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Hello,

Complete newbie here, proud owner of a not-cheap pile of wood from LMI, for a classical guitar.

I got the sides pre-bent. Seemed like a great idea at the time, but now I'm wondering how I'll change their thickness if need be. Seems to me that's something you'd want to do before bending.

I'm also wondering how to go about altering the body depth from end to end. The LMI folks pre-bent the sides to fit (more or less) the 1937 Hauser. The Courtnall book shows that the depth of that guitar goes from 90 mm at the end down to 85 mm at the neck joint. Is it trickier to make a taper like that on pre-bent sides than on unbent sides, or is it something you normally wait to do till after side-bending no matter what?

It's OK for you to tell me to RTFM or to spend more time browsing the forum. So far I've read just enough of the books I've accumulated to be dangerous.

Best,
Greg

I also made two classical guitars from LMI that had pre-bent sides. Classical guitars rims are flat on the top and usually radiused to 15' on the back. Do not worry about the thickness of the sides, whatever it is just fine.

Here is how I dealt with the pre-bent but not profiled sides on the two classical with pre-bent sides:

I made a rim pattern from an already built Hauser style guitar for a side. I taped the pattern on the side and drew out the back profile. The top is just a flat reference.

On one of them I left the sides alone until I had the neck and the end block glued on and used a plane to take it the rims, and the neck slipper and endblock down close to the profiled lines I drew, and then used a 15' radius disk with sand paper to finish the profile.

On the second I cut about 1/4" inch from the line using a band saw and proceeded as I described above.

Thanks. That's very helpful. Any tips on using a plane on a curved edge like that?

Dansereal wrote:Thanks. That's very helpful. Any tips on using a plane on a curved edge like that?

I use a small block plane with short strokes. Be careful as you do not want the leading edge of plane to bang into the side, easy to do when you are planing the neck area of the rims.

I have very successfully used a Stanley spokeshave to profile. The model I use is an antique flat-bottomed one, similar to the current 12-951 model. YOu do have to learn to hone the cutter, though, although this is a task necessary for any plane, new or used. If you are uncertain where or how to start with the honing process, look at the Worksharp sharpener. It uses sandpaper glued to flat plate glass plates. You can also do this by hand, with a guide. There are tons of articles about sharpening with sandpaper on glass or marble plates, After putting the main bevel onto the cutter, you can increase the angle by about 5 degrees and put a secondary angle on the edge, finishing by stropping, or if you are really nutzo, using diamond paste ( 1 micron or finer, which used to be used to complete the honing on microtome blades, which were used to cut specimens to a few microns thickness for microscope slide preparation) to complete the honing process. When done, you will have a fantastic, easy to maneuver, tool, which you can use with two hands, to follow the markings you have put on the rim for the profile. A spokeshave can be adjusted for depth of cut, from shavings thin enough to see through to thick hog-off shavings.

btberlin wrote:I have very successfully used a Stanley spokeshave to profile.

Thank you!

Greg