Show us how you glue/clamp your backs and tops to the rims

[Darryl Young]

Here is how I glued the back using my go-bar deck. The sides are in the mold and the back is sitting on the appropriate radius dish. Note there is a go-bar or two inside the mold against the back to ensure the back is pressed against the radius dish to hold the proper shape. Will get more go-bars before doing this next time; however, it worked well.

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And here is the top being glued in place.........sides still in mold, back laying in appropriate radius dish. Note plywood around perimeter that go-bars are sitting on. Also, I left extra plywood over the neck block area and used extra go-bars over the neck block to make sure there was good contact between the neck block and the top. I left spreaders inside the box to keep the sides against the mold and to keep the neck block properly aligned. Of course I checked to make sure I could remove these through the soundhole before glueing the top in place!

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[Ben-Had]

I did spool clamps on my first guitar. Too slow I felt to get all those clamps in place.

Kevin

I tried spool clamps too (ended up selling them), that's why I invested in all the cam clamps.

[darren]

Darren,
Curious, why did you leave the caul and screws behind?
I rather like it.

Kevin

Kevin I thought the screws slowed me down and the bands really let you put a precise amount of pressure, relatively quickly. I think my screws were too long, felt the caul overlapped the plates too far... and just never made another one. I'm sure it works when set up correctly because it's a popular method. I may revisit it in the future.

[johnnparchem]

I tried the all clamp way tonight. I could have used a few more clamps. But it is clamped down OK.

[David L]

I use the gobar deck, radius dish, and halo caul (made from luan), my gobar deck is made in such a way that I can use a couple of bar clamps at the neck and heel blocks. I also keep the rim in the mold until the box is closed.

David L

[Darryl Young]

David, I would like to see your setup that allows clamps to be used at the neck and heel blocks.

[David L]

Darryl, I had to go back to blogging Fatso (page 5) to jog my memory. When I built my gobar deck I glued some 1X2's to the underside of the bottom deck keeping them several inches from the sides, this allows clearance for the bar clamps, however, I was only able to clamp one end of the body with bar clamps by scooting the body close to the edge (I chose the neck block). At the tail block I had some oddball gobar rods (4 rods shorter than the rest that John threw in when I ordered my rods from him) that I used by putting a block (spacer) between the rods and the top/back. Four rods directly over the block for a little extra pressure. I thought that I had clamped both ends but of course the deck is too wide for that. It could still be done by cutting a V-notch in the deck to allow the clamp to be slipped up to the block but I don't think it is so necessary that I will be chopping up my gobar deck.

David L

[Ben-Had]

I tried the all clamp way tonight. I could have used a few more clamps. But it is clamped down OK.

That's how I do it now John (same mold) but on my bottom dish I cut it to shape so the cam clamps and Irwin clamps can fit better and I have about 18 cams and 12 Irwin's to do the job.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Lots of great pics here of ways to do this. That is what I was hoping for.
John, you have a fortune in Cam Clamps there. I have yet to buy any, but I think I do need about 4 of the 8" depth ones.

I too, when using the go-bar deck for clamping, have used extra rods on the heel and end blocks, but wanted to use clamps there, just don't have any big enough....

I like using the go-bar for this task, it is pretty quick. However you have to have a really good fit where the top or back can not shift sideways, other wise (don't ask me how I know) the bars themselves can move the top off center if you are not watching and correcting for this.

The other thing of course with the go-bar is the risk of having one slip and punch a hole in your top....probably wouldn't happen on a back.

I did on my second guitar, use the go-bar, and when setting up some rods gluing down the top bracing, I had one slip, and it was like domino's...they all went flying, so care must be taken in placing them.

I like the screwed down caul as all the pressure is straight down, and "slightly" over the edge, which helps to make a nice tight joint and conform to the radius put into the kerfiing. I also found it to be pretty fast if the screws are already through the caul and ready to screw right into the mold with the driver.

Kevin

[nkwak]

Lots of great pics here of ways to do this. That is what I was hoping for.
John, you have a fortune in Cam Clamps there. I have yet to buy any, but I think I do need about 4 of the 8" depth ones.

I too, when using the go-bar deck for clamping, have used extra rods on the heel and end blocks, but wanted to use clamps there, just don't have any big enough....

I like using the go-bar for this task, it is pretty quick. However you have to have a really good fit where the top or back can not shift sideways, other wise (don't ask me how I know) the bars themselves can move the top off center if you are not watching and correcting for this.

The other thing of course with the go-bar is the risk of having one slip and punch a hole in your top....probably wouldn't happen on a back.

I did on my second guitar, use the go-bar, and when setting up some rods gluing down the top bracing, I had one slip, and it was like domino's...they all went flying, so care must be taken in placing them.

I like the screwed down caul as all the pressure is straight down, and "slightly" over the edge, which helps to make a nice tight joint and conform to the radius put into the kerfiing. I also found it to be pretty fast if the screws are already through the caul and ready to screw right into the mold with the driver.

Kevin

I had that catastrophic go bar failure happen this past week on my first and I gotta tell you, the idea of a screw-in caul sounds good right about now. Does the caul have to have a radius? What about if it were just a halo caul?