Official Luthiers Forum!

I just looked at the plans for the OLF MJ that I'm attempting to build. I glued in the X brace last week but now that I've taken the opportunity to review the plans it looks like the X brace is backwards; the longer cut is supposed to go up by the sound hole.

Note the bevel markings of the X braces on the plans:


Here's what my braces look like:


Shouldn't be an issue, right? So long as there's a peak at 3" from the kerfing, right?

You'll be fine, but watch out putting your face by go-bar decks without eye protection. I've seen bars fly, and it's all fun and games until....

_________________
John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

What John said....watch out for those gobars! I've had one go and take out all the rest with it - it's dangerous - they fly everywhichway - almost like a small explosion!

Yours look MUCH too bent for good safety Neil! You need to increase the distance between the top of the deck and the work surface somehow. It looks like you have some wood spacers under there, so perhaps you could remove one or two or replace them with some thinner wood. In my setup, I use 3/4" plywood spacers plus a dead-flat 4" riser block that I made to get the spacing just right for any particular gluing job.

Someone on the OLF (I forget who, sorry, was it Waddy?) took the trouble to measure the downforce of gobars at various deflections and found that bending the bars more didn't excert any extra gluing force at all.
I would suggest that about 1" to 1.5" deflection of the glass fiber bars (your's look like the LMI ones, right?) is all that you need. Any more and you're making the set up unstable and unsafe.

HTH,
Dave F.

_________________
Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Thanks, everyone. I'll just proceed as normal then.

BTW, it's my friend's go-bar deck (that's actually him in the picture) and we did have one slip (leaving a dink in the cedar) so we're aware. I'm trying to be as cautious as I can be. I measure twice and cut once. Some day I'll learn patience to measure 3-4 times instead!

Okay, okay! I get it!

You all are just trying to ruin my fun aren't you? Using the go-bar deck was one thing I was looking forward to and FWIW the top didn't stay in there for more than a couple of hours. I haven't been over to my friend's shop since but he told me he took it out and it the tap tone is already nice and clear so I may have actually stumbled in the right direction.

I just hope he didn't launch one of those nylon bars through my cedar.

They are NEVER Mistakes , They are EXPERIMENTS !!

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/