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I am getting ready to make a few radius dishes and still and a little confused about which size. What are the most common radius sizes?

Thanks!Brad Way39062.8237731481

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Brad
Avon, OH

Size of the dish: If it's round, say, about 24 inches.

Radii: Most popular for the top, around 25'. For the back 15'.

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

I have used a 15' and a 28'.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

I used to use 28' and 20'. Now I use 25' and 16'. I figure a bit more arch can't hurt.

Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

Thanks for the feedback!

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Brad
Avon, OH

The most popular steel string dishes that I sell are 15' foot for backs and 25' for tops (that is also what I am using). The classical guys like a 30' top and tend to use either a 30' back as well or go to 15'.

But there are a lot of options and differences. I know that some on here use 15' for backs and 30' for tops of their steel strings and 20'/28' is popular for vintage style martin type guitars. I have made them down to 10' diametre for a mandolin maker, who wished he went down to 8'.

I hope this helps rather than confuses!

Shane

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Canada

18 amd 28 .. just had Tracy make a brace maker for me ... can do a whole set in about 5 minutes on the TS, then plane the edge and ready to glue

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

I take it these dishes are concave?

Yes, they are concave to a certain dimension...like the 15' and 25' mentioned above. They are then lined with sandpaper, and used to put said radius onto the braces for both the tops and backs, and then the dish itself is used to aid in gluing those braces to the tops and backs. This imparts are curve on the top/back plates, which creates the desired dome.

Now, all that said, the variables in this process are many. In no particular order:

Not all builders use the same radius.
Not all builders use a radius (some build flat tops).
Not all builders use a dish.
Not all builders use the same method to aply the radius to the brace.
Not all builders use a dish for glue up purposes.

I'm betting there are quite a few references to these various processes in the archives somewhere. If you don't find what you're looking for, I'm sure somebody can locate a tutorial/photo series that will help.

Bill

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

oh boy. I can't wait till I get this far along.