Rounding Edges--by Hand Or By Router?

[Mickguard]

I'm down to the last major step on my project before I can glue in the neck-- rounding the edges of the body.

I have a bit here that's close enough to a roundover bit --I couldn't find the right radius at the hardware store, so I have to go with a slightly different bit, it has a flat portion on top. I just won't lower it down that far.

I've tested it out and it works just fine. And obviously using the router will be the fastest.

On the other hand, I've made it this far without any major screwups --and I'm paranoid as hell that something going to happen at the last moment...

So I'm wondering if people round their edges by hand too? Is there a reason not to do this --other than it's more difficult to get the edges exactly perfect.

And if you do it by hand, are you just using sandpaper?

[Guitarfrenzy]

What size roundover are you talking about? I would definitely do it with a roundover bit and not by handsanding. Handsanding would take quite a while and wouldn't be near as accurate. I use a 1/2" roundover bit to do the edges, but I'm sure you can use a slightly smaller one. You know you could use the roundover to get the edges close, then handsand until it's like you want. It would save you some work at least.

[soapbarstrat]

Haha. Doing it by hand is when it looks like a 15 year old made it in his garage.

[Mickguard]

Okay, that's a good suggestion. ..the only roundover bits I could find started at a 10 mm radius, which would be too much for the edge I want. The bit I have here has a 6.5 mm radius --gives an edge very similar to that on my tele.

But yeah, mostly it's just me being nervous...as I'm getting closer to the end, I'm afraid I'll start rushing and pushing myself when I shouldn't...which is always when disaster strikes...I figure with sandpaper, I pretty much have to go slowly...

[erikbojerik]

Yeah the 6.5 mm (or 1/4") is close to Tele specs; the 10 mm is slightly larger than 3/8", not quite the same as a Strat roundover (which is 1/2" or 12-13 mm).

Do not do it by hand, you won't be happy with it. You can get acceptable results with a hand-router, but it is much easier to get great results using a router table (no chance of the router or body tilting when you're doing the horns). Either way, just take small bites in several passes, changing the height of the bit with each pass. You should be fine.

[Guitarfrenzy]

Haha. Doing it by hand is when it looks like a 15 year old made it in his garage.

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At least I know if I tried it that way, that's probably what it would end up looking like.. lol

Okay, that's a good suggestion. ..the only roundover bits I could find started at a 10 mm radius, which would be too much for the edge I want. The bit I have here has a 6.5 mm radius --gives an edge very similar to that on my tele.

But yeah, mostly it's just me being nervous...as I'm getting closer to the end, I'm afraid I'll start rushing and pushing myself when I shouldn't...which is always when disaster strikes...I figure with sandpaper, I pretty much have to go slowly...

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True, If I'm not mistaken a Tele's edge isn't the same as a Strat's. I think a 3/8" roundover bit is closer to what they use for a Telecaster, thus it would give you a smaller radiused edge. I wouldn't use anything bigger than a 3/8" for it though.

Nothing wrong with being nervous, but don't let that stop you from learning more and getting better. Practice on scrap wood first, and make sure you don't set the router so that your making just one pass. You want to route away a small amount each time, and use multiple passes until it's done. Like I said, practice on scrap until your confident, then you won't be as nervous when you actually are ready to roundover the edges of the guitar body.

Good luck bro.

[Marzocchi705]

Haha. Doing it by hand is when it looks like a 15 year old made it in his garage.

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I'll take pics of my Guitar, my round over was done by hand, and its damn good.

[jnewman]

You can do a perfect roundover by hand - if you have the right kind of plane .

[Marzocchi705]

Ir if your carfull, with a rasp and sandpaper. It also helps to have a caul of whatever diameter you want so yo can check it.

[n8rofwyo]

I don't know if I agree with the 15 yr old - garage - sandpaper theory, per se. But I do think that a more precise line can be left with the router. So... if you have a router, why not use it? Personally I do my roundovers with a handheld router. I'm not advising doing it - it does get tricky around the horns. But it is within MY comfort level. To each their own, I suppose.

Nate Robinson

[Marzocchi705]

Obviously, but all im saying is i got good results doing it by hand.

[ZoSo_Spencer]

i would never even attempt to do a roundover by hand..............jesus that would take some time and i could never be happy with it and i would have to go back sand some more then more because the place i just sanded made it go out of proportion and then there would be an endless cycle until i F^$ked my guitar up big time.

table router = easy as hell and i think it is near impossible to go wrong as long as you do it in multiple passes.

if it was my guitar i wouldnt do it with a handheld router its just too risky unless you have some of the scrap wood from cuttin out the body shape that you put on the outside of the body for extra support for the other side of the base of the router.

hope all goes well

[Guitarfrenzy]

I never said you couldn't use handtools and handsanding to round over the edges. All I wanted to point out, is that if you have a router, and a roundover bit, then practice until you can use it without fear of messing the guitar up. It'd definitely be faster, easier, and accurate. I commend anyone who has put a roundover on a guitars edges by hand, that's a lot of hard work, but if you already have a router and roundover bit, why not use it?

[n8rofwyo]

Zoso nailed it. That's exactly what I do. I have to use my router for so many things around the shop that it just isn't convenient to table it. So.... I use my cutoffs as a temp platform to hold the router a bit more stable.

I should really just buy a router and dedicate it to the table. Oh well, somday...

Nate Robinson

[Mickguard]

The horns! I forgot about the horns! No way I'm letting a router near those...they're just too pointy...

But yeah, I kept the scrap left over from cutting the body shape, I always use that when routing anything on the guitar, even when it's not strictly necessary.

I can see where, if you're going for a more extreme roundover, like a strat, it would be really too difficult to get right without a router --at any rate, the router will make life a lot easier.

But the edge I'm going for will be similar to my tele --that's actually pretty sharp and won't require much rounding. So I think in this case it'll end up being six of one half dozen of the other...

So that clears up some of the confusion I was having over this one--I kept reading about people using roundover bits for this, but I didn't consider the different edge types involved.

It has me looking at the various guitars I have here --never really considered this part of the design issue before.

I'm going to be trying out both methods on my scrap...maybe I'll end up doing both--using the router for the bouts of the body, for the speed, then doing the horns by hand.

[ZoSo_Spencer]

Zoso nailed it. 

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thx buddy

maybe I'll end up doing both--using the router for the bouts of the body, for the speed, then doing the horns by hand.

that sounds reasonable.... you could always cut out a shape similar to the horns on your 350 and test route them to see how hard/easy it is

[Mickguard]

Right, thanks for the encouragement, as always!

Took me, oh, about 10 seconds to recognize the superiority of the router over the hand...

I ended up with an edge I'm quite pleased with, and it was actually pretty easy. Even the horns--they really weren't much more difficult than the rest, if at all.

So, got one major guitar-threatening step to go--routing for the pickups...I need a couple of days off though, I'm starting to get sloppy (had a minor bobble on the control cavity route, luckily it's easy to fix and won't show anyway)

[Guitarfrenzy]

Right, thanks for the encouragement, as always!

Took me, oh, about 10 seconds to recognize the superiority of the router over the hand... 

I ended up with an edge I'm quite pleased with, and it was actually pretty easy. Even the horns--they really weren't much more difficult than the rest, if at all.

So, got one major guitar-threatening step to go--routing for the pickups...I need a couple of days off though, I'm starting to get sloppy (had a minor bobble on the control cavity route, luckily it's easy to fix and won't show anyway)

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Great to hear it.. It's not as hard as it seems right?

As far as the control cavity goes, why not make it slightly wider? lol You might have to make a new template, but you'd not only cover up your mistake, you'd eliminate it..

[Mickguard]

As far as the control cavity goes, why not make it slightly wider? lol  You might have to make a new template, but you'd not only cover up your mistake, you'd eliminate it..  

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I got lucky on that one...the depth lock on the router slipped so the pass didn't go deep at all. So I've glued a little chip over it, by the time it's sanded it'll be invisible...or near enough! Photos tomorrow!

[n8rofwyo]

Glad to hear it went well, can't wait to see the pics.

Nate Robinson

[daveq]

For a Strat, the router is required in my opinion. It is a little scary at first but I think after you do one, you'll see that it's fairly easy.

Now, since you aren't building a Strat this time:

If you have decided that you don't want to use the router, WoodCraft sells some great contoured sanding pads:

Contoured Sanding Pads

There is a small radius concave pad that would probably be better than just doing it by hand.

Please don't take offense - just a suggestion in case you weren't aware of them.

[Mickguard]

No offense necessary!

Those pads look good --in fact, there are a couple of areas I couldn't reach with the router (behind and beside the neck pocket) that I'll have to do by hand, I'll have a look for those pads.

I made something similar --took a small flat block of wood and routed a rounded groove into that. Then I taped sandpaper into that.

It WOULD have worked--but it would have taken forever to achieve the same results I got from using the router for less than 10 minutes!

[ZoSo_Spencer]

...we await the pictures

for some reason your guitar just makes me want to look at it.....

[nollock]

You can make a roundover sanding block by drilling a hole in a piece of cork and then cutting out part of the block. I did that on my first guitar and got a nice even roundover. It was very time intensive way to do it though.

[Myka Guitars]

I use a router when I want to roundover flat suraces like guitar backs and go over the freeform areas by hand with rasps and sandpaper. For carved tops I always round over the edges by hand. I use a piece of sandpaper folded over 3 or 4 times to give it some strength. I use 150 to shape it and then go to up through 320. I hold the sandpaper over the edge and let the paper make the radius. With some practice it goes very quickly (5-10 minutes). Routers work perfectly if all your edged are uniform but mine never are so I learned to develop my hand skills. It works as well as a router and allows for rounding over less uniform surfaces.

Here is an example of a roundover with binding, a natural edge on spruce, and a roundover done mostly with a router except the neck and tummy cut.

~David