#1-Templates and Forms — tyson hand-did

This weekend, had some time to make some acrylic templates and the form/mold to hold the guitar while I am working on it. For the guitar, I am making an OM style guitar based primarily on a plan that came with Jonathan Kinkead's guitar making book. There are many different ways to make a guitar form/mold. I chose to use a "hybrid" style using 3/4" plywood so that the form/mold is strong but light.

Before I constructed the form/mold, I first cut out some acrylic template pieces based on the guitar plans. The one, half side of the template will be used as a reference for the side bending as well.

What I am not showing you is version 1 of this mold. I first started with a 3/4 MDF layered approach that got out of control and I made about every rookie mistake possible trying to make the thing. I was also so heavy I would have needed a crane to move it.

To make this form/mold, I traced the pattern onto 4 pieces of 3/4 plywood cut to 10x24" - two pieces for the left side of the guitar, two for the right. These will serve as the main decks of the mold held together by small blocks of pine cut 1.5" square.

To make a long story short, I made reference lines to match the top and bottom parts of the form and then glued and nailed all the spacers in place to give a total depth of a little over 3" to the form. This gives good room to work on the top and back of the guitar while in the form. I also made some braces from pine 2x4 scraps and a couple of turn-buckles to hold the top and bottom curves of the guitar in place in the form while working.

I also did a couple of hours of side bending practice with some scrap wood and although I messed up a bunch of wood, I started getting the hang of it.

All in all, a pretty productive weekend. As with anything, good practice is key. I want to make as many of my mistakes as I can on the cheap stuff before moving on to my more expensive woods.