Day 4

Today, We made our work board. Since guitar tops are not completely flat, you must make a mold to form your tops with. This is called a work board. Traditionally, it is a piece of plywood, scraped and carved down to the opposite shape of the top. Usually the top is a dome about 2mm high. Usually with every type of guitar you build, you have to have a different work board. Instead, Tom and I designed a type of board that would be useable between the sizes the sizes of a dreadnaught and OM. This is a very challenging thing to make because it is so subtly cupped and it must be very precise. To design and make, this took a full 10 hour day.

Here is the process from idea to reality

Here is the design of the top. We have thought out the way we are going to brace the top, and we designed the work board to reflect that, as to add support in those places.

Here is the design of the work board drawn onto the plywood

We then cut out the shape with a jigsaw

Then we cut and shaped the supports. They mount on the back and give the front its shape. Here Tom is bandsawing a slight curve into one of them

We then dry fit all the parts to make sure everything was all set.

Next, we screwed it all together, and planed the edges and back flat...

...and voila! a hard day's work.