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I was just about to start bending my sides, had the bender up to temp, when I realized I had up to 1" of extra material. This is the way it came from Martin. My plan calls for 4 7/8 at the tail and 3 7/8 at the neck, minus the top and back thickness. How much extra should I leave for sanding?


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Hutch

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

You definitely want to take it lower. Leaving that much above the block I would worry about catching and splitting it out while driving the bus. I would leave about 1/4” above at most. It’s just creating work for you driving the bus when you can easily take it off now in the bandsaw.

If the sides are square and not pre-tapered, make sure to take the material off the back side not the top side.


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Definitely cut it. Sawing bent sides is a pain, and chiseling/planing that much would take a while.

I cut them to the tail width (4 7/8" in your case) which leaves plenty of extra due to the top/back thickness. I usually bend at constant width and chisel/plane the taper after gluing them to the soundboard, but you can partially taper them before bending if you want. Look for pictures of guitar plans to get an idea of what side patterns look like. Not a straight taper. Higher at the waist due to the back radius.

If you're going to be using dentellones, the edge that will go against the soundboard should be planed straight before bending.

I know that the sides rise up in the waist area but how much? Is it really worth worrying about when it will be cut away anyway when when routing the binding. As long as the linings are installed at the correct height. If I leave them at a constant height, 4 7/8 in my case, that will leave an inch to remove at the neck end.

After I build this one, I'm going to make a pattern from the finished guitar for my next one and get it closer.

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Hutch

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

What I do is add 1/8" at the tail and heel then I cut a straight line from the heel to 2" behind the waist.

That leaves me enough ,but not too much) to take off with the domed dish.

Edit: I see you where planning to make templates in the future. Whoops..

I made these posterboard templates several years ago by taping them to a guitar and tracing along the back. I use the same template for all of 6 of my body shapes and it works pretty universally with all. I do make adjustments for final body depth and also make adjustments for a wedge body instrument.

Works for me.

M

If you have a radius dish it's easy to make a profile before bending. There was a tut about that recently.

I have accurate templates for all models which greatly improves efficiency.

As well, with an extra inch on each side, you can rip a set of bookmatched bindings for another project. What I do most of the time is rip the bindings from the sides then glue them back where they came from for a perfect match...

Yes Michael, I'll be doing that on my next guitar.

Book matched binding material!!! Awesome! Thanks meddlingfool.

I took the time while waiting for input from you guys to rough cut all my bracing this morning. One more step done!

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Hutch

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

Yeah templates make life much easier. I made mine from 1/4” plexiglass or 1/2” fibercore and use them for accurately shaping the sides. Mark, rough cut with the bandsaw and finish with a flush cut template bit before bending. If you are good with a bandsaw you could skip the template routing.







L

A lot of plans have a side template as part of the plan.

Saves a ton of time and very little to do with the radius dishes, mostly just flush up the blocks which I leave a 1/16 or so tall.

Just make sure you mark the waist accurately and line it up in the bender and leave the ends a little long as a fudge factor.

If possible I also use off cuts from the sides for binding.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

"rip the bindings from the sides then glue them back where they came from for a perfect match..."

Ed

Brilliant, thanks

Ed

I don't leave any extra for sanding. I don't use a radius dish for shaping the assembled sides. I glue the kerfing on slightly above the edge of the sides, then plane and sand it to the proper bevel.
It's the way Martin did it until they started using radius sanding dishes in the early-1990's.

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John