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I was thinking of building a maple J-45 style guitar with laminated maple back and sides. I keep wondering how I would laminate the sides now. Any suggestions? The goal is something like this.

this thread may help:

http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum ... inated-Uke

It is about ukulele sides, but the same principles should apply.

Take care,
Thomas

Laminated can mean several things. I make a 3 ply side with the centre ply going 90 de. to the outer plys. I use sliced veneers, sometimes adjusting the overall thickness by sanding the inner ply which is ususally a different species and ussually .062 thick to start.
I spoke with one guy who uses one species on the outside & a different one on the inside. I make backs this way too. The tap tone of my backs is kind of dull.
I have an outside form so the show veneer goes in first. Then I put it all in a vacuum bag. I use either urea formaldahyde or titebond, original "extend" the ukulele link would be easier probably but I'm not sure what he is doing for clamping, is it rubber bands?
Mike McNerney

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Mike McNerney

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I've done four guitars with laminated sides. I've laminated sides with both an outside and inside mold. I think I like the outside better for tight bends. For regular sides it's probably a wash. I used Smith's All Wood Epoxy on the last couple and it seemed to work well. Making kerfed clamping cauls on the table saw with a fret slotting sled works well. You can make the cuts and then sand the other side in the thickness sander to get it thin enough. For tight curves I wet the cauls and stick them on the hot pipe to get a more uniform bend. Tim McKnight would be a good person to ask as he has done a ton of laminating.





Here's what I did for an inside mold

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Nice Terence! I guess you have to either make new forms or bigger guitars now. Did you do laminated on the reso you made?

Best of the Season,
Danny

Yes I used it on the reso with Cherry. on a Maple archtop, an OM, and a Mahogany archtop. I used the same solid form for bending and as an inside laminating form.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Hi Terrance,
If you can find some Kerf Kore material it may save you some effort making clamping cauls.
I laminate sides from flitch matched veneer, gluing the slices back together in the same order they were cut. I use west system epoxy. I also do back sets that way. When well done they look like solid wood. The picture is the edge of an unbound guitar I built several years ago