How to create a guitar mold from particle board, MDF or plywood. For the full guitar building course visit www.ericschaeferguitars.com Lesson Transcript: For this course, we are going to use an outside guitar mold. The mold is used during the side bending process and the soundbox assembly process. It also helps you mark out important dimensions in the early stages of the build. First, we will make a template. Then we will trace the template onto 3/4" MDF, plywood, or particle board and cut 6 sections. each section is then atteched to the original template for refinement on the router table. The 6 sections are glued together to create 2 pieces. Hardware is installed to hold the two pieces together and a wooden dowel is installed at the joints to keep the pieces properly aligned. For my template I am using half of a spare OM mold that I had in my shop, but you will have to create your own template from scratch, using your plans as a guide. To do this, trace half of your guitar's outline onto tracing paper. Stick the tracing paper to 3/4" particle board, MDF, or plywood with spray contact adhesive. Cut on the line with a bandsaw. I use a 1/4" blade or smaller so that it can handle the curves. Take your time and strive for consistent curves. All major inconsistencies can be smoothed out with 80 grit sandpaper wrapped around a wooden dowel. Minor inconsistencies can be ignored. As far as precision goes, the inside cut is what really counts. The outside cut can be rough cut to any shape as long as it is about 3 to 5 inches from the inside cut. Finally, drill 3 holes for use in mounting the template. Now this is actually just another piece from another mold that I have. I'm re-purposing it as a template for other molds. So, with that in mind, yours does not need to be as bulky as this is. In fact, you could just use a single piece of 3/4" plywood or something even thinner (half inch plywood would work just fine). That way, you could carefully, on a bandsaw, cut out the shape as precisely as you can. Because once you cut out that shape we are going to use that first template that you make, that should look something like this, to make the other pieces. There is going to be 6 pieces overall, 3 stacked on top of each other as you can see here. Having that template makes it real easy. We can make exact copies of each piece using the router with a guide bearing bit. So now we have our particle board out on the floor. And I'm going to use this template that I made here and trace out 6 copies of this. So instead of taking this straight to the bandsaw, because it is so big and cumbersome, we're going to first see if we can cut this up a little bit in place here using a jigsaw. You can use a circular saw. If you have a friend with you, you can take it over to th ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN0qrtwHP2g

I talk about and demonstrate techniques for bending woods with a heavy figure or difficult woods with an inconsistent or unpredictable grain orientation. I use the 5 troubleshooting factors: Thickness, Moisture, Heat, Pressure and Grain Orientation to show how I look at the task of bending guitar sides. ? Subscribe for weekly guitar making tips: https://www.youtube.com/c/EricSchaeferGuitars?sub_confirmation=1 New episodes are released every Friday at 10am ? Register for an 8 day Hands-On Guitar Building Workshop in Bernville, Pennsylvania: https://www.ericschaeferguitars.com/learn-to-build-your-own-guitar/ ?Check out the online course "Building an OM Acoustic": https://www.ericschaeferguitars.com/course/building-an-om-acoustic/ ?Check out the online course: Tru Oil Finishing: A Method for Acoustic Guitar: https://www.ericschaeferguitars.com/course/tru-oil-finishing-method-acoustic-guitar/ ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjxI1Bk0UUE

This episode is about improving comfort and efficiency in your guitar building workshop. I share 3 "hacks" that I've used to alter my environment for a better flow. 1. Radius dish workstation 2. A go-bar deck that goes 3. Workbench lightbox My instructional article for building the workbench lightbox: https://www.ericschaeferguitars.com/install-a-workbench-light-box/ ? Subscribe for weekly guitar making tips: https://www.youtube.com/c/EricSchaeferGuitars?sub_confirmation=1 New episodes are released every Friday at 10am ? Register for an 8 day Hands-On Guitar Building Workshop in Bernville, Pennsylvania: https://www.ericschaeferguitars.com/learn-to-build-your-own-guitar/ ?Check out the online course "Building an OM Acoustic": https://www.ericschaeferguitars.com/course/building-an-om-acoustic/ ?Check out the online course: Tru Oil Finishing: A Method for Acoustic Guitar: https://www.ericschaeferguitars.com/course/tru-oil-finishing-method-acoustic-guitar/ ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhJwOU0m_90

In this episode of DIY Guitar Making, I demonstrate the setup for resawing either back and side sets or tops or veneers for headplates. I also talk about dissecting a board into various parts for the purpose of instrument making. ? All episodes available at diyguitarmaking.com ? Register for an 9 day Hands-On Guitar Building Workshop in Bernville, Pennsylvania: https://www.ericschaeferguitars.com/learn-to-build-your-own-guitar/ ? Check out the online course "Building an OM Acoustic": https://www.ericschaeferguitars.com/course/building-an-om-acoustic/ ? See Eric's Available Instruments: https://www.ericschaeferguitars.com/available-instruments/ ? Check out the Radial Rosette Maker Jig: https://www.ericschaeferguitars.com/the-radial-rosette-maker-kit/ ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6hSMaQH_CE