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How many of you use arching templates? Also, how are you guys roughing out tops and backs? I just starting working on a maple back and man it's an awful lot like work hogging out that much maple. On the Benedetto DVD he says he does it with a router now but they don't go in to it. I know he doesn't use the pantograph because he says he used to have one meaning doesn't have one now. Many more questions to come I'm sure.
Jason

For the 'softer' woods, I use a router for the top profiles then hand carve everything else from there. I have found that if I use power tools too much I get impatient too easily and make mistakes/messes.

I did a hardwood arched top for a buddies upright bass project (came out 'ok' in my opinion) and ended up doing the inside rough out with an angle grinder and a sanding disk (the 3m type with the overlapping paper...whatever it's really called). Made a h*ll of a mess but worked pretty well. There is a tool that is used by some that looks like a chainsaw chain attached to a disk, for use with an angle grinder. Scares the [bleep] out of me but have heard good things about it.

-Matthew

Jason, that's kinda the way it is with arched instruments. (Think of it as a good cardio workout). It's why I have to laugh every time I hear they're no harder than flattops (show me a thickness sander that'll crank out an archtop plate!).
While there's always more than one way to skin a cat, I think the arching templates are the way to go, particularly early on. They have a solid foundation, right from the 17th century (violins), and they TEACH you to see the topography of the plate. While I use a duplicarver to rough out plates at this point, you're still obliged to make your patterns using arching templates. I'll route a perimeter lip, then fit the longitudinal, then lateral templates down to that lip using a #8 gouge/thumbplanes. Then thumbplane / scrape to smoothly join those elevations. This takes TIME. The arch is all about subtlety/smooth transitions.
Some tips
.... toothed irons in your thumbplanes help greatly, especially on curly maple.
....side light (a swing-arm lamp or direct sunlight) is one of the most important tools in carving archtops, to see peaks/valleys
.... chuck a pencil in a drillpress & slide the work-in-process plate under it at various heights to produce a topo map right on the plate (compare this to drawings in Benedetto's book), to show bulges / areas that need work.

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Dave
Milton, ON

I'm working out of the Benedetto book and was going to use his arching templates but I'm building a 16" guitar. I also don't have any 16" archtops around to make templates from so I'm kind of flying blind while using my D'Angelico as a model. Probably not the best route to take.
Jason

Jason, you could use the templates Bob has in the book and scale them down to suit the 16" ,it's only 1/2" over the length of the template. You could use some graph paper or mark out a grid over the originals and another grid on a another sheet that ends up being 1/2" shorter over the same number of squares. You could even try photocopying them using the scaling feature of the copier?
When I'm hogging out the underside of the plates I use the other technique Bob uses in the book, using a drill press and pin coming up from the table, then just chisel out the waste between the holes and then clean up and go to thickness with my palm plane. It does take time doing it by hand but I'm not on a production line where each top should only take exactly 2.5 minutes! The pleasure of making guitars by hand is the journey Oh, and sharp! blades eases the amount of effort needed on that pesky Curly Maple too!
Keep us appraised of progress on the build too, I'm sure myself and others would like to hear how the build is going.

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Nick Oliver

http://www.oliver-guitars.com

Here's what it looks like so far.
Jason