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I'm trying to decide whether I need to buy a template for giving a mortise and tenon bolt on neck joint a try. Is there anything magical about the dimensions used in plans? Assuming there's sufficient material on either side of the drilled holes and the mortise and tenon fit, would I be totally safe to draw my own plans from general measurements?


Secondly, we need to make/buy a bending form, and will eventually need 3 or 4 for the different sizes we'll offer. I can't get plywood thicker than 1/2" here, for what it's worth. Any suggestions for putting somethign together that's functional, will hold up for at least a couple years, is somewhat resistant to changes in humidity, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg?

Thanks, as always,

Andrew Wright
Managua, Nicaraguaharmonist3438874.4778935185

I use a but joint now after using a dovetail anmd then Mortis and Tenion. As far as a bender goes. My fox style bender cost me less than $1 with 6 different forms, using scrap wood in the shop, 1/2" is plenty I've done close to 100 guitars on this setup and it holds well. Instead of metal for the spreaders I used hockey stick handles. You can do it on the cheap.

I recommend that you use a tenon that is .75” wide x .50” deep and a mortise .75 wide x .625” deep with .75” of material left in your neck block for a bolting ledge. .75 wide is plenty for 1/4-20 threaded inserts.

You can build lots of inexpensive variations of bending fixtures. but my guess and recommendations is that you build a Fox style with screw press for waist and cutaway, and that you build from 3/4" ply even if you have to order the ply off the net. The cost to build a Fox style bender form new material is less than $50 including the screw presses and you can build forms for under $10 each. You can start with 3 200W clear light bulbs as your heat source but I do recommend a silicon heating blanket and controler instead. If you use light bulbs I suggest you use a dimer on each bulb for control. This will help you to keep from scorching in the waist and upper bout areas

I know money is a presious comodity but from my experiance with shop made tooling is that this is an area that you either go as cheap as you can and then rebuild better design later and end up spending 1.5 or 2 times as much money as you would have if you went ahead and build the better design in the first place. Same thing can be said about buying your hand tools. But this is a lesson we pretty much all have to learn on our own

I've posted these here recently, they are made from 3/4 ply but you can always glue two layers of 1/2" ply together. They can be made in no time at all, I use a table router and template to cut the sides. I have bent something like 50 sides using them with silicone blankets and spring steel slats, using my gloved hands, and never had a side crack.





OK, ideally you get a full, all singing all dancing Fox style bender, (Or maybe one of Taylor's) but these will get the job done.

Colin

_________________
I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Colin Your bender looks a lot like mine.

Al

I do mine just like Todd said. Works great.

Ron

_________________
OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

I think i'll do like Todd too, looks easier that way.