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Best Way To Clamp A Guitar Top To The Body...


bigdguitars

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That is a great idea. I know just where I can get one locally too.....wife is going to pissed about this one, but its too good to pass up, and the couch is pretty comfortable.

Thanks a ton (I think)

George

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OH MY GOSH..... this thing is so huge. it will take a full guitar body... this is the greatest thing ever. you know that gizzly luthier clamp? this is like 400x better than that. I look at this on ebay and they are all over the place you can find them for so so cheap? I spent 40 bucks on my last bessy clamp, this does the work of 20 clamps, but these up guys they are the best!!!!

I thought that this thing would be smaller or so but its about the size of a 55 gallon drum...

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I don't think thats a good idea at all. This press is only able to exert force in one VERY small area and looks very instable. Even if you find two planes that are hard and stable enough to clamp the wood in between you need to exert force on several places on the planes and not just one. There is a reason for veneer presses....

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come on guys, I can get two steel plates or wood that is that big enough and then clamp down the sides with other clamps. how many clamps have you found that are this large to actually clamp down the center of the body?

I do need to stiffen it up a bit, there is a guy in fine woodworking name silas dekomf or something? he has a buch of these clamps. he uses them for all his veneer work.

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I am buying an old wine press to make a clamp out of it.... 

will post a tutorial on how to convert one of these... this is a great idea!!!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...me=STRK:MEWN:IT

Well, why not take the idea a step further? You could build your own press using the same "screw down" design --only place a press in four corners so the pressure is more evenly distributed.

Seems to me you don't need anything that big either --you could probably convert some pump-action clamps to work with the idea.

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For the last ten years my clamping frames with the several hundred dollars worth of Jorgenson screw clamps have sat in a corner unloved and unused 'cause I built a vacuum press. This will glue any wierd twisted or irregular shape as well as nice flat ones. I run a venturi vacuum pump off of my compressor and it can put as much as 1700 lbs per square on the wood if I need it. It also sucks the moisture right out of the glue and thus cuts down on your clamp time. If I was gluing up a flat top or arch top I wouldn't use it, 'cause it would squish 'em flat, but solid bodies are perfect for this method.

There are a number of websites that the guys that mke this stuff have up. Fine Woodworking magazine has had innumerable articles.

My basic setup probably cost me 250.00 bucks US and I have a 5' x 9' table! I could press 8 bodies at once if I had lost what is left of my mind.

This technique will absolutely flat press anything.

To date I have had 0 glue line failures.

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  • 1 month later...

Sorry I missed your last post.

I make my bags out of 20 or 30 mil pvc sheeting. I glue two opposite sied and leave the ends open. This way I can adjust the size.

I make two end clamps out of 1' pvc water pipe. Cut about a 1/4' slot down the length of one. Fold the bag into it and squeeze another one into the crease.

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I saw that in my catalog, I thought that this example might work but I was not so sure that it would get all of the seams correct?

Yeah, you'd have to use a lot more clamps on the edges. What always concerns me is getting the center clamped down tightly enough. The Grizzly method looks like it would work great and is very low tech. Exactly what I look for in a jig!

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