Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone. Its one of those days when we just can't escape father time because the clock keeps on ticking, doesn't it?
After the CAD and CAM files are complete its time to cut the parts. The first part is the 1/2 body template which is usually cut from 1/8" - 1/4" thick material. Most luthiers use a 1/2 body template. It takes up less storage space but more importantly it's more accurate to use a 1/2 template and flip it over so both halves of the guitar are exactly the same. I think this notion has evolved since most of us older builders began crafting our forms using a band saw or jig saw as the preferred tools to cut our forms to shape. It was cheaper to use a smaller size piece of wood. Another advantage is if we are building a cut away model we can easily add that 1/2 template to the mix.
The next form to cut is the bending form. This jig fits into our Fox style side bender. It requires 2 halves of 3/4" thick particle board joined together by wood dowels. The vertical slot in the waist accepts an aluminum key which holds the bending form securely in the Fox bender.
Here you can see the side bending form inserted into the Fox style side bender. You can also so the end of the aluminum key sticking out of the side next to the words "kerf slots up". I used to pre-bend kerfed lining and I wrote a note to remind me which way the kerfed slots faced.
Here you can see a cutaway side bending form inside the Fox style bender. We use this attachment to bend Venetian style cutways.
This form is what we use to laminate the sides. It requires us to cut 7 identical 3/4" thick particle board sheets and then glue them together. There is a 1/4" hole bored into each end of each piece. This allows us to insert a long dowel through the ends of all 7 pieces, which aligns each consecutive piece as they are glued together.
This form is called the outside body mold. It consists of 6 identical pieces of 3/4" thick particle board. Again it uses 1/4" dowels to align each piece as the stack is glued up. This form will hold the assembled rim, after the sides have been bent and cut to the proper overall length. I have built these molds in this method and have also built them as a solid form. Its a bit lighter weight and requires less material (cheaper) to construct the body mold in this hollow style.
