Official Luthiers Forum!

So i've made the transition from building on a workboard to building with outside molds (thanks to Todd and others for your helpful posts).

My workboard method was basically:

1. Brace the top / brace the back
2. glue headblock and tailblock to top
3. glue sides to top
4. glue back to box.
5. drink

Now with the molds i'm a bit confused. Should i glue the head block and tailblock to the sides, then glue the top on? continue to glue the blocks to the top, then fit to the sides?

My hunch is that i will glue the blocks to the sides, then top onto the sides.

thanks

b

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brendan 3.0 new and improved, with better interpersonal subroutines

yes , the blocks get glue into the sides first . Maybe this vid will help . A Martin style will have a neck angle incorporated into the side set .
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... ars+bendin
Hope this info helps .

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Correct.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Why did you want to change?

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

thanks guys.

howard, i'm getting inconsistent results that are quite frustrating. and perhaps out of laziness, or some other less than admirable quality, i wanted to achieve consistent shapes more quickly.

b

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brendan 3.0 new and improved, with better interpersonal subroutines

One point to make about Todd's well articulated order of assembly as above is gluing the back before gluing the top.
This allows for perfect glue cleanup in the area visible from the soundhole vs gluing the back on last....

Todd mentioned it but I'll mention it again. Be sure to put something between the mold and each end of the guitar as well as whatever the mold is sitting on so you don't glue your instrument to the mold when you do the end blocks. It's easy to forget to do that in the heat of the moment. I use clear packing tape.

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

Yes, in the use of a mold you first assemble a "rim" (a word that doesn't really exist in the Spanish style of "free" assembly) which consists of the two sides, neck and end blocks as well as the linings, which is then fit into the mold.
Ultimately though, mold or no mold, the guitar will assume the shape of the bent sides. Bumps and lumps will not go away because of the presence of a mold.
Larger issues of symmetry however can be helped througn the use of these (as long as they themselves are accurate of course).

I will say this to encourage you. I had lame bending results early on, and the cause was my bending process. I tried to fix them by forcing a perfect fit in the mold, but it never worked.

Things got pretty good when I used a Doolin-style bender. I never worked out the slat tensioning, so really, it was just a mold that indexed the side off the butt.

I sprung for a Fox bender from John Hall earlier this year and used it for the first time just this past weekend. I watched Todd's bending videos and had excellent results with sides that literally slipped perfectly into the mold.

thanks everyone (esp Todd for that tutorial)


My results building on a workboard we're good, don't get me wrong. The instruments sounded great and felt great, and for the most part, any irregularity in shape was something only i (or someone REALLY inspecting ) would see.

Months ago i transitioned to bending in a machine and have absolutely loved the results. My pipe skills are decent so touching up after that machine bend is easy enough.

I guess i felt that to bend on the machine for repeatability only then to build on a workboard seemed like the reintroduction of a variable that i could reduce by mold building.

And i'm not a pro, but i do get 1 or 2 commissions a year and all my clients have been very very pleased. I can say that i ENJOY building with the machine bender, molds, go bars a lot more than i did building on a workboard. that must count for something

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brendan 3.0 new and improved, with better interpersonal subroutines