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Can anyone recommend a source and material to make flexible routing templates for armrest bevel? I need a material which can be double-side taped to the guitar top and side as in Robbie O'Brien's Luthier Tips du Jour - The Arm Bevel.

Mike Franks
www.mjfranksguitars.com

Grainger sells 1/4 inch uhmw polyethylene plastic. It comes indifferent sizes and colors.

Another option would be drafting film, which is available from art supply stores, Amazon, etc.. It's fairly inexpensive and you can buy it in various sizes. This blurb about one brand of it is from the Blick Art Materials site:

"Grafix Drafting Film is a polyester base film with a translucent, matte drawing surface. Available in one-sided or two-sided versions, in rolls and in sheets, this anti-static film accepts ink or graphite, erases cleanly, and provides excellent dimensional stability. Since it won’t tear or discolor, it's great for engineering and architectural applications, and is highly translucent for sharp reproductions. Grafix Drafting Film can be used with most black-and-white laser printers and conventional copiers."

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

I use this or something like it, called acetate film at our local art supply store $3 for a sheet about 18" x 24".

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I could be wrong, but I doubt the drafting film comes in 1/4 inch thickness, which is about the thinnest I would run a template guide on.

Yes, drafting film would only work as a layout template. I overlooked "routing." I don't know what kind of plastic would flex for that. I'd probably bend 2-3 layers of wood and laminate them together, just because I know how to do that.

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

Try https://www.tapplastics.com/. They should have what you need. Also, a glass place would have polycarbonate sheets in various thickness. I've used it for templates.

UHMW plastic is the stuff StewMac sells for teflon filler strips. In quarter inch thickness it should be bendable enough to lay on a guitar side and thick enough to use a template guide with it.

I use eplastics.com. I bought a sheet and had them cut it up how I needed it. It adds 20 bucks for the cuts but it still cheaper than most places I looked.

https://www.eplastics.com/search?keywor ... al%20Sheet

Brad

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Perhaps a visit to a craft store will produce a 'plastruct' display. They sell ABS sheets, perhaps they're big enough to do the job. I have some I bought years ago and they're .060 nearly 1/16 of an inch thick.

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Peter Havriluk

Sorry to diverge a bit, but have you studied Kent Everett’s bevel? It’s engineered into the body and does not require routing. I’ve built many. It’s technically challenging, has its pros and cons. But no high speed tooling. I have enough fear associated with binding slots and neck routing. Lol.

I’m just unsure how u can make a universal template. Seems you would need to adjust for each body unless u have amazing quality controls to manage body shape.

I am working on one based on Kent Everett's process and, as Mike says, no routing needed. Was easy to get the shape of the bevel done with some quick measurements and a sander - not sure I see the advantage of a routing template unless you're in a production environment in which case you could build templates for each body shape from wood or whatever.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

(moved to a new thread, I felt like I was hijacking this one)