Is it Really as Easy as it Looks? - Luthier Tips du Jour Mailbag
In this episode, Robbie O’Brien shares a few of his personal experiences and troubles while running his shop.
Video Transcription
[on-screen text reads: Luthier Tips du Jour Mailbag]
Mailbag question: You make it look so easy in your videos, is this always the case?
Robert O'Brien: Today's Tips du Jour Mailbag question comes to us from Mexico. "Robert, you make it look so easy in your videos. Is this always the case? Carlos in Mexico."
Well, Carlos, I like to tell people, "The only reason I'm able to teach others the art of Lutherie is that I've made all the mistakes that you can possibly make at least three or four times. In fact, more times than I would like to admit."
Struggling to remove an aluminum base from a router
However, there are a few times that I've run into trouble. Let me just show you a couple of them. Start by removing the aluminum base from the router. (Beep). Yeah, right. Cut. Start by removing the aluminum base from the cutter. Nope, that's not it. Come on, router. Start by removing the aluminum base from the motor (applause).
Speaker 2: Yay.
Robert: The router can now be placed back into the base (laughter). (Beep). I still can't. Come on router.
Not so friendly encounter with Friendly Plastic
So you want to put it in there. It only takes about 60 seconds or so, and it's going to start to get transparent. And when that happens, I'm ready to mold this. Yeah, that looks like that's about ready. So it's going to get real sticky, so I'm going to take it out of there and put it into where it needs to be very quickly.
So I'm going to want to place it right here. So I'm going to reach in here, grab it out, put it on here very quickly, because it gets very sticky. And then I'm just going to leave it alone. Yeah, this is not working (beep). Piece of (beep).
Well, it's been a while since I've worked with this friendly plastic here. And now I remember why I didn't use gloves last time, because this stuff sticks to everything. And it's better just to go ahead and use your hands apparently, because it doesn't stick to those.
So Carlos, as you can see, I also have my problems when building. I will tell you this though, the more you build, the easier it gets. Not that you won't make any more mistakes, but you'll become better at fixing them. So 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.]
