Cool Machines - Luthier Tips du Jour Mailbag
In this episode, Robbie O’Brien shows some cool machines he saw while visiting Thermal Wood Canada.
Video Transcription
[on-screen text reads: Luthier Tips du Jour Mailbag]
Mailbag question: What is the coolest tool or jig you have ever seen?
Robert O'Brien: Today's Tips du Jour Mailbag question comes to us from Argentina. "Robert, what is the coolest tool or jig you have ever seen or used? Adriano in Argentina."
Adriano, that's a very interesting question. Now, I've used a lot of cool jigs and tools and templates in my shop and in other people's shops all over the world. However, recently I was in Canada, I visited Thermal Wood in Canada and they do the torrefaction process. They cook wood and that's becoming very popular in lutherie these days.
And they had a couple of really cool machines in there that I would love to have in my shop. However, they're pretty industrial and very expensive, so I don't think I'll ever have these in my shop, but they're very cool. Let show them to you.
Machine for cutting back and side material
So folks here's the machine for a slicing up back and side material.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Robert: Let me see if I can get a shot of it.
Here we have some beautiful flame maples that been torrified. We're going to run it through a machine here and slice it up. This comes out the other end, like sliced bread.
There it comes. Look at that. Wow. Perfectly sawed. That's amazing.
So there it is, all cut up. Out of a one-inch board we got four slices, which is good for two backs.
Speaker 3: And that's right off the saw blade.
Robert: Wow. I mean it's like it's been sanded.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Robert: Wow.
Speaker 3: There's another.
Robert: There's another set. Look at that.
What a great machine, huh? It's like slicing a loaf of bread. Look at that. Wow. Amazing. All bird's eye maple, torrified.
Speaker 3: And this is curling. Soft curling.
Robert: Right.
Speaker 3: So you only get out what you put in.
Robert: Right.
Speaker 3: So as long as you're using-
Robert: Oh, you can't put in oak and come out maple, huh?
Speaker 3: No, exactly.
[Laughter]
Robert: Oh.
Speaker 4: What's wrong with that?
Robert: I send that machine back. That's so good. Very interesting. Okay, so here's four pieces of, there's bird's eye and there's flame maple. We put it through the machine here. Came out in two blocks, one block on this side, one block on this side, and it comes out with four slices from one side and four slices on the other.
These are about an inch thick. And so in just a couple of minutes, we've got 16 pieces that we can use for book-matched back and sides. Very, very cool. Don't try this at home, boys and girls.
The Marunaka Super Meca surfacer
Now the wood that came off that other machine came out really smooth. However, this is a surfacer. You can put it through here and it comes out baby butt smooth.
Speaker 4: Look at the pieces that fell off.
Robert: Oh my gosh, look at that.
Speaker 3: It's not sanding.
Robert: Oh, it's not sanding.
Speaker 3: It's shaving.
Robert: It's shaving. Holy cow. Look at the shavings. Coming off of there.
Speaker 3: It's to make toilet paper.
Robert: Look at that.
Speaker 5: If you got more time and you need toilet paper-
Robert: Yeah, wow.
Speaker 5: You can make your own.
Robert: So I stand corrected. It's not a sander. Look at that. It just takes a shaving, like a tissue paper off the top of the lumber. All automatic. Wow. That is just amazing.
Okay. I did not see that one.
Speaker 3: You hadn't seen that one before?
Robert: Yeah, I thought it was a sander.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Robert: Wow. That's pretty crazy.
Speaker 2: That'd be great for you.
Robert: I got to see that again.
Speaker 2: Laminated-
Speaker 3: Right over here. If you want to come over this side-
Speaker 4: That's what I'm going to say-
Robert: All right, so he's going to put it through there.
Speaker 4: It's so fine.
Robert: He's going to put it through there. It's going to take just a shaving off the top and the shaving spits out the side down here.
Speaker 3: And all it is, it's basically it's a plane. So it's a knife right here.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I can adjust this for the angle that I want to take off.
Speaker 4: Not every person has that.
Robert: It's just a planer that takes just a shaving.
Speaker 3: That's all it is. Just like a hand plan. Same thing.
Robert: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Robert: Send it through there again one time for us. It goes automatic feed and everything.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's got a wheel that senses the height.
Robert: Look at that. And out it comes. Before that, it's just really slick. You can make your own veneers or purflings guys.
Speaker 2: Bird's eye maple toilet paper.
Robert: Yeah. Bird's eye maple toilet paper.
Speaker 4: I'm thinking what I could do with this.
Robert: It's got to be something. Here it goes again. Look at this.
Speaker 3: Here, it's just going to continue going. I got it on repeat.
Speaker 4: Oh okay.
Speaker 3: So it's just going to go back and forth-
Robert: So you can shave it down to nothing.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Robert: Look at that.
Oh, it's just spitting them out. Oh, very, very thin.
Speaker 3: Touch that.
Speaker 4: I wanted to leave- can I just leave it like this? Put some strings on it?
Robert: Wow. And it's as smooth as can be. No imperfections whatsoever. Wow. Very slick. Man, I'd like to send all my tops through there, all my backs and stuff. Look at that.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Robert: Just smooth as can be. It's like a big block plane. And for 35 grand, you can have one of those in your shop then, huh?
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Robert: Oh wow.
Speaker 3: You can have that one.
Robert: Yeah, you take a check?
So Adriano in Argentina. Thank you very much for your question. And you can see these machines are very cool. Hopefully one day you can have one in your shop. Happy building.
[on-screen text reads: More Luthier Tips and online courses available at www.obrienguitars.com. Private and small group guitar building and finishing instruction available.]
