Latta Radius Cutter

[Phil Mueller]

For those who do radius stringing, I must give a thumbs up to the Latta Radius Cutter. After a little set up and an ugly, but practical jig, clean repeatable grooves are a breeze with this tool. Cutter is very sharp right out of the package and ergonomics are well designed. The knob holds the rods tight...no slip experienced what so ever.

The only learning, is that the design of the cutter puts one point ahead of the other. When cutting a groove in which two grooves come to a point, you need to pay attention to the leading edge (depending on the direction of cut, it could be the inside cutter edge or the outside cutter edge). If not careful, you can easily overcut the intersection on one side.

I am using the .062 cutter in this project, with a little clean up using my LV 1/16” router plane blade and occassionally a little scraping with a dentist pick.

393705

[Dennis Tebo]

Phil,

I have one of those along with the straight line cutter. Both are a joy to use. I also used the 0.062 cutter and seams that I can only go so deep before I need to clean the center of the groove. Once that is done I can proceed to making the groove deeper. I'm still working on making a tool that can easily clean the groove. So far I've modified a slotted screwdriver and that works so-so.

Here's some inlay I did on my leg vise:

393721393722

Dennis

[Phil Mueller]

That does seem to be the one challenge Dennis; cleaning out the center. The router blade works well enough, but I think I’m destined to fabricating a scratch stock tool out of an old saw blade or something and give that a try.

[Tom Trees]

These dog leg micro chisels from stu mac could be worth getting for some operations

https://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/Types_of_Tools/Chisels_and_Knives/Micro_Chisels_Set_of_4.html

Tom

[Phil Mueller]

Tom, thanks for the link! Unfortunately these are not small enough, but modelers or even jewelers tools is a good idea.