A few years ago, I wanted to make a guitar, but didn’t like the idea of drum sanding the top and back for thickness, so I came across this video. I was impressed and inspired. I learned how to restore and use hand planes. Well I never made a guitar, but I’m an apprentice violinmaker now! I do all my work with hand tools and am absolutely loving it. I owe you one buddy!
I’ve been building acoustic guitars for the last three or four years and I love it. One of my most unfavourite thing is making dust especially thickness sanding I would love to learn your technic. Most importantly making and maintaining a sharp edge. By the way we happen to share the same first and last name.
Way cool! Sharpening basics are covered on this channel. Check out my playlists. The hand plane techniques I learned through the years, but Cumpiano covers it in his book, though I don't do it exactly as he recommends. Thanks for watching!
Great video - I am about to tackle this myself. Do you have recommendations on the type of plane to use? I am confused by "smoothing planes" "low angle planes" etc. What type is best for this kind of work?
The differences between many of those planes can have more to do with the way it is set up than anything else. I use just a standard Vintage Stanley #5, but a #4 would work fine, You could do it with a block plane, but I would not. If you don't own or aren't familiar with hand planes, spend some time on Paul Sellers' channel and gain an understanding, then practice a lot before you actually try to thickness a top or back. Of paramount importance is a razor sharp blade and a very shallow cut. f it gets dull in the least, stop and refresh the edge. Be sure to allow a bit of extra thickness for sanding/scraping the soundhole rosette and final sanding before finish. it can get really thin really fast. I would also recommend William Compiano/Johnathan Natelson's "Guitarmaking Tradition and Technology".
At 45 degrees to the grain there is still s chance of tear out, but you can minimize it by having an insanely sharp blade, stopping and sharpening frequently, and most importantly having the cap iron very close to the edge of the blade (1/32"), and taking very thin shavings, as thin as you can get them. I get very little to no tear out this way. I tend to work at 45 degrees, then finish with the grain, remembering with the top and back that one side of it has reverse grain to the other, since they are bookmatched. But you should allow for the possibility when you thickness your top, as well as allowing for the fact that the top will also be further thinned through sanding in later stages.
Every drum sander I have ever used does NOT make perfectly flat. I have used both handplane and drum sander to thickness and the handplane makes the plate much flatter, provided you pay attention and evaluate the plate periodically. Have you ever tried a toothed plane iron? I use a Lie Nielsen low angle jack with their toothed blade. It makes it possible for an amateur like me with modest hand plane skills to get a decent result. I get rid of the ridges at the end with an orbital sander and 80 grit.
Thanks. I would not care if a drum sander did make it perfect; I prefer hand tools, and there is very little that feels as good in the hand as a sharp hand plane, IMHO. And yes, I have a toothed blade. It is a great tool when you want to hog a lot off or are worrying about tear out. Good stuff!
Never made a guitar back but I agree I'm not super impressed with open sided sanders they call like 16-32 or 25 -50 , double posted sander just like planer I think would be the ticket. Saw dust my glitter.
