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I'm going to chime in. I made a mold, but it wasn't as accurate as it should have been. Unless you own, or can borrow a spindle sander, it's better to buy one.

I also owned a mold made by someone who claimed it was a 000. It was way off. John has the true Martin sizes.

I will chime in, too. This falls in the category of 'you can build a car cheaper than buying one'. I built my last mold using 5-ply baltic birch and the latches on Martin/John Hall's version for the parlor twins I'm currently building. All things considered, I might have saved $5. A good experience, but I would rather skip pizza for a month and buy my next one from JH.

Danl8 wrote:I will chime in, too. This falls in the category of 'you can build a car cheaper than buying one'. I built my last mold using 5-ply baltic birch and the latches on Martin/John Hall's version for the parlor twins I'm currently building. All things considered, I might have saved $5. A good experience, but I would rather skip pizza for a month and buy my next one from JH.

I second that, having priced materials and lost time I need to spend on repairs and builds.

I have to disagree. I have built 6 molds, and it takes perhaps 2 hours, using scrap plywood, scrap 2X4's, and drywall screws. John sent the cardboard mold with the kit, the router bit with bearing is perhaps $15 (lasts a long time), and the sander on the drill press was about $10 at Horror Fright. Following John's advice, once you have the sides in the mold, they don't come out until the top and back are on and you no longer need the mold, so I used long drywall screws to hold the left and right sides together. If you can't find scrap plywood (try nearby home constrcution site dumpsters), 2 pieces at 2X2 feet each from Home Cheapo or Blowes cost only a couple of bucks

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/ ... 913590767/

there are a series of shots here with text below

Ed

Thanks for that view point ( and the picture presentation which was excellent) Ed. I have a bunch of spool clamps for gluing top and bottom plates. It looks like those spoolies are no longer usable with a mold? Removing the sidse from the mold to use spool clamps would likely defeat the purpose of a mold? The StewMac internal cardboard frame is not so swift either. Also I found that after a radius top is affixed to the sides, a square can no longer be used to check the sides for square when gluing the bottom.

Here is a photo from Hesh Breakstone, who runs Ann Arbor Guitars with David Collins. He no longer uses the row of holes in his mold for spool clamps as he made a go- bar deck.

I used spool clamps without a mold for my first instrument, but found it easier to to just set up some clamps with long boards over the top of the body in the mold. I use a donut shaped caul to avoid bearing on the domed sections. I still haven't built a go-bar deck because I only build about 1 a year among other projects and it never seemed worth the effort when I have something that works so well:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/ ... 029319394/

I never bothered with a dish either, opting for a simple radiused beam.

Ed

I will be building a mold soon, and also a set of spreaders. I am wondering if anyone has plans or dimensions for spreaders, what size stock to start with, to groove or drill the back for the turn buckle, if the turnbuckle hooks need to be cut off, if they need to be epoxied in, and so on....Tnx.

if you trim the sides properly only 1 inside spreader is needed. I also screw my neck and tail blocks in and that works as an inside spreader without torquing the mold.