Steel Guitar Builder

Yes, thanks. I know I'm trying to engineer this thing without any metal working machinery or expertise. For sure I won't be trying to sell it to anyone, and I'm guessing that some ongoing maintenance and tweaking will be needed. If it works I'll be very very happy, and already I can see why maybe yo...

My solution for mounting the legs without the machined metal end plates was to drill holes in each corner at 10° for a press fit 1/2-13 coupling nuts from the hardware store. They are 1-1/2" long, and epoxied into the holes. I mounted the legs from my Carter steel to check it out, and yes, they are ...

Thanks, I do have a Foredom flex shaft tool, so it might be better to use that as a mini lathe. After thirty years of woodworking I still have all of my digits and don't want to do anything stupid now.

I had no way to make one-piece end plates so I made the body ends with wood, and plan to fasten aluminum angle on the corners to add strength.

I was hopeful that the ebony would be dense enough to do the job, but it will be easy enough to make those pieces from aluminum if it doesn't. This is new territory for me, and I'd like to bring my luthier skills if possible. I know I'll have lots to learn, so I'm ready to try some ideas and then ma...

Here's a photo of my key head and roller nut. The rollers still need their string grooves, and I'll try doing that on the drill press. The body of the nut is ebony. I did try to make a key head with 3/4" aluminum, but since all my machinery is of the woodworking variety, I was unhappy with the resul...

Fretboard and pillow blocks are made from ebony since I'm a lot more comfortable working with wood than aluminum. Also I made the key head from birdseye maple. If any of those parts don't work out, I figure I can replace them with aluminum. The changer fingers are 1/4" brass and the shaft is 1/2" ha...

More photos

Progress so far.

I'm new here, but I've been hanging around for a while. I have a shop where I've been making acoustic guitars and mandolins for the last 15 years. And I've been playing pedal steel for the last 12 years. Not a virtuoso, but I can get around on it. It's a Carter 3/5 that I really like a lot, but this...