Frustrated in Your Shop? One New Tool Can Change Everything!

by Shane Speal

I've been building cigar box guitars for half my life now... thousands of instruments in the last 23 years.  As I approached Christmas building season this year, I was completely burned out.  I didn't have any new ideas.  In fact, I wasn't even looking forward to entering my shop.

Those feelings vanished when I bought a new variable-speed scroll saw (Wen brand - see it on Amazon here).  Now I'm a building monster.  Let me explain.

Nobody has the perfect woodshop.  We all have years worth of tools we picked up along the way.  Sometimes we spend years making due with a frustrating piece of equipment.  If you're making lots of instruments, a wrong tool just adds to the tension.

My previous scroll saw was more than 15 years old.  It worked fine, but only had one speed: FAST!  When I would cut soundholes, I would only opt for the simpler designs because the saw was just too unruly.  I'd grab a shop light and position it close to the saw, grit my teeth and hold on to the box lid for dear life as I performed sound hole surgery.  

It was stressful, to say the least!

Two weeks ago, finally got a new scroll saw from Home Depot. It wasn't expensive, but it did have variable speed, LED light and even that little air-blower thingy that keeps the sawdust from piling up around the blade.  (No more controlled breathing from me as I would previously puff air from my cheeks.)  This new saw made guitar building fun again!  It was exciting to go back in the shed and build a new series of axes for Christmas season.

Here's some of the first guitar bodies to emerge:

I was able to use the finely detailed "S" shaped hole from the C. B. Gitty Sound Hole Templates, which looked perfect on these 80 year old boxes.  When the blade was going around a sharp corner, I was able to slow the speed down and really concentrate on clean cuts.

I'm in love with this saw!

The art of cigar box guitars is limitless. (See David Sutton's Obsession With Cigar Box Guitars book for proof!)  If you're a little frustrated, take a stroll through the tool section of the hardware store.  

You may get some new inspiration.

Time to head out back out to the shed...  Christmas is coming and I'm part of Santa's workshop!