Carved top body

[nollock]

Hi, whats the best way to carve the top? I tried out a few ideas on an old bit of wood and found a spokeshave to be the easiest to use. Just need to be carefull to alwasy go with the grain. I tried an angled jig with a router which was good for getting a consistent angle but not for geting a smooth contour. To much moving and angle adjusting seems to be required. Very fidly.

Anyway, the bit of wood I tested out on had been previosly painted and I found the paint incredibly helpfull in that i could see clearly where the end of the carve was. I had a strong paint edge contour to work to. Kind of like if you were carving plywood you would see the contours through the seperate splices of the ply.

So i was wondering if there is anyway to use this to carve a body? Is there somthing that could be aplied to the wood that wouldnt soak in but would act in a similar way?

Mabey its a daft idea but i did find it realy helpfull.

Any sugestions or do most people just us a spokshave and patience?

chris

[asm]

if youve got a lot to carve away. you can get a 1/2" or near forstner bit and plunge out alot of the excess waste so you get a rough 3d shape of your carve top, then do the rest with hand and scrapers

[Scott Rosenberger]

Rhoads56 uses an Angle grinder for Carved Tops. Try doing a search and I'm sure you'll find the thread I'm talking about

[westhemann]

Rhoads56 uses an Angle grinder for Carved Tops. Try doing a search and I'm sure you'll find the thread I'm talking about

yeah...so do i

but i have only done this one

[nollock]

righto then, I'll have a muck round with the angle grinder and rough bit of wood tomorow. I asume it needs a flexible rubber sand disk attachment? I think my bro's got one of those for doing car body work.

cheers,

chris

[westhemann]

. I asume it needs a flexible rubber sand disk attachment?

smart man...yes i used 60 grit aluminum oxide sanding disks...but you must be VERY light with the carving..

and yes...do practice...the one i did i just took a chance and went for it...but i am very schooled with a grinder,so it wasn't too big of a deal..except that the wood was over $100...good thing i did allright

[Nicksguitar]

GET READY FOR BAD ADVICE, USE AT OWN RISK!!! (I know this is bad advice but it's how I've been stuck doing it up to this point)

I use a router to give me a lice ledge at the edge of my carve and clear out any large areas. Then I use a 2" drum sanding bit in my drill to work down the surface and sculpt any dense areas. Next I use a random orbit sander to smooth things out. Both of these tools are killer though, be careful. I slowly take off a little at a time and then eyeball it. Then a little (HA!) hand sanding later, voila, something like this:

[westhemann]

oh heck...that reminds me...i am sorry i forgot to mention it...i took a router bit with a bearing on it(somewhat like this one and adjust the depth of cut to how deep i wanted the carve to be and routed a channel around the body...then i drew the shape in the middle of the body that i wanted to be flat,and i just connected the two...but remember it should be a convex carve to look right

[javacody]

I read somewhere that pointy guitars will give you vd?

Just kidding, that is a beautiful guitar, and I can only imagine the long hours spent sanding.

[erikbojerik]

I've been using 60-grit on an orbital disc sander for my archtop proj; it is rather slow, not as fast as the angle grinder, but does a pretty nice job.

Hey javacody, welcome to the forum. You always struck me as one of the more knowledgeble people over on Tommy's forum, its good to see you here.

[javacody]

Not to hijack this thread, but thanks, its good to be here. I'm going to take it easy and start off doing bodies. Tommy makes great stuff, but Fender type guitars only make up for about 1/8 of the different guitars I want to play and I prefer the quality of custom made stuff.

Plus, I really like hunting down the wood for myself.

[CGHbuilder86]

What about putting one of those discs on an angle grinder that is metal and has a chain saw type blade around the outside edge. It might work good for roughing it out, this is just an idea though. I’ve never even seen one of these in person, but I’ve heard that you can do pretty detailed carvings with them.

[kench]

I've carved a maple top with my angle grinder and with flap sanding discs. It was very easy and I was very satisfied with the result. Now I can't think of any other cheap way to carve a top. I was advised to use ordinary sanding discs but I realized that flap discs(looks like a fan) with lower grits like 40-80 grits work much better, like a lancelot tool. Because what you want to do here is to CUT the wood, NOT TO SAND it to the desired shape. Lower grits cut better without burning the wood. Use higher grits near the edges. But like in every tool, it needs a little practice. After the final shape with the grinder it will need some hand sanding to smooth the transition areas, starting with 80 grit.

Another advise I can give is to start from the edges with a router. Route the whole side to the depth before starting to carve. I didn't do this and I ended up with deeper carve on the edge. Once you accidentally carve too much in a little area on the sides, you have to carve the whole to the the same depth. So you better do it first with a router.

[Devon Headen]

...but remember it should be a convex carve to look right

I never put much thought into that. IT didn't make sense at first but now I realize that's right. You probably just saved me a lot of time