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All guitars do this - they try to eat themselves through their own sound hole - unless they are so overbuilt that they are nearly silent! Usually they stop after a few years, and then never (or rarely) get worse, unless they aren't strong enough to stand up to string tension. If you put nylon...

That bridge has come off pretty cleanly, so don't do what you planned! The steps to repairing this are as follows: 1. Check that the bracing for the top (around the bridge area) hasn't come unglued. Reach inside and wobble the braces by hand - if they don't move you're probably fine. Also try...

14 tpi blades are available: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hacksaw-Replacement-Blades-JatilEr-Cutting/dp/B08S751F8V Whether they cut more than a couple of strokes, I can't say. The product description is encouraging though. Not only are these blades light and portable, they are also "extremely...

The gulf between mass produced items and craftsman made is huge today. For example, a playable guitar can be had for £300 or so, luthier made starts around £3k. But I'd say the reason is that mass production has become so efficient that the price has dropped to create the gap, rather than the...

I suspect the Asda terms simply copy those they use for selling groceries. Asda doesn't want complaints if its driver turns up with a different brand of butter!

But this probably wont work if the two have different densities - as an easy example, 330ml of salt wont weigh the same as 330ml of water. So you need to mix by weight - that's probably why you ran out.

A crinkle washer might work.

A bit of small diameter tube which will fit in your drill - hacksaw slots around the perimeter and it cuts well enough for one or two pin extractions.

I have the Veritas apron plane, and something like 1mm with the blade at sole level is about right. But it still works brilliantly! Takes slivers off end grain, though it's a bit small and light for anything whose section is more than 12 mm deep. I mainly use it for final thicknessing of ukulele...

I like the thinner leg. More important, your wife likes it. Decision made, I think :)

From a purely aesthetic point of view, I think it would look better if the legs were narrower at their broadest part. That looks a bit weighty in contrast to the delicate feet. I think the double taper is the right approach, and the diameter of the legs at the ground and at the seat looks right...

More information needed. Is it currently painted or clear finished? If clear, do you know what the current finish is? If clear, is it veneered or solid wood? And what kind of wood? Pictures always help.

I use hide glue for most instrument joints, but not the fretboard. It introduces a lot of moisture, and the fingerboard can curl up at the edges. Titebond original is safer, but do make a caul that clamps the edges as well as the middle. Some use epoxy, but this is messier to take apart. I just...

A single patent is in practice almost worthless, unless you have the resources to enforce it vigorously. I was once involved in a piece of patent litigation where the legal costs were estimated at £0.5m per side (not surprisingly, they did a deal instead). The main use of patents is to build up...

It helps to know your commercialisation ambitions. Basically three questions: 1. Who would sell this? Your business, or do you want to persuade some other business to take it on. 2. Who would make it? Depends a lot on the answer to (1). 3. Once it starts selling, is it at risk from copycat...

Your vellum might be quite old - I put a new vellum on my 1920s tenor banjo because the original had split, but the rest of the vellum just looked dirty (and could have been cleaned up to look pretty new). There are plenty of old banjos around with the original vellum head - vellum last for...

Or simply install a taller bridge. It all depends on the action once the neck has been dealt with. A straighter neck will lower the action, a thicker fingerboard will raise it, where that will end up is guesswork at the moment :) But adding 2mm to the fretboard only adds 2 mm to the bridge...

Yes, Mikegtr has it right, this banjo was designed for nylon (actually gut) strings. This is why the neck has bowed forwards. I'd guess it dates from the late 1800s, but the Banjo Hangout guys will probably be able to say more. Even if you "straighten" the neck as you propose, it will probably...

I've removed a few fretboards, pictures will help. The basic principle is to heat the board until it is hot to soften the glue, then work thin blades along until you have separated the joint. I'll write more once I see the patient - a picture of the whole instrument will help guess age and...

This is just a guess, but based on my experience working thin plates for ukuleles and guitars. If the edge of your wing protrudes more than around 1/4 inch from whatever is clamping it, then the plate will vibrate as you plane. This is likely to cause chatter. For planing an edge like that, I...