Official Luthiers Forum!

i havent even built a guitar yet and it has already taken over my mind. preparing for my first build here and i was wondering what kind of wood you guys use for your molds and bending forms and what not. is baltic birch all its cracked up to be? or should i roll with just plain old plywood or MDF from lowes.

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sweat the small stuff.

[QUOTE=hblair] i havent even built a guitar yet and it has already taken over my mind.[/QUOTE]

Bless your heart. Kiss all your money goodbye.    

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

For basic molds (bending forms, body molds, sanding dishes), MDF is perfect stuff. It's flatter than most hardware store ply, costs MUCH less, machines easily, dust is nasty, but it's good stuff. I use ply for things that require a lot more joinery and screws and the like (say, a binding jig for example), but MDF is a staple. 9mm MDF (3/8") is what I make all my initial 'shapes' out of; it's easy to shape, easy to drum sand to shape (with dust collection ON), and then gets used to copy route onto a bigger, thicker template (usually 18mm MDF) which is then used for actual repetitive pattern routing. The thinner 'master' gets put away in case a bearing slips and I manage to destroy the working template.

alrighty good enough then. thank you very much. 

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sweat the small stuff.