Did you make your radiusing dish?

[ironman187]

Hey, who here has made their own radiusing dish? How didi you do it, what did you make it out of. Thanks!!!

[needsanewguitar]

hey there. Never built my own but this guy has plenty of great vids on luthier tips and tricks. Here's the one on radiusing dishes.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvGemvizrz4

[Brackett Instruments]

I believe the time and materials to make 1 or 2 dishes would outweigh the cost of buying them.

Another note, beware of youtube, and the internet in general. There's alot of (possibly bad) information out there from people who've only built 1 or 2 guitars and then decided to share their knowledge.

[Tim McKnight]

Yes, I have made all of mine at a time when I had more time than money. Now I have neither ;( Made them with a hand router and an arched sled, take a pass across the dish, rotate, take another pass, repeat lots of times. It makes a huge mess too! Best done out doors if at all possible.

[gregg]

Ditto what Tim said....+2 on the mess

Greg

[Rod True]

Same as Tim and Greg. Real big mess. If I had the money, I'd purchase one from High Mountain Tonewood.

[Chris Kemp]

Originally Posted by ironman187

Hey, who here has made their own radiusing dish? How didi you do it, what did you make it out of. Thanks!!!

I am a poor hard working luthier and I have made a couple of them. Although I did buy a forty foot radius from Stewmac. A hundred dollars is still hard for me to swallow:

This how I make mine: I take a piece of fishing line and I tie it to the wall and I measure out the distance that I want for the radius. I tie a pencil to the string and draw an arc on a piece of cardboard or scrap wood. I then transfer the arc to several pieces of wood. I prefer to use 1" x 4" pine. I cut out the planks on the band saw and then clean them up on the drum sander. I then match them all up and make sure that the arcs are the same. If not I clean them some more on the drum sander. Then I take a piece of cheap plywood or masonite and use it for the base. I place two of the arced planks on this board in a cross forming a 90 degree right angle. I notch both of them in the middle so that they will intersect and sit down flat on the base. I then attach two more in a 45 degree but I don't notch these in the middle I just cut the middle out and fit them into the center. I use a scrap piece of would with a nail though both ends to find center and to locate the outside edge of the dish (home made beam compass). As I fill in the gaps I cut each piece back from the center kind of like fitting pie slices. When it is all together I then do a little bit of sanding with the DA sander. Remember they don't have to be perfect just close. I scrounge around a lot looking for scrap wood but if you have to buy the materials it would be cheaper to buy one ready made. It takes me a couple of hours to build one. I hope I don't get laughed off of here for revealing the secrets of a red neck luthier but they work great for me.

Good luck!

[axmaster]

I made one dish (for the back) the way Tim described it. That was three years ago and I still cough up MDF particles! After buying a proper band saw, my next tool will be something to control the dust.

Cheers, Peter