Quote:
Originally Posted by emmsone
... the mould seems to have been a lot less helpful than it should have been. It is also SUPER heavy which made moving it or doing anything with the guitar in it very tricky. I definitely picked the wrong material.
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Being heavy can be a good thing, using it to prevent the body from moving when working on the body in the mold, during operations like planing or sanding the linings and end blocks.
Here is a video that shows one method that I use for clamping tops and backs to the sides when using an outside mold:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSXmP_eD8c4
Note the thud-like sound of the body at the end of the video. That is the sound - at least on my guitars - of a too-tight (stiff) top and back. The next step, for this particular instrument, not shown in the video, is to selectively thin the top and back. The zircote back was too thick, generally, as well as too thick around the edges. The top just needed thinning around the edges of the lower bout. After having done that, it sounds like it'll be a winner. There are other methods for obtaining a desired balance of weight and stiffness, but that is one that I use.
I initially learned to build steel string guitars face-down on a slotted work board in the Spanish construction method. In that construction, the top is laid face-down on the board and the sides attached above it, simplifying gluing of the top to sides. The back can be clamped on using large rubber bands that attach to the slots in the work board, or to screws sticking out from the perimeter of the board.
I still use the method - and parts thereof - for various things. In some ways, it can be much more flexible than using an outside mold, particularly if one is new to guitar making.