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Making radius sanding blocks...


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Has anyone made their own radius sanding blocks? I'm thinking it shouldn't be hard to do as long as you use a bandsaw. My plan it to draw out the radius first on a piece of plywood. Then I'll cut it out with a scroll saw and use it as a template. Take a block that's 2 3/4" wide and 8" long and after it is planed and sanded real good; stand it up on it's end (with the 8" length vertical) and use the template to draw out the radius. Then take it to the bandsaw and cut it out.. sand down the radius part and that should do it. Will this plan work or should I just buy some.. lol

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i thought about the same thing before i ordered mine, it's alot of work to try and make ur own that are actually precise enough to use on a guitar neck. to make 1 or 2 it's not a bad plan, but if u want to make like a set of 6 or something, and have like long ones and short ones in each radius... that's like a month's worth of very precise work... or a day or 2 if u don't take extended lazy ass breaks like me

GL!

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Making your own radius blocks is pretty simple. I can mail some pics to Brian illustrating how I did it. The jig I built allowed you to produce any length of block, any of the common radii, and was built in less than an afternoon. Cutting the 6 inch block I use for radiusing blanks took all of 15 minutes.

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Yeah I've read those plans before.. neat idea.. but that doesn't look like the way stew-mac makes them. To me it just looks simply like they drew out the raidus on the top edge and bandsawed it... I might be wrong but I'm gonna try it... can't hurt anything.. lol...

i'm pretty sure stewmac just invested into some giant sanding drums (20, 24, 28, 32.... etc in diameter), and they just lay a long peice of maple on it till the bottom has the appropriate radius, then they cut it to what ever length they desire,

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Making your own radius blocks is pretty simple. I can mail some pics to Brian illustrating how I did it. The jig I built allowed you to produce any length of block, any of the common radii, and was built in less than an afternoon. Cutting the 6 inch block I use for radiusing blanks took all of 15 minutes.

u've sparked my interest as well, can u forward that email my way aswell?

derekrneil@hotmail.com

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cool, got it now :D , looks fairly complexe.... hmm... i can see myself screwing this up pretty easily B) but i'll definitly give it a try thanks dude!

btw, what size cutter bit are u using ½ inch diameter? i'm guessing the more narrow the bit, the more precise the radius is going to be, so narrower, would be better?

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I use a 1/2 inch flat bottom bit, which works fine for me. You really shouldn't have any trouble setting the jig up provided you check everything is square, and shim anything that isn't until it is!

Hopefully Brian can post pics soon so everyone can check it out, and quite possibly refine the design from it's pretty crude incarnation!

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" The router is attached to the sled by it's edge guide, using one of the edge guide bars inserted through it's channel in the router base, and through two corresponding holes in the sled "

what if ur router doesn't have these kinds of attachments?

sorry if that's double posting, but didn't look like it got much traffic... any help? the best i can come up with is to make another faceplate for the bottom that extends out on both sides so u can screw it into 2 blocks of wood...

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Building an attachment at 90 degrees to the base or the sled sounds like a good plan. Most routers have some provision for attaching a template bush to the base, you could use machine screws to attach the router to the sled through these.

Without the router infront of me it's hard to come up with a solution, but I'm sure you can work around it somehow. Which brand/model of router do you have?

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