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Hi, I just bent my sides and have them in the mold, I'm building a "ooo" it should be about 4 inches at the tail block and 3 inches at the heel. My sides straight out of the bender are about 5 inches all the way around, how do I take the sides down to match the tail and heel block? it seems everybody else has there sides cut to size before bending  Is there a way to shave the sides and then glue on the blocks?

Do you have radiused dishes for the top and back? If you do, here is how I use them to do the profiling:

First glue in the neck and tail blocks. They need to be slightly oversize at this point as the profiling of the sides will take some height off them. I line them up with the side of the rim that will be glued to the top. When dry, place the rim (still in the mold) with this side on the top dish and trace its profile onto the sides. I use a pencil and a spacer (a wide washer used as a wheel with the tip of the pencil through the hole works fine) that rides on the dish while the pencil draws its profile on to the sides. I also trace a line around the sides where they meet the edge of the mold as a reference for later so the rim will be returned to its original position in the mold whenever I take it out and put it back in.

Now block plane to this line; check your progress by sanding carefully with the dish (the sides are quite fragile at this point), see if there is any clearance between the sides and dish. If there are big gaps, note where they are and block plane and sand accordingly until the dish fits perfectly on the sides all around. Note that the sides will be tallest in the waist area and slightly lower at the neck and tail block.

Now do the back. The operation is the same as for the top, but before I trace the profile of the back dish onto the sides I cut the rough taper from the tail block to the neck block with a block plane. Also note that the blocks need to be quite a bit taller than the sides as they angle up due to the curvature of the dome of the dish. This is most evident at the heel block / back plate joint.

Check your progress to see that you don't take off more material on one side than the other.

Done!

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Colin Symonds posted a really good method of getting the profiles right before you bend but it'll probably help you here.

Profiling Sides

Read that before you read my mumbo-jumbo below. It might make sense then.

Get some thin cardboard and tape them to the inside of your rims and then follow Colins instructions for profiling the back.

Cut out the cardboard to the back profile, measure your tail and head block depths and draw a straight line for the top profile.

Trace the contour on to your sides and then carefully cut it out on a bandsaw.

If you are using a sanding dish it won't take long to get to the corect radius for the top.

Cheers

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

Collins method is the best I have seen and Bob's tip should see you right but THIS is another option, now that you already have the sides in the mold, straight from the Jigs and Methods section here at the OLF (I wish that area of the forum would grow, so much good stuff belongs there)

Cheers

Kim

Maybe the tutorials should go in there too Kim.

We'd have to have a page specifically for the prolific Hesh.

Cheers

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

Thanks for the info guys, I think I'll try Collin's method.

Man, this is a great place.......

                                                 Red

[QUOTE=Hesh1956]

This way I never have to puse a plane on my sides[/QUOTE]

Ooh - that sounds painful Hesh.

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

Better a plane than a pineapple.

I REALLY like Terry's method......

                          Red

Todd, it would be great if you could do a picture tutorial on this!

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

Yea, he lost me on the narrowest part of the waist.....

                                      Red