radius sanding board

[Telecastermusic]

Hi, anybody made their own radius sanding board? Any advice on how to make one? Any previous threads?
Thanks.

[charles Tauber]

Are you talking about for arching tops and backs of acoustic guitars, or for the curvature of a fingerboard? Or, something else?

[fazool]

The name radius sanding board, in my mind, usually refers to that tool for a fretboard. I found the ones from StewMac to be worth the $12-16

[PeteD]

Assuming you are talking about the radius dish for tops, backs, bracing, etc., yes I have made a couple.

Messy work. But I found some MDF at one of the big box building supply stores (forget which one it was...it was several years ago) that were perfect sized and already cut into circles. I took two 3/4" boards and glued them together, and drilled a hole in the middle of both.

Then I built a sort of carriage on which would ride my router. The carriage or rails had the proper curvature on them, and were spaced such that the router base would ride and the bit would be clear in the middle. These rails were then fixed to my workbench, spanning the width of the boards and mounted on my bench, clearing the sides of the MDF. I drilled a dowel into the workbench on which the MDF boards were able to spin.

Then the messy part comes....good to have a partner there with a shop-vac. Slowly spin the boards while you ride the router slowly down the rails from the outside in. I forget the router bit size, but guessing it was a 1/2" or slightly larger. When I got toward the middle the work slowed and I decided to work my way down to depth...hogging off that depth in the center was too much.

Then, I put in some elbow grease and sanded the boards smooth. The router didn't smooth things out as well as I would have expected.

I then bought some 80 grit wide sandpaper from a bargain box at a fine woodworking store (stuff that was cutoff from drum sander sandpaper) and glued it on.

Frankly, you might want to buy them from eBay. It was a mess...

I forget where I saw this process on the internet...but a search might take you to a similar or hopefully a better process if you decide not to buy.

[Bonneybear]

I have made a 15' radius dish from corian. I bought a 24"x24" square 1/2 " thick. It's all 1/2" thick. Drill a hole in the center, mount a router on some wood to make a circle cutter. Make a 24" diameter circle. Borrow a friends radius dish 🤓 Put the corian in an oven about 350 -400 deg. It will soften up. Place the hot corian disk on the radius dish and weigh it down with weights, sandbags, circular objects, let cool. Enjoy. I need to make another but with different radii I might try a cymbal or something like that. This process is called thermoforming.

[murrmac123]

Originally Posted by Bonneybear

I have made a 15' radius dish from corian. I bought a 24"x24" square 1/2 " thick. It's all 1/2" thick. Drill a hole in the center, mount a router on some wood to make a circle cutter. Make a 24" diameter circle. Borrow a friends radius dish �� Put the corian in an oven about 350 -400 deg. It will soften up. Place the hot corian disk on the radius dish and weigh it down with weights, sandbags, circular objects, let cool. Enjoy. I need to make another but with different radii I might try a cymbal or something like that. This process is called thermoforming.

I like the idea, and Corian would indeed be the ideal material for a radius dish, but where did you find an oven with inside dimensions ≥ 24"x24" ?

[SnowManSnow]

I looked at making my dishes when I first started, but in the end decided paying a little extra was worth having a finished product, and it saved me a ton of work and time.

[Bonneybear]

Most household ovens are only 18" deep. I went to a local church that had a commercial oven.

[redir]

Originally Posted by SnowManSnow

I looked at making my dishes when I first started, but in the end decided paying a little extra was worth having a finished product, and it saved me a ton of work and time.

Agreed, some things are better left outsourced.