pariah223

yeah i should just break down and build the jig and buy the blankets, but i feel like if i get good at pipe bending, i will be better off in the long run.

I am interested in using some nice quilted maple for my back and sides on my next acoustic. I know that tiger maple is supposed to be a real pain to bend.. is quilted any easier or harder? I may be completely off by even thinking there is a difference but i imagine there is some kind of difference. I have never tried to bend tiger maple but have heard it is tough to do without damaging the wood. I had little trouble bending mahogany and bubinga if that is any indicator. Thanks!

generally you mark centerline on the fingerboard, centerline on the body should already be there since its the seam, line the two up and use a long straight edge to assure the center line is a straight line from the nut to the bridge. Then you gotta also make sure the centerline of the bridge is centered as well. its all about that center line.

wow i didnt realize you could get rise blocks for certain 14" bandsaws.. I thought to resaw, you had to drop a grand into a band saw. I know this doesnt contribute to the topic, but thanks for pointing this out to me!

yeah i dont really build electric anymore, so most of my wood is like, 1/8 or so. Thanks for the info

hm its amazing how often what i think i know gets turned upside down.. thank god for you guys and this forum. So If i store the woood in an outdoor wood shed with no climate control or anything? That isnt the end of the world as long as i le the wood sit in the climate controlled shop for a while before i build?

i am pretty sure that spruce is not a wood to be used for necks.. I could be wrong and would be very surprised but i am pretty sure i am right.

wouldnt a basement be a bad choice due to them generally having higher humidity levels?

I have been watching some wood on colonialtonewoods.com and have been thinking of ordering some wood. However, i live in upstate NY and the humidity is all over the place. I am trying to come up with somewhere to store my wood and just wanted to see what everyone else did as far as storage is concerned. I probably wont be living here too much longer, maybe getting out in the next few months.. but i dont like putting woodworking on hold because then i have trouble getting back into the swing of things. So, does anyone have any clever solutions to wood storage? Also, i found a decent dehumidifier on amazon.. the Soleus Air CFM-40 E 40-Pint Dehumidifier with Humidistat... It says it gets humidity down to 50%. Is that low enough to store, and build guitars? I have heard 40 is where you want to be.

i have had great success just shooting my guitars outside on a nice day. I may be the exception to the rule, but i have had no problems with dust or bugs in my finish due to the rapid skimming over of the finish i use. I use behlen stringed instrument laquer and it dries to the light touch very quickly. Now i dont try this when neighbors are mowing there lawn. But even then i dont think i would have a problem. This is coming from a guy who works in a body shop and has access to a full spray booth. Its just more convenient and the results are just as good spraying outside. I would like to see other solutions though.

i dont know anything really about humidity and heat and all that stuff.. I was just going by what my humidity meter was telling me.. It could be wrong considering it is like a 10 dollar unit.. ill have to look into this and do some more testing... something doesnt add up.

well heat can be an issue because when i turn my heat on, the humidity in my shop is about 45.. by the time the room gets warm, the windows are foggy, the cast iron is rusting, and the humidity is about 65+.. haha.. but i think i understand now, was just trying to find a loophole because i have more time to build in the summer than the winter.

that is actually the cheapest i have seen them. any cheaper than that would be making your own i think. I enjoyed making my dishes... but to me building jigs and tools is half the fun. Especially when they work!

I was intimidated by the whole radius sound board when i first thought of building an acoustic. So much in fact that i decided to buiild an electric first. Once i got around to doing my acoustic, i was suprised at how unbelievably easy it was to do (much easier than spelling unbelievably correctly). There are alot of tutorials on radius dish making out there.

well i guess if no one has the answer to this question... my next question is, how do you guys work around humidity issues.. i cant be the only one with horrible fluxuation in humidity

I live in upstate NY, so the humidity in these parts up here varies dramatically. On top of that, my shop is never the same because i only heat it when i use it. The quesiton i have is, to build a more stable guitar.. am i better off keeping the guitar and wood in my 40% humidity maintained room when i am not working on it, and only bringing it in the shop to work on it? Or could that cause problems itself with all the fluxuations? I am just trying to find a good compromise here and regulating humidity in my shop is not possible at this point in time.

ah im from the saugerties/kingston area.. small world

what part of Upstate NY?

i may be a little too cautious but i try to avoid taking a router to a guitar if i dont have to. When i do my binding, i cut it back with a newly sharpened scraper and it doesnt take too long and is by far safer than a router with a trimming bit. Is the binding plastic or wood?

wet sanding is typically done after your done clear coating a guitar and it has had enough time to fully cure. After clear is applied, you will usually get an "orange peel" effect which is exactly that, the surface of the guitar looks like the skin of an orange. Thinning your finish can lessen this but you will always need to wet sand to get that mirror finish. google it or search the forums because wet sanding is a very easy topic to research and you can find all the answers you need pretty easily

yeah thats pretty severe... poor instrument, im not sure if that taylor trick will work here, but give it a shot!

i am not an expert when it comes to humidity.. but my sense is that guitars will always be effected by humidity. I dont see any reason why an old guitar would be more immune to the effects of excessive dryness.. which is the problem you have. I recently posted about this and here is a great link to re-humidifying a guitar.. assuming its not beyond hope.

http://www.taylorguitars.com/contact/customerservice/ and go to videos there are a few humidity vids

In my 2 acoustic builds.. i have used home made spool clamps which were really cheap and really effective to glue my tops and backs to the sides... only issue with this, that yours may solve is that if your not extremely careful, your sides can skew a little bit. Arnt threaded inserts pretty expensive?

i was looking at that stewmac vise... and 135 really isnt that bad for it all things considered... shipping probably is a killer though

well i waited too long... the vice is no longer for sale on that website... i hate my indecisiveness