Official Luthiers Forum!

Just need some turnbuckle and I'm ready for starting the sides. Yay, I'm doing it.

_________________
Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

What a wonderful start! Laozi's "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" applies here, although so does Groundhog Day's "Watch out for that first step. It's a doozy!"

One suggestion: before closing the body, make sure the spreaders can be disassembled and removed from the body through the soundhole (hint: putting a 45 degree cut on those inside corners of the spreaders can make a difference...a band saw and some light sanding will do the job).

_________________
For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

Thanks Burt, I'll do that. I don't own a bandsaw anymore so I'll have to use my bench sander. I hope to be done with shaping with the sander after this. I really hate the noise and dust. Aside from cutting the neck on a friends bandsaw, all future work will be handplanes, rasps and scrapers, at least that's my plan.

_________________
Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

It's got a bit of a ring to it.

What happened! It turned out dred shaped?!

The mold looks a bit too thin. How thick is it? Do you plan on cutting it so it can open up?

3 layers of 3/4 ply is all I ever make my molds, thickness wise. The strips on the end look like they can be unscrewed to separate the halves of the mold.
I would clip the corners at a 45 degree angle to make clamping around the outside easier, and to reduce the weight a little.

I wasn't sure if clipping the corners was necessary. I'll clip them.
Thanks

_________________
Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I just went out to buy 3 turnbuckles. I couldn't believe the price. I bought 3/8 threaded rod, wingnuts and fender washers for 7 bucks. I'll make it work.

_________________
Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Turnbuckle is vastly better, wing nuts are awkward and will make your fingers sore.

I'll get them for guitar #2.????

_________________
Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Done. The wingnuts are very eas and comfortable to turn,I think owing to the large size I chose. I drilled the holes in the blocks oversized, 9/16. This will be very easy to remove from inside the box.

_________________
Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I'm enjoying watching your progress. Keep posting.

_________________
Insta - https://www.instagram.com/cbcguitars/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/cbcguitars

The one downside I see to having the wingnuts-it might be hard (impossible?)to reach the lower bout one when removing them through the soundhole....

I guess it a function of how big your forearm is...

Another way to skin this cat:

Only use the blocks and turnbuckles (or whatever) up to the point where you have one of the plates (top or back) glued on and you are ready to glue on the other plate. At that point, replace this stuff with just some dowels of a length where you can spring them and have them hold everything where it needs to be. The dowels will easily come out through the sound hole after you get the other plate glued on.

Here's my daughter in her shop

I have to say that I have concerns about the wing nuts especially on the lower bout spreader blocks. Be absolutely sure that you can untighten that spreader with just one hand. I have a length-wise spreader I use when "driving the bus" to prevent chatter. It has wing nuts and washers like yours. I've found that untightening them is always a two-handed procedure because turning just one wing nut causes the threaded rod and the other wing nut to turn in the same direction because of binding/friction in the system so no untightening happens. I have to turn both wing nuts in opposite directions at the same time to loosen them. That would be impossible in a closed box through the sound hole. Maybe your wing nuts are different than mine in some way, but be sure it works before you use them.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Here is my version of Jay's mold. As I said before, I usually keep the center cut out section to be my bending form so I just make a small block to fit at the waist and end blocks. Turn buckles are worth the money. Its worthwhile to relieve your side blocks to fit over side braces if you are going to use any.



Looks like its got glue on the kerfing, must be time to put the top on

If you turn one of the wing nuts around and "capture" it in a slot in one of the blocks (much as the end of the turnbuckle) you can avoid having everything turn when you try to loosen the device.
But turnbuckles are much handier, and not too expensive if you look around.

www.homedepot.com/s/turnbuckle?NCNI-5