carved body

[newbiejon]

Hi

does anyone know if a half inch top is too thin for a carved finish. Obviously you can do what you want but has anyone tried it and failed or succeded?

cheers

Jon

[rradams]

Hey Jon,

The LP style that I am working on right now has a maple cap that is just shy of 1/2". I have decided to go with a fairly deeply carved top ala PRS. The 1/2" of wood has been fine. I did sand thru at one point where I came off the binding because I dip downward pretty deep but that was a miscalculation on my part. In short 1/2" should be fine. Carving a top can be almost as gratifying as carving a neck. Have fun!

Rubin

[newbiejon]

thanks for the reassurance

second question, are you carving it or using a sander or what?

[rradams]

I have tried a variety of methods. The one that has worked best for me is a die grinding bit to rough carve the shape I want. This tool has a lot of flutes that spiral around the bit and has a bullet shape. I then go back with a dremil and sanding drum to smooth some and I finish with a sanding block made with a Magic Rub pencil eraser. With the rough and dremil work I worked in stages so that I don't remove too much wood. My method is not without mistakes as I have had to rebind the body when I cut into it when I got too close. This also resulted in having to carve deeper which led me to the sandthru that I referd to above. Mine is by no means the only way, but it has worked for me... :-)

Rubin

[krazyderek]

if you're doing an arm rest you might want to bend that section of the top... other then that you should be ok