Man-Cave Advice

[Benj]

Hey PitBull Community Buddies,

I have recently had an offer accepted for my first home, and will be moving in with the missus in early October. Very exciting times. More exciting is the fact that I have gotten her to agree to let me use the 3rd bedroom as my guitar display/workshop (Man Cave).

Now I need some help. I have been putting some money aside to kit out this room with essentially the stewmac catalog so that I can really get some kits churning. Ive got a workbench in the garage for all of my sanding and stuff, but I wanted to know what are the must haves for a man cave… I have a good screwdriver set, soldering kit, drill, allen keys, scraper blades, drill bits, jigsaw and I’m getting a few of those small part tray storage thingys.

Ive been browsing the Stewmac site, but I’m not sure what I need to get. Basically at the moment I am going to be sticking to the basic kits, to get really good at them before I get on to doing binding, etc, but I’d love to be able to start learning about the full set up, intonation etc so any tools for that would be great.

Let me know your ideas so I can start piecing this room together ?

Cheers all

[Gavin1393]

Tools You'll Need For Building An Electric Guitar
We thought it might be helpful to list the tools you'll need for building a Pit Bull Guitar Kit. DB and I have divided the list into Three categories, which are What you can get away with, Nice to Have and Really Nice to Have.

What you can get away with tools

You can build one of these kits with a few basic tools

file or fine rasp
Pit Bull Sandpaper (180 grit to 240 grit)
Steel wool
Drill
Drill bits, from 2mm and 3mm
Clamps, G type or Irwin Quick Grip
Pit Bull Wood glue (for set neck kits)
Screw drivers, both phillips and flat head
Long straightedge (600mm rule) and tape measure
Soldering iron
Electronic solder
Clean rags
Pencil
Eye protection
Wire cutters
Small allen keys for bridge
Tuner

If it is your intention to only build one or two kits with the most basic of tools and without outlaying funds on specialist tools then skip forward to the next section on this thread.
However, if you want to get the absolute best out of your kit, and particularly if you want to turn this into a hobby you might want to acquire the following:

Nice to have:

Random orbital sander
Drill press
1" x 2" sanding drum
Helping hands alligator clamps
Portable clamping workbench
Clamp lamp
Digital callipers
Multi meter
StewMac string rule for nut building

Really nice to have

12" Radius sanding block
Fret crowning file
Set of nut files
4" x 36" bench top belt sander
Oscillating spindle sander
Dust extraction system
Buffing station
Large workbench with a vice for holding small parts

[DanMade]

A good sharp chisel can do wonders. I just got myself one of these sidestrike chisels. Extremely dangerous, but oh so useful.

A trimmer/router is also a very usefull tool to consider. And if you plan on a few kits a random orbital sander.

[Brendan]

Some form of padding for the floor. I have had some sage advice that you aren't a luthier until you've dropped your first guitar. Given that advice, I'd rather you are able to recover from it with minimal problems. I ended up with some 4 piece interconnectable rubber matting from the Funnings store. Won't save a guitar from all damage, but would be better than dirty concrete...

[Gavin1393]

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from Brendan on August 8, 2013, 18:50
Some form of padding for the floor. ...

You and me both mate!!

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from Brendan on August 8, 2013, 18:50
I have had some sage advice that you aren't a luthier until you've dropped your first guitar...

Must have been a very wise luthier .....make that three guitars......dratted buffer claimed two and the bump on the back of my head reminds me not to bend over without realising what I might hit when I stand back up!!!!