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Looks like a nice clean fit on the rosette. Nice :D .

Looks like some bracing work is just around the corner B) .

Peace,Rich

Yep. I'm drawing out the bracing on my paper template as we speak. :D

Not sure how you are shaping the radius side of you braces, but this is a handy little jig I built(got the idea from the OLF tools/jigs section). click. One side has your back rad. the other has your top rad. Works real nice with a router and template bit.

Peace,Rich

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Not sure how you are shaping the radius side of you braces,

Well I wasn't 100% sure. Thanks for the jig. :D

I got all the braces drawn out on the paper (and I transferd onto the wood) as per the books instructions and it looks good.

Maybe I missed it or just incrediabley stupid, but how do you make a radiused dish to put the top/back in while the braces get glued on? Or is there another way to get the braces glued on with the top being held the correct radius that I'm not aware of?

Edited by Godin SD
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Build some radius dishes - a quick google/look around the MIMF archives will show you how to do it. Pretty simple, jig-wise. You also want to have your sides bent, your rims sanded, lining installed, before you start bracing top and back; I aim to braces, carve, tune and glue the box together within 2 days of gluing down the first brace.

Quick picture of my radius dish setup:

dishes_03.jpg

The router goes along some guides, replaceable, and the dish pivots around a bolt I've got clamped in my workmate. Route, turn the dish, route s'more, turn s'more, etc. etc. etc.

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You also want to have your sides bent, your rims sanded, lining installed, before you start bracing top and back; I aim to braces, carve, tune and glue the box together within 2 days of gluing down the first brace.

Okay now that I diddn't know. Thanks for telling me that before I braced (luckally the only thing I did was draw it out). So I guess I'm pressing pause on bracing and starting on the sides.

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If your wood's perfectly perfectly stable, your relative humidity and temp don't shift at all, it shouldn't matter overmuch. However, you're gluing sticks onto thin planks with a built-in arch, so there's always a risk of potato-chip city if either humidity or temp decide to shift around a little. So...yeah. Better get the side bending stuff out the way. Plus, that way, you get to brace, tune and close the box within a weekend. Quite a rush ;-)

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update, I'm working on my sidebender (should be done friday-ish) I got all the braces pre shaped and radioused and the headblock and tailblock completely shaped and ready to glue. I orderd a bunch of long reach cam clamps from stewmac because right now nothing I have will reach. I also got the heelblock glued on the neck blank. I was doing tests earlier this week on a new finish, krystal clear, and it looks really amazing on the spruce and the rosewood. I can't wait to see this guitar finished!

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I love the Redneck Rosette Router setup! Ive been going nuts trying to figure out if I should get a dremel kit (cant find the older good one you see in books, just the crappy cheap ones they use now) or if I should get a larger drill press to accomodate the 6" hole center, or this or that.....

I have a Foredom. Any special treatment you made for it? How do you adjust the size of the circles? Thats what I want to go with!!

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A pretty interesting take Godin.

I actually had real good results using the method in the Cumpiano book; drill a series of 1/16" holes in the base plate of your router and use the drill bit as a pin around which the router pivots around the center of the soundhole.

You can also drill another series of 1/16" holes offset by 1/16" from the first series of holes, to give you more flexibility in the radii that you rout.

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I just measured from the cutting bit and put the nail in the right spot. There is no adjustiability there, but thats fine for this jig. before I do the next acoustic I'll make an ajustable jig.

I test bent some strips of rosewood and it went great. It's very easy to do and I didn't burn the wood at all.

Quick update. I finished tuning all the braces and the top sounds great, I think, I'm still not sure if what I'm hearing is going to make a good guitar, but the tap tone sure sounds good :D

So now I'm off to go bend the sides. :D

Edited by Godin SD
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With 0.074" rosewood (only slightly thinner than what I had), the pipe should go pretty smoothly. I went through ~3 sets of mandolin sides (much tighter bends!) before I felt like I had the pipe dialed in (LMI electric pipe). You'll still need the pipe for tweeking.

That said, the side bending form is dead easy. Use 3/4" birch ply, draw the bass-half of your design on it with the centerline 4" to 6" away from one straight edge (which will become the "bottom"). Screw the first piece down onto a second piece with countersunk drywall screws; if you're going with a heating blanket(s), then draw a second profile just 1/16" inside the first (to take into account the thickness of the blanket). Bandsaw and edge-sand (or rout to a template) the pieces screwed together, so that they are exact copies of each other.

Then you can go about planning how it will go together; I used 1/4-20 6" long hex bolts but you may want 7" long, as I am wishing my form were slightly wider (when you bend bindings with the sides); these bolts pass through spacers made from 1" diameter aluminum pipe (think electrical conduit) that are 4-1/2" long (you may want to go with 5" long). While the sides are still screwed together, go to the drill press and drill the holes for your bolts. My pipe spacers sit in shallow recesses (1/8" deep) on the inside walls that are centered on the bolt holes, the recesses were drilled with a forstner bit. You want the edge of those spacers to be perfectly flush with the edge of the form, otherwise you will end up with cupped sides.

Then slap it together (use washers) and Bob's yer uncle. I made one this way, then made another with the shoulder removable, so that you could plug in a regular bass-side shoulder, a venetian cutaway, or a florentine cutaway.

Here's a pic with the regular shoulder form in place:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/boj...tic/bender1.jpg

Here's one with a florentine cutaway form in place; the smaller shoulder modules are put together just like the big form, and I just screw them down through blocks attached to the sides with my fave drywall screws.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/boj...tic/bender2.jpg

As you can see, I didn't get too complicated with the clamping arrangement to hold down the waist and cutaway, I iterated to that method by trial and error (going through 2 sets of walnut practice sides before I was happy enought to bend the good stuff).

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Are you working in a mould?

Side bending isn't easy! Just take your time and be systematic.

My first set of guitar sides took me 2 full days to get perfect :D

....which is why he's doin' the wise thing and building a bender :-)

I admit I figure I should try some hand bending, particularly for cutaways, but making tools that make shaping reliable and accurate and repeatable is a good idea. Same reason I made radius dishes. Also, making a bender takes an afternoon, maybe a day if you take it nice and slow.

I've hand-bent binding for a double-cut electric on a hot pipe. Flamed maple binding. Now that's evil.

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