Guitar 1002 – Building Bending Molds
February 6, 2011
The Macaferri body is new to my arsenal, and so is a cutaway. I needed to build bending molds and build or procure a cutaway ram for my bending machine. I located a fairly inexpensive ram from Bluescreek out of Pennsylvania, and it should arrive by the end of the week. I’ve also got a good idea about using the ram for a uke side bender, as the full sized bender is too restrictive for the small sized ukes.
Using the Mac plans, I created an acrylic template, then transferred 1/2 (the side without the cutaway) to birch ply. I cut out 6 half plates, 3 for the regular side, and 3 for the cutaway side. I finished one of the half plates a wee bit smaller than the actual size, and used it as the master for replicating the other 5 using the router table. I assembled the non cutaway half first using existing spacers and 3/4″ dowel.
The master was then trimmed to emulate the cutaway shape, then the remaining two plates were trimmed on the router table.
The dowels are secured with titebond and CA.
