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Sides too thin??

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 6:04 pm
by hummingbird
The mahogany sides that came with my practice kit had sprung back out of shape so I made a hot pipe and tried to bend them back. I ended up scorching them badly. No biggie, lesson learned. So I went to the lumber store and bought a piece of padauk and resawed new sides with my table saw. Then planed them down with my Wagner safety planer. After sanding to 200 grit they ended up at about .70 thou. Some spots are .65.
Are these a right off?? What if I put lots of side braces and perhaps one along the middle of the sides the length of the guitar?
Would pore filling thin then even more from the sanding?
Any comments would be helpful thanks.

Re: Sides too thin??

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 6:31 pm
by tippie53
they can work but you are on the low side. If they don't feel spongy I think you may be ok

Re: Sides too thin??

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 7:05 pm
by pete nardo
you could laminate your original (scorched) sides to the new one(s) to strengthen it... just a thought.

Re: Sides too thin??

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 8:47 pm
by kencierp
No problem -- just add side reinforcements spaced at about 2" or so.

Re: Sides too thin??

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 9:35 pm
by Tom West
Levon: Your sides at this thickness can work if you follow what others have said. The one problem you can have with sides this thin is clean up of humps and bumps once the top and back are attached and your prepairing for binding. If you have very smooth bends and no cross grain wavyness you may be in luck. Padauk is one of the better tone woods but needs lots of filler and you get a nice red color all over everything if you do much sanding. Good luck,hope it works out for you.
Tom

Re: Sides too thin??

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 8:53 am
by hummingbird
Sorry for taking so long to come back with my thanks for your comments. I'm on the road alot so I don't have many chances to reply right away. I do appreciate it.

In my embarrassment I failed to mention that I did this twice so I in fact have two set that are too thin. Therefore, Pete's lamination suggestion sounds good. I could bend them both then laminate them together or use them as the inside lamination of other side sets of woods that are hard to bend. Thanks again.