For anyone who needs to make a side template that includes the correct side profile either because plans aren't available or you build instruments of your own design, here's a way to do that if you have an outside mold for the instrument you're building and a radius dish for the back radius. This may be old news to many folks here, but maybe it'll be a new tip for someone.

Run a piece of tape along the inside of the body mold from one end to the other. Scribe a line on the tape by sliding a pencil mounted in a carrier along the surface of the radius dish while keeping the pencil in contact with the tape. Keep the pencil level while sliding the carrier to get the most accurate line on the tape. Mark the centerline of the body at each end of the tape. The pencil carrier in the photo below is just a random piece of scrap wood that I drilled a hole through to hold the pencil.



Remove the tape and transfer it to your material of choice for the template (I use poster board). Locate the tape on the material taking into account the taper of the guitar body from the tail to the neck (body depth at each end). Then cut along the scribed line. The shape of that edge of the template will be very close to the final side profile. When I cut a side accurately along that line, it makes driving of the bus to get to the final profile pretty fast.

Nothing sets off the old carpal tunnel like a week of bracing repair - elbow deep in a soundhole, wrist cocked at an extreme angle trying to manipulate some tool to clean old glue out from under a brace.

Sometimes working from outside with bent probes and a mirror is a good solution. But it can be a little slow and cumbersome.

Faced with another late 60s J45 that had popped most of its soundboard bracing, it occurred to me to grab a feeler gauge, a finger pick and my soldering iron and make this:



For braces I can reach with my hand, this thing has about halved my old-crud-removal time and makes the whole process very comfortable as I’m not needing to grip anything, I can sand under a brace simply by wiggling a finger or rocking my wrist.

I’m calling it The Fingsander. With luck this will launch a lucrative toolmaking career

^^^ That is GENIUS, Josh! ^^^

I'll bet a broken hacksaw blade would work for filing certain areas, too. (defanged, of course)

Nothing sets off the old carpal tunnel like a week of bracing repair - elbow deep in a soundhole, wrist cocked at an extreme angle trying to manipulate some tool to clean old glue out from under a brace.

Sometimes working from outside with bent probes and a mirror is a good solution. But it can be a little slow and cumbersome.

Faced with another late 60s J45 that had popped most of its soundboard bracing, it occurred to me to grab a feeler gauge, a finger pick and my soldering iron and make this:



For braces I can reach with my hand, this thing has about halved my old-crud-removal time and makes the whole process very comfortable as I’m not needing to grip anything, I can sand under a brace simply by wiggling a finger or rocking my wrist.

I’m calling it The Fingsander. With luck this will launch a lucrative toolmaking career

Thanks for all the great tips guys!

Nothing sets off the old carpal tunnel like a week of bracing repair - elbow deep in a soundhole, wrist cocked at an extreme angle trying to manipulate some tool to clean old glue out from under a brace.

Sometimes working from outside with bent probes and a mirror is a good solution. But it can be a little slow and cumbersome.

Faced with another late 60s J45 that had popped most of its soundboard bracing, it occurred to me to grab a feeler gauge, a finger pick and my soldering iron and make this:



For braces I can reach with my hand, this thing has about halved my old-crud-removal time and makes the whole process very comfortable as I’m not needing to grip anything, I can sand under a brace simply by wiggling a finger or rocking my wrist.

I’m calling it The Fingsander. With luck this will launch a lucrative toolmaking career

Thanks for all the great tips guys!

Great idea. I have been known to point a propane torch at the top of mine for a head start

and I heat my hide glue water in a pan on the kitchen stove (gas) before pouring it into the glue pot.

You mean people sometimes don't??