000 guitar build - tools

I found a relatively cheap 4 foot aluminum ruler at the hardware store and decided to make some tools with it. It was made of fairly stout stock... 2 inches wide and I think about 1/8 thick. It would definitely still deform if you tried to bend it, but you would have to really want to.

First was a notched straight edge. I cut off about 18" and marked fret positions on the edge, and cut notches out with an angle grinder. I cleaned up the sharp edges with a small rat tail file. With all the heat from the grinder, I checked to make sure it was still straight when I was done. It was.

The second is a neck relief gauge. It is basically just a holder for machinist's dial that spans from the 1st to the 12th fret and measures the height of the 6th. It is calibrated by "measuring" something flat and setting that to zero. I used a level for this, and checked with another level to make sure they agreed.