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Hi everyone,

Background - building 2 guitars - classical, one walnut and the other maple.
The other day I feared thinning my maple sides too thin. Today I successfully thinned my walnut sides.
I was thinning the back pieces using the Safe-T-planer. I think I was set too thin to start with, but then I also think my pieces were slightly cupped. Eitherway - I have a couple spots on my back pieces, on both, that go down to about .04 thickness. Actually they are strips of thinness on the out edges of the lower bout area, about 2" wide. The rest of the back is about .07 or .08". Another bad thing is that they are not joined yet. But I can overcome that part easily.
My fix for the low spots is to place veneer on that area. So I will sand and plane till my back pieces are a pretty common thickness after joining. Then I will plane a little more on the outer part of the lower bout and place a strip of veneer.

ugh.... I am working on another guitar at the same time, so I can still progress, should I order or get new back pieces and start this part over, so my guitars can be "perfect" ??


I have been using this icon a lot lately.

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

If it where me I would a new back pieces. You might be able to use the old back pieces for trim on some thing in the future.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

Can you spin the pattern around so the thin areas fall just outside the upper bout?

For future reference, when safe-t-planing, make sure you sweep of the table and the board before every pass. (Don't use your hand) It doesn't take much under your board to make it a lot thinner.

Mike

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Mike Lindstrom

Mike - that is a good idea. You area right about the safe-t-planer - but I think my table may of gotten loose.... ugh and I was thinning down to .09 - so yes, I got greedy and lazy. Lesson learned.

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

ok so $40.00 later I have a replacement back of some beautiful walnut. It I got some extra wood in there for small jigs as well actually the price is really about $30. I had to pay for some resawing and milling services to get what I wanted.

Question - now - how thin should I go with the Safe-T-Planer ? and then go on with the hand planes - I am thinking of being conservative and going down to .11" with the drill press and then hand planing down to .85" - what do you think ?

Thanks !

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX