Dr Ron

I have 2 routers and they both did it. After three passes I said no way and went for the hand tools. something on the jig wast right...so I will build another one.

I had a weird problem when thicnessing. I built the router sled jig. I set the router to cut 1/32 the first pass. It started fine but when I finished I went back over it and the router which should have been just barely touching dug in another 1/16" i checked everything and and it kept happening. I finished up with a plane and belt sander. Not cool! now how am I going to finish this beast? man this requires major focus and planning! And of course an unreal amount of sanding.

Okay an update...I thicnessed the top to an 1/8". Everything went well but it took a lot longer than I expected… But then again I want and very gingerly to make sure I didn't tear up the wood . I did the pen test and it bent so easy it wasn't even funny . So I did all my markups and everything and then I glued the top on . I clamped it all up put a lot of clamps on the armrest area and clamped a board to hold everything flat and then 300 pounds of sand bags on top of the board . After 15 minutes I took the bags off and all the clamps and just made sure everything was still on track and everything was really good so I clamped her back up I put the weight back on her now I'm just gonna wait a couple days . Put glue up was a very messy event . When I took everything off I took away towel and got all the excess glue off.

Yeah I hear you...I will stick to the plan :-) i will build that one from scratch next :-)

I love that. My thoughts are this... i will use quilted maple veneer. Cut a template for the center part. Cut the veneer to the template and glue down the veneer. When that dries rout the inner part out of the spalted maple. Leave it a couple mm taller. Run a 1/8" route around the center part for a binding. Glue up the center part...then the inner binding. When that dries run a chamfer bit on the binding. Then add a binding to the outside. look on the bright side...no bending on the drop top...just the veneer.

I have considered that. I'm going to thickness the drop top ready to glue up. Once it is exactly right I'm going to mill the same thickness off the body top. the body is solid mahogany so I'm thinking a dark red brown. It is a neck through body and I hate the maple neck stripe down the back. i was also doing something like this pic...using quilted maple framing the spalted maple? i am definitely doing a binding. It is going to be cream colored.

I really appreciate all of your advice from everyone contributing! Here's where I am… I did fair amount of research and it seemed a reoccurring theme that everybody was saying glue first to stabilize the wood a little bit more before you start machining It. So I did use CA glue thin and apply that to the whole top . I wasn't totally crazy about the dull brown finish it left I hope I can do something with that when I machine it. Once that had dried overnight I started Preparing the book matched edges for joining. After a fair amount of skimming with a plane on the shooting board followed by some light sanding I was able to get a perfect joint. So now I have just glued up the top and I will leave that overnight and then I'm going to start machining it (Thicknessing it) I initially thought it's probably going to take the thickness down to an eighth of an inch. Should I try to go any thinner than that? It might help the bending process ? I think I'm also going to work on the contour of the existing body to smooth that out a little bit.

What if I use a vacuum pump? Will that do a better job?

Is there anyway to test to see if the wood is going to bend? Preferably before it breaks?

And that'll take at least an eighth of an inch off of my 3/8 sickness… What should help in the bending process

That is A conundrum. I have to mill the spotted maple first so I can get it to the appropriate thickness but I'm afraid to do that without using this CA glue first .

Thank you...I really appreciate it! To bend the wood for the forearm contour I am going to route grooves in the bottom. Will the super glue help or hurt the bending process?

Thank you for your reply! Is there a CA I can buy at Home Depot or Lowes? How much will I need?

I want to get started this weekend so for step 1...I want to use a routing sled to thickness the wood. Should I do the CA or epoxy? Should I do that before I thickness it? (seems like I would be just routing throughout the epoxy/CA?) Im not fearing chunks because I'm going to do some Turquoise inlays on the top. If the top holds together do I just carve some "fake" splits to fill with the epoxy/turquoise? I'm going to keep the top as thick as I can and mill the body down so that when I add the top it results in a body that is the same thickness as the original body.

Okay...thank you! Happy shopping!