Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey folks....check out this back set I got from LMI today. Sweeeeeeeeet. The sides have sap on them also...but no pic.

Mainly though I have a question about the mold. This is my second mold today. See how it's off the plan a little? Does that matter? I can make another....I just don't want to be the king of mold making....BTW...this is the Antes OM plan...

Thanks a bunch......Chris

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

Not sure what others will think, but I wouldn't bother with the difference and go ahead and use this one.

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

It's fine, go ahead and use it, without a second thought.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

it is not off,
it is your version of the OM.

Paper plans are subject to print scale error, printer induced heat shrinkage and humidity changes. Also depending on the weave of the paper the amount of out of scale may or may not be the same in all axis or consistant across the whole page.

By the way your mold is fine

That's interesting......my version....I like that.....

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

Guitars are like boats in one respect:
As long as you make the same mistake on both sides, nobody will notice!

Cheers
John

Just put the plans in the bathroom when you are taking a shower, keeping the mold in the other room of course, this should solve the problem.

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Kurt Thomas

"There's a first time for everything even if you do it by mistake."

Just to play devil's advocate, or if you are some kind of deranged lunatic perfectionist, you could glue/laminate some thin veneer pieces to close up the discrepancy. My sides have yet to fit absolutely perfectly into my molds as I am still hand bending and a beginner. But the guitars still come out pretty good anyway imho. Don't worry...

Bondo has been suggested as a filler.

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I use bleach for my mold problems.

Close enough as long as its symetrical. Party on.

..or how about, Thats not mold in the sap line ... we call it spalting.

Its late, I need some sleep.

Sniggly,

John at Blues creek has been producing my molds for me and they are as exact as the info I give him. Great work he does. That said about a year ago I lined the interior all my molds with .005" thick UHMW pressure sensitive film to avoid any chance of a accidental glue drop causing any issue.

I would tell you why but then I would be admitting that I have clay feet, and that aint happening

But anyway none of my clients have noticed that their guitars are .01" shorter than they are claimed to be

I've used bondo to fill an mistake I made in a mold, When sanding with a spindle sander I noticed the wood of comes off faster than the bondo, it was ok, just had to keep this in mind when sanding it.

Stef

chris,
i agree with the others. use the mold.
and seeing as you're asking this kind of question, and using the antes plan, i'd strongly recommend hunting around in the archives for discussions that discuss the bracing on that plan. all the braces are in the right place, but boy are they ever heavy.
before i built my first guitar, using that plan, i was fortunate enough to have a professional look at the plan and scribble all the right rough dimensions onto it. he saved my bacon. had i built according to plan i would have ended up with a dud and my hobby would have ground to an immediate halt.
good luck as you start building.
phil

STEVE!!!! I used veneer to shim my molds................... I admit to being deranged but I am NOT a lunatic.....yet.....

All I would add is to over lay the two halves and remove or add material as needed to make both halves the same. I doubt if anyone's OM is exactly the same including the variances in the molds that martin probably uses too. But I would go for symmetry.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Well......I'll tell ya what I did. I have a very large 'book' of tracing paper in my shop. I used it to copy furniture from photos in books and then scale out the trace.

I took a piece of that trace paper and laid it across one side of the mold....the side I thought was most correct....all the while aligning the edge of the trace paper with the center line of the mold. I used a charcoal artist's pencil to 'copy' the profile on that edge....flipped the paper over..pressed hard...and BOOOM...as I lifted the tracing paper....I found a perfect black line on the other side....I promptly fixed it on the spindle sander.

I AM THE MOLD MAKER.....SEE ME LAY DOWN THE MOLDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I always wanted to say that....heheheheheheh

By the way Heshter...I am going to use the 25 15 radii you mentioned.

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

Look at my stuff....

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

John,

Your comment have been sigged. If you don't mind!!!