The new acoustic kit - getting it right

TheOtherDennis

So I have the replacement StewMac kit.

Now that I know what happened the last time, I want to make sure I avoid the same mistake.

Here's the mould that StewMac include with the kit - 


As you can see, the idea is that one puts the sides around the outside of the mould, using the cutaways to position the neck and end blocks in the correct place.

My issue is that the top and back have very little spare wood, particularly around the top and bottom, and at the waist. That happened last time, too. Where I went wrong there was I used a long clamp to squeeze the waist in, to make the top and back fit with as few/small gaps as possible, and as a result, squeezed too much and nudged the neck block out of true.

So what can I use this time? Should I use this cardboard as a template for cutting a mould out of something like mdf, and then I can place the sides inside the mould, instead of outside, and thus let the mould do any squeezing of the shape?

If anyone has any ideas, please bear in mind I don't own any specialist equipment, and I'd rather avoid spending lots on something I'll only use once.

Any ideas gratefully received, thanks.

WezV

when i did one of their kits years ago it simply said to cut a piece of MDF or thick Ply into a squared off U shape to hold everything in the right shape at the waist.   i would do something  like that to hold it in place, rather than use a clamp... at least for a one off build

TheOtherDennis

Was that a dreadnought kit? The instructions for the dreadnought kit I did a few years ago were similar to that, but this is an OM, so the waist is much more pinched in.

I have some spare mdf so I'll try it and see how it goes.

WezV

yeah it was, but i did use the same idea on my recent LP hollowbody when i needed to take it out of the bigger mould for a bit.