Belly And Arm Cut

[shifty]

Hello all I am brand new here and am in need of some help.I am gearing up to build a strat style guitar and I have everything pretty much figured out theres just one thing I'm a litle confused about.How do you do the round over along the edge of the belly cut and arm cut.I know on the rest of the body you just use a round over bit but since these areas aren't rely suited for a router do you just file and sand them by hand.All help is much apreciated cheers.

[kpcrash]

You do it in many ways - some of use a router to make the initial bevels and then smooth them out with files/sanding. Other use hand planes. It's more about what you have access to as both ways will produce the same results - just that one may take a little more elbow grease than the other.

[Rick500]

I just do it by hand. It's not that much work, really, and you can get it just as smooth and flowing by hand as you can with a machine.

[avengers63]

I'll do the most of the work with an angle grinder and a 40 or 60 grit flap wheel. After that I'll do the final shaping with some 40-grit on a random orbit sander, then work my way up through the grits to 100. From there I can sand the whole body.

[Rick500]

To rephrase my earlier comment... I was speaking specifically of rounding over the edges of the cuts when I said I do them by hand (with sandpaper).

[Mickguard]

I make the carves by hand (I use a small surform and then 3M sandpaper), it's one of the most pleasant parts of the build for me.

[Hector]

I use a rasp.

works like a charm.

[RestorationAD]

Car body grinder (angle grinder) with a nasty 36grit disk on it for the initial cuts. Then I use a orbital through the grits. Round the edges as I go with a rasp, then bastard file, then mill file

[guitar_player]

I use a 40 grit flap wheel on an angle grinder then go to 100 grit on the orbital sander. Sometime I just use a belt sander for the arm cut other times i use a handplane or angle grinder followed by a belt sander followed by an orbital sander.

[egdeltar]

Rasp & file. takes 5 minutes.

[avdekan]

to round the edge of the belly cut I use a scraper to scrape the length of the edge going gradually through various angles. after the edge is fairly rounded I use sandpaper with a soft part of the palm (the thumb for instance) to round it over.