rto

Hey, i was looking at building a Lap Steel as my first project after seeing the tutorial on the projectguitar site and was just curious if anyone here built one before and if they could post pics. I searched the forum but didn't find any threads about them, so i guess just post pics if you got em..

One question, Are you able to or willing to build several molds and jigs? If someone with experience told you exactly what you need and how to get solid results, would you be willing to follow that advise without taking shortcuts? There is nothing wrong with cutting or routing sides out of a solid body blank, as in the link you show. Peace,Rich Because i would be doing this project in school, i would be tight on time because we will only be in the shop once or twice a week until the final month of the semester and i'm not sure if i would have the time to finish if i where to also build the molds/jigs used to bend sides. i have seen pictures of homemade side bending machines etc. but im not sure yet if our teacher would let us build them at home and bring it to school because we normally have to do all our work in class. But if routing sides out of a solid body blank will work, i think that would be the best way for me to build my first guitar because its something i would understand better. thanks for the reply.

So my woodshop class starts next week and i badly want to build an archtop or acoustic but the one thing thats holding me back is the side bending... Everytime i see pictures of the process (with a heated pipe) i get somewhat discouraged becuse it looks like it would be insanely difficult to get the sides to actually match and fit the top/bottom. So if someone with experience doing this could expand on it, that would be helpful. Also, i was wondering, in this pic - http://www.cpthorntonguitars.com/images/sh...hrough-Neck.jpg I know that^ is only semi-hollow but it looks like the sides are cut out on a band saw or router? Would that be an alternative to bending sides for an archtop? If it is that would make my build a hell of a lot easier.