Acoustic Guitar Construction

I was thinking about something like that worm gear drive and I'm poking around the interweb thingy for one now.

Or perhaps a pipe with internal threads, and a pipe with external threads about the same height, installed as a sleeve over the central post, that could raise/lower by twisting. It would limit how low the table would go to the height of the pipe, but that would not be a problem?

My drill press has a friction lock on the drilling head feed. I lower the drilling head to where I want to start planning and tighten the lock. After that I just bump one of the feed levers to lower the head just a bit. If I am cleaver I can even set a stop for the final depth.

I like to use the drill head feed mechanism once the table is roughly setup as it cleanly moves in only one direction (up and down). As I crank up the table on my drill press the table moves side to side more than I would like.

Given that I would have no problem with the table adjustment and locking feature on your press.

I'm not really mechanically inclined, so pardon my suggestion if it makes no sense :)
First, get the table 'in the ballpark' of where you want it.
What if you mounted a piece of plywood to the existing table with some bolts, and put 4 threaded inserts in the plywood. Then use threaded rods and knobs to make fine adjustments to the height of a second piece of plywood. A combination of nuts and washers should allow the threaded rod to spin freely in the upper piece of plywood.
Levelness of the table might be an issue, but you could measure the gap and use a torpedo level too. Maybe a drawing will make more sense.

Now that I drew it see improvements in my design already! Anyway, you get the picture. Not to scale of course!

I see where you're going with that, David, and it would not surprise me if some variation on that idea turns out to be the solution. Thanks.

Another very simple option would be to "zero" -- "touch off" the planer to the material then use a thickness of shim stock under the blank to raise it into the cutter.

Or -- (not trying to be a smart a**) build a simple drum sander. My first one was constructed out of 2x2, had tilting table and a washing machine motor, pvc drum, and two bearings --- in three hours guitar making life got good again. Just a thought.

hmmmmm -- I just may have to offer a drum sander simple kit.

kencierp wrote:Another very simple option would be to "zero" -- "touch off" the planer to the material then use a thickness of shim stock under the blank to raise it into the cutter.

Or -- (not trying to be a smart a**) build a simple drum sander. My first one was constructed out of 2x2, had tilting table and a washing machine motor, pvc drum, and two bearings --- in three hours guitar making life got good again. Just a thought.

hmmmmm -- I just may have to offer a drum sander simple kit.

Ken,
I was wondering when someone was going to mention use of shims.
I hang various thicknesses on the wall next to the drill press specifically for this purpose.
I have the geared lift on mine, but the shimming method allows considerably more precision. Quicker, too.

Have not built a drum sander yet.
Like most, my biggest hangup is designing/constructing the drum.
Don't want to use wood/MDF; did you encounter any static problems using PVC?