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Good question and it may depend on exactly which sander you are using. I set up my Jet 10-20 over 5 years ago so the outside cut is about 0.005" higher, I never move it or push on the cantilevered arm so it stays in adjustment.

I don't have to do anything special when I level sand and have never seen any evidence of a center ridge on my completed guitars. So while there might be a measurable difference between the thickness of the outside rim and the center of the top, for example, but it just doesn't seem to be significant, IMO. I feed fast with light cuts which seems to minimize gumming up the sandpaper.

For rosewoods and such I pay attention to the temperature of the wood and when it starts getting real warm to the touch I let the wood cool down which also seems to help keep the sandpaper cleaner. I clean the belt with on of those big rubber blocks.

Finally - like many things in luthiery, patience usually produces better results.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I used a sacrificial board as mentioned earlier. I glue 120 grit sandpaper to one side. Then flip the board over end-for-end then sand the back (the side w/o sandpaper). Then flip it over the same way for thickness sanding. This makes the board more or less parallel to the drum.

The sandpaper will usually keep the material being sanded from slipping around. But just in case,I drilled a couple of holes at the back of the board and insert dowels that prevent the material from slipping off the board. The dowels just get sanded flush with the material. You can push them further out as they get sanded away.

I would post a picture, but as my entire shop was underwater from hurricane Harvey, I have since thrown most of my stuff away. Wha wha.

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Matt Jacobs

"Don't tase me bro"

My 10-20 always produced that little ridge when double pass sanding bigger stuff but after about a year the feed belt started to migrate toward the motor.

I bought new belts, new guides, did the adjustments until the cows came home to no avail.

But.... I noticed that with the feed belt snugged against the motor side not only did it not bother anything the belt was no longer directly under the end of the drum.

The previous ridge was no longer there and I had even results give or take .002" across the plates.

Nice to have something go wrong that has benefits to it.... for once....

My 10-20 feed belt has been snugged up against the motor side for 5 or 6 years now. I also gave up trying to adjust it to stay centered and figured it would eat the side off of the belt, but so far it hasn't done that.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Sorry about the flooding, Matt.

Bummer Matt, sorry to hear that.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I apologize to Matt I didn't read the prior posts.

You're in our thoughts my friend!

Sorry to hear it, Matt.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Don't want to hijack, but Thanks guys.

We flooded last year about 14" in the Garage/shop, but most tools and wood survived. This time we had 48", not much escaped the water.

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Matt Jacobs

"Don't tase me bro"

Yikes! I am so sorry you are going through this.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com