosch blue, etc.). Avoid any cheap B&Q or Argos rubbish like the plague!!

It's always worth keeping an eye on eBay, but also have a look at Trade-It and Gumtree for local ads.

 

[jimi43]

Only thing I'd add is to put a bandsaw higher up your list........

100%!!!

The router need not be too expensive. You just need to find a good one...I have loads that came from bootfairs and each has it's purpose.

I routed most of my pickup and switch cavities with a £5 one from a bootfair (blue one right in pic below)...and I won't part with it even though it is a rubbish "NuTool" type one! It has done a lot of fine work with a good quality cutter which cost me more than the router itself but was worth every penny!

Not one of these cost me more than £20 (the old Makita)...you can get some real bargains.

Make a bench. You can get suitable wood from freecycle or reclaimed timber to do a good job. This one was a pair of old doors:

Some say the top needs to be thicker but this is old oak and weighs a ton and doesn't budge an inch!


Re bass guitars.....I stripped this old Fender Bass which had been resprayed RED with car paint would you believe...it was a NIGHTMARE!!!

My son still plays it...

Good luck with your search for tools...it's really fun!

Jim