www.KitGuitarsForum.com

As the category says, these are beginners questions and that would be me. All of my builds so far have either been kits where are the sides are trimmed and bent or builds where the sides have been trimmed and bent for me. I am now moving towards building from scratch having to perform these two operations myself.
So my question is, do you trim your sides before bending or after? I know you can buy a side template from LMI for dreads and OM sides. But I am currently starting a build of an OO size body. What do y’all recommend in this case?
Thanks

Thanks Diane. I’m getting ready to build two OO, 14 fret projects. I found a design drawing for this model on LMI. I’ll be able to trace a side templet from this. Thanks for the advice!

I think we need to verify terminology and nomenclature
first you want to shape the sides to match the geometry you want IE 000 15 foot radius or 20 foot dred
allow extra length trimming is setting the length of the sides to fit the mold

Driving the bus will do the final shaping.

Yes - I could read this two ways: 1) trimming to length and 2) trimming to profile.

1) Trimming to length: no - this is done after the sides are bent and being fitted to the mold. You want some extra on each end so place your sides accordingly.

2) Trimming to profile: as John mentions its recommended to rough out the side profile before bending - leaving some extra for the final fitting process with the radius dish. Most plans have a separate layout for the side profile. If you forget you can also do the rough profiling after bending, but either way you want to do it before you get the sides glued up in the mold, much easier doing it beforehand.

Took the post out...

Diane, I am not a very experienced forum poster. What does that mean?

Haha, I'm a beginner too - it's just that my first one was from scratch so I ran into all this on my first go-round. I started it in early 2019 and finished about 6 months ago so it took a bit. Now I've started my second and it's been so long I've forgotten a lot of how it goes, so I'm really glad you're asking these questions!

BlindBo wrote: ↑Sun Feb 12, 2023 8:34 pm Diane, I am not a very experienced forum poster. What does that mean?

It just means I deleted my post since it was so confusing. It was a quick answer and I should have been more thorough.

This is your sequence:

1. Thin the wood first. I thin my sides to 0.75-0.85", depending on the wood flexibility.

2. Profile your sides. This means simply shaping them. I've made a very bad drawing for you. But, leave the length and make it as long as your wood. I just trace the pattern from your plan onto a paper (pattern paper is cheap). But, just make it longer at each end. You'll cut off the excess after bending.

3. Bend.

NOTE: #1 & 2 can be switched. Just make sure you thin the sides before bending too.

I don't lose a lot of sleep over precision in profiling the sides. As John mentioned, driving the bus will level things off nicely. I do leave my kerfing a bit proud of the sides so the back and top will have the greatest possible contact with the kerfing after sanding.

The sides will be sacrificed when the binding channels are cut, hence my lack of worry, the sides are going to get cut away anyway.