Visit My Workshop

Here's a virtual tour of my basement shop, which I use for woodwork operations, french polishing, and wood storage.  It occupies 340 square feet, roughly in an L shape.

Shop-made workbench inspired by the European cabinetmaker's workbench design featured in Fine Woodworking #4, Fall 1976.  This is where I bend, slot fingerboards, french polish, etc.  On the bench: a guitar under repair in the Guitarmaker's Vise, and a drawered toolbox useful for holding small specialized lutherie tools. 

The guitarmaker's vise from Stewart-MacDonald is perhaps the most useful tool in the whole shop.  Here it is holding the Bending Iron at a good working height.  Bending is an erotic experience with wood.

The auxiliary work table is a partial sheet of 3/4" MDF placed over the table saw / router table when required.  Used when I need a perfectly flat surface or more space.  I can remove it and start sawing or routing within 2 or 3 minutes.

This 11-drawer toolchest is conveniently by my right side when standing by the workbench, so that the most frequently-used tools including rulers, squares, chisels, files, and planes, are readily at hand.

Some shop-made forms and tools.  On the left, the solera with its perimiter of body clamps.  The solera is dished in the lower bout and tapered in the neck to create a domed soundboard and angled neck as per the Spanish method.  Also shown: the plantilla (guitar half-outline); shop-made cam clamps; spool clamps. 

Close-up of the square "spool" clamps. 

Three deep half-guitar shaped jigs, useful in the bending process and when attaching lining to guitar sides.

The manual slotting system from Luthiers' Mercantile, an indispensable tool for accurate sawing of fret slots to ensure correct intonation.

On the left, an 18" bandsaw with a 1" blade which I use for resawing, for scarf joints, and for some other operations.  On the right, a 10" bandsaw with a 1/4" blade, useful for operations such as cutting the outline of soundboards and backs.

Thicknessing planer / jointer.

Home-made thicknessing drum sander, bought used.

Oscillating spindle sander (on the right), useful in shaping curves such as on the guitar head.

The belt / disc sander has a few uses in instrument making, including rough dimensioning of nuts and saddles.

The downdraught table, which hooks into the Dust Collector, most useful when sanding with a portable pad sander, but also useful for hand sanding.  Very effective at keeping fine dust out of the air and lungs.

Drill press, with drill press table (fence not shown) from Lee Valley; Dust Collector.  On the drill press table is an angle vise I use when boring tuning machine barrel holes in the head and string holes in the tie block.

Air filtration unit, for cleaning the air of the finest particles.

Stickered tops and backs; Storage of longer boards, neck and fingerboard blanks.

Where I live, the winters are cold and dry, and the summers are only moderately humid.  I try to do any instrument assembly in the drier conditions of wintertime, in order that the instruments are more likely to swell than to shrink after they are built.  Shrinkage induces cracks, whereas swelling is less of a problem.  In any case, I keep the shop humidified or dehumidified as required, with a target 40% relative humidity. 

The two key workstations are the main workbench, and the auxiliary work table (the MDF sheet placed over the table saw and router table).  Some of the benches, storage space, and machines shown here are not used for instrument making.