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A couple weeks ago Andy Zimmerman was asking about doing the cross sectional profile of braces and I said I do mine on my drum sander. I finally got around to doing it again and thought I'd post a couple pics. It should be somewhat self explanitory but feel free to comment or ask.
Profiling braces
As you can see I leave the brace full width at the ends and where the "x" will be formed. On the second side, after you have removed the wood that will support the brace against the jig you will have to make several passes to get a nice smooth job but it works. Just a quick sanding after and everything is smooth and ready to be radiused. Hope this helps.John How38699.468125

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Thanks for sharing John. That is a good setup.

Josh

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Josh House

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That is so cool! Im ordering a spindle sander asap!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

The finished braces look great but I can't see whats holding the brace in place while sanding? Am I missing something?

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Just my fingers, but I only do one side of the x at a time so I'm holding on to the opposite end when sanding.

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Thanks John

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
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John: How do you hold your angled fence in place? Is it clamped in place like the back fence?

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

tilted table? Can't see real well, too much sun on my screen!

I think Sylvan wells uses a spindle sander as well. Its a fun machine to have.Terry Stowell38698.3960416667

Cool John! How bout if you had double the angle on the other side of your jig? Then you could just turn the brace around and have the area you just sanded away supported while you sand the other side?

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Terry, the table is not tilted, the sliding jig has an angled cut so that the brace blank is tilted into the sanding drum as shown in the end view picture of the jig. The notch in the bottom is to allow for sanding dust that builds at the base.
The angle you choose for the jig is based on slightly less than half the thickness of your brace and the height of your brace. I made mine to leave a 1/16" flat top and to get the profile almost to the bottom of the brace but not thin the brace. My braces are all 1/4" wide and about 3/4" tall at the x. If I want the brace shorter, I will shorten it with a block plane after I profile but before making the "x".

Tim, the fence is clamped but the jig with the brace slides to sand the brace. Just be sure to mark were you want the "x" so you can leave a flat spot.

Larry, I thought about that but was trying to keep it as simple as possible. I also thought about inserting some small peices if wood in there for support but making several pass's seems to work fine.

Feel free to make improvements but be sure to share with the group if you come up with something.

After sanding this profile into the braces, I just do my radius and make the x joint. The after glueing the braces in the go bar, I carve the height profile using finger planes and chisels. Then I fine tune the profile with sandpaper. It has definately reduced the number iof unsightly chisel marks in the under side of my tops.John How38698.4331018519

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Terry said I use a spindle sander and he is correct but not for shaping and
profiling braces. For that I use a pin router and a 22 1/2 degree ball bearing
cutter. I simply mark where the X is and do not profile that area. Then run
the brace through the pin router on the appropriate areas. Does a perfect
job in seconds!

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The other Terry Terry.

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Actually it was Andy Zimmerman that PM'd me asking for pictures. Don't ask me how I twisted that one around

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