Mold Or Workboard

[erikbojerik]

OK you acoustic builders....I'm working my way through the Cumpiano book, and gearing up for my first acoustic build. Right away I see he builds without a mold, using a workboard instead.

What do you use? What are the pros & cons?

[Mattia]

Mold, and fox-type-ish bender with a heat blanket for bending the sides. Even Cumpiano is using molds and side benders with blankets these days. It's easier, but most importantly gives you more predictable, consistent results. I don't see any cons. I also built mine using radius dishes (home made) for the same reason. My book source was Cumpiano, most of the rest I gleaned from the MIMF library.

[fryovanni]

I have used both workboard and mold. The mold keeps everything much more stable.

As Mattia mentioned Fox-style bender(home made-about $50) is really a great way to bend. I don't use heat blankets, but it would make it easyier to get to temp. quicker. I also have a heavy 4" cast iron pipe with a heavy duty heating element for touch up. Radiusing dishes are another huge plus(mine are also home made-$3 each). Another good item to have is a good radius jig for bracing(I built a 15'/25'-$7). Actually I found many great ideas for jigs on the OLF(but you can find so many great ideas out there). I also put together a nice kerfing table for my sliding chop saw(I run about 20 sticks at a time).

Peace,Rich

[DaveAndy]

I use pretty much what the other posters use.A mold, and Fox style bender,radius dishes,Go bar deck

and various power tools,hand tools,and spraying booth for Nitro. and cumpiano's book!