Spreaders

[Datrek]

The kit I bought came with a spreader, but only one. Photos I have seen of sides in a mold usually had 2 spreaders and what look like wooden dowels to spread. My spreader only goes in the middle of the mold, nothing for the widest part. Spreaders on the Blues Creek site for sale look just like mine, with the spreader concave. I think I need a big spreader that's convex at the ends and a lot longer.
Where do I get one or do I have to build it?

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Very easy to make. Use a piece of 2 x 4, use your mold as the template to trace the shape, cut and sand to the line, drill a hole into the blocks on the inside edge to hold turnbuckle of the right length to spread the blocks.
Make all you need this way for the waist and bouts.

Kevin

[Darryl Young]

What Kevin said.

Place the spreader at the waist......at the narrowest portion of the body. I usually leave my sides just a slight tad long so that when I close the outside mold halves together, the sides spring away from the mold at the waist a tiny bit. Position the spreader at the waist and tightening forces the sides out against the mold not only at the waist, but also around the entire perimeter.....viola!, no gaps and only one spreader needed.

[Datrek]

So this is fine?

[tippie53]

I only use one and here is a video showing how I do it. I can tell you that if you are not careful, using too many spreaders will cause more problems than it will solve.
Watch closely and you'll see that the side set is trued to the mold but left just a tad long. This will help the side set seat into the mold. I have done many guitars this way. The critical area is the neck block which needs to be square to the mold. If you feel you need something, I use a 1/2 in dowel that will spring off the tail and neck block. Then when I am done with the box I will cut the dowel out, or you can make a spreader for the blocks just remember what goes in must come out the sound hole.
When I first started I had a lot of trouble getting my neck block true and found that the wide spreader would force the blocks off the mold . This would let them "float" and no remain true.

[Darryl Young]

Datrek,

You need to trim the ends of the sides to the correct length. As mentioned, trim them too long and keep trimming them till when the mold closes, the sides pull away from the rim at the narrow portion of the waist only (being too long forces the sides out against the mould). Note the ends of the side (at top and bottom) should be butted against each other in this case, not overlapped. So with the sides trimmed to length so that closing the mould forces the rim away from the mould at the waist (a tad)......now add the spreaders at the waist and when you tighten them it forces the rim out tight against the mould around the entire perimeter. Note: if you trim the sides too short, the sides won't be forced away from the mold at the waist.

Remember, it's normal to trim the sides to length. Clamp the waist in position on the mold and then mark where the tail and head of the sides needs to be trimmed (leaving the curve of the waist in the correct position). If you are unsure, leave the side a bit long and test again......you can always cut more off but you can't put it back on.

Edit to Add: In your pictures, I can't tell if the length is correct or not as you don't have the ends of the sides butted against each other (they are overlapped).