Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Over the last few builds, lining up top and back plates with sides for notching, trimming braces to length and glue up has been difficult. especially glue up with things wanting to slide out of alignment.
So for this one I decided to try the martin style ears and pins.
First I made a cutting and drilling template. by tracing the mold onto some 3mm MDF marking the centreline and cuttind a bandsaw kerf into the centreline at the ends,
Added ears and then cut out allowing 2mm extra around.
drilled and glued in some reduced height



The left hand cutout piece of mdf acts as a clamping caul and has holes allowing the bolt heads to be recessed

And out of the mold

I had a plate misalignment issue with my last guitar. I used two small holes in the top and the top and neck block under the tougue area, but the back was the problem, thanks for that.

On past guitars I had glued on temporary blocks to line up with the neck and tail block but this is so much easier. it is all lined up right from the start, no messing about.