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Hi All,
In the process of building a Quilted Maple body guitar. I have the body done. The problem I'm having, is the quilted maple is "bumpy". It will not sand flat. I've tried two sets of sides. After bending them, the problem seems to happen. I've used water (not soaked) on the first set, and no water on the second set. No difference. Has anyone experienced this with this wood before?
Thanks in advance.

How are you sanding? Are you using a hard block?

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Tried hard rubber block, orbit sanding, all. It is something in the wood. Never had this issue with any other wood.

Keep sanding, by hand with 220 on a wood block about 6 inches long x 2 inches wide. Take your time .long strokes.

Highly figured Maple is known for this quality. The grain reverses that cause the figure also present harder and softer sections of wood. Less sanding pressure will help a lot.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Agree about lowering the pressure and the hard block. In terms of a curved, hard sanding block for sides: I read of someone who uses a piece spring steel with adhesive backed sandpaper adhered to it. (Sorry I can't remember who--maybe a luthier who contributed to a Stew-Mac Trade Secrets piece.) I didn't have any spring steel, but I had some Formica-type plastic laminate, which I thinned with my thickness sander till it was springy but could be bent fairly easily to conform to a side. It works well!

I think this would be hard enough to sand out high spots in quilted maple but flexible enough to save a lot of time when sanding sides. Whatever you try, mark the whole side with pencil lines so you can quickly observe if the high spots are being sanded first.

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

Thanks Guys, I'll give it a try.

Would it help to flood with CA first, outside of course for ventilation?