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MK5acoustics.com

Yup!

kind of a facebook moment ....expressing whats on my mind!!!!!!

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MK5acoustics.com

Hmmm....
I find mine leach a rust like substance through the paper and onto the wood, leaving me with a lot of sanding to do...

I think all spring steel slats do that, depending of how much water is used and what kind of wood. Some are worse than others.

I always cover my spring steel with alum foil. No problems then.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Good tip.

Yoink.

Use a barrier like foil to stop that. All steel will do that. The water and heat will leach iron ions.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Here is a somewhat unrelated question on using spring steel slats. When pulling a venetian cut-away side out of the bender after being bent, I always worry about the bottom spring steel slat breaking the side due the the slat's forcible return to its flat state. I have tried several techniques to hold the inner slat against the bending form to allow the side to be removed, but have't really come up with a perfect method. Anyone have any tricks or comments on this?

I have both types from John. Didn't know about the foil trick...

Barry, when using the Fox style I drilled a small hole in each side of the bender which allowed inserting an 1/8" rod all the way thru the bender after bending and cooling. The holes are located just outside the rib in the deepest part of the cutaway and the rod has a pointed end so it can be inserted after loosening the cutaway clamp slightly. The rod holds the rib and inside steel slat in place while the waist clamp is retracted. Hope that makes sense. It wasn't exactly the cat's meow but better than letting the inner steel slat break the formed cutaway when releasing the clamps. Sometimes had a little trouble getting the pin inserted.

bend some 4 penny nails and use them on the tubes to hold the slats on the lower pattern.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

John, I can't quite picture what you are doing. What is a tube?

Following a previous post which suggested this, I use a length of (about 1/2" wide) cotton ribbon (bias binding?) across the bottom slat to restrain it when releasing the side.
I wind this at each end around a couple of screws into the main body of the bender after bending the side.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I use stainless tubes on the patterns . A bent nail will hold the lower slat and keep it from stressing the CA side.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Great ideas guys. Now I got a few options.