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I've worked my down to more like 3/8" so that I can set the neck a little deeper into the body and use thinner fingerboards. Even so, the darned thing still sticks right up there in the way of so...

If you need thin strips of wood to inlay into the purfling gap, it's hard to get them in once they have glue on. I cut strips to fit cracks and insert them dry, then wick in hot hide glue. It is...

Choose wood that is easy to cut. Some 2X4s are easier than others; some are spruce, some yellow pine, some various other. (SPF stands for spruce/fir/pine, but I suspect that doesn't limit what you...

That sounds correct to me (for bending dry or with just little moisture on the inside surface) and that's what I've been doing for curly maple sides. It's simplest way for free-hand bending over...

From my own experience, not from anything I've read or been told, here is a 'hypothesis' that I have formed.
First a little background;
We know (as mentioned in this thread among others) that to...

I think (just musing here) that there is probably vast difference between using tiny or medium amount of water and using fully steamed wood, especially figured.
If you use no or very little water it...

Thanks for the heads up on my folly MR. Mowry. It is well taken and noted. I am a hobbyist having fun here hoping to give back and share low cost alternatives but had no idea my methods don’t work...

I'd venture that one why reason why most luthiers don't use steam is that it gets the wood wetter then necessary, which makes figured wood more prone to breaking, and makes rippling more likely. In...

OFten some rippling is inevitable unless you have precise mould and counter piece that will "iron" the piece flat and keep it there till the bend is fixed. Tight bending strap helps, but the stresses...

I read moisture and heat meant a bending iron and spray bottle might be causing your rippling wood deformation. Perhaps a steam bath and drying mold might cause less stress to the wood with less...

On the issue of the cells slipping vs. compressing: With figured maple, which we mandolin builders use most often, the "curl" enters and exits the faces of the wood repeatedly, so it effect each cell...

I looked back at my records and found both the steam generator and the heat strap and both came from Amazon. The Earlex was just under $70 and the strap about $73. The long sweat tray is a couple...

David I’ve been putting together a low priced DIY steam tube and shaping dryer form. I used a 4” tube size but it could be built larger for your guitar work. I found the heater on EBay and the...

Perhaps I didn't use good vocabulary, but the cells are long tubes that are pretty much connected into one continuous pipeline all the way up to the top of tree. They cannot just slip one past...

David, I've bent sides without added water. There is always some moisture content in wood (unless it is freshly oven died), and it seems to me that some wood bends better with less water and some...

I don't see any principal difference in mandolin or guitar side bending. Guitar sides being often thinner than mandolins' it should be even simpler. I never bent guitar sides but I bent wood for many...

I think this is caused by varying run-out within the board. Gluing small struts to the side may help to hold it flat (some builders do this anyway). Scraping may even it out a bit. I find it doesn't...

I've had that cracking and contributed it to the shellac. I use an off the shelf shellac and I think it was too old. A new can resolved the issue. I was unable to fix it with anything less than...

$#@)!^& finish problems!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That looks like the wood moved and the clear did not.. how do you apply your clear? in stages or ?

btw,, Nitro has a shelf life..

After having problems with shellac under Cardinal, I switched to vinyl sealer, and I like it much better than shellac. A lot of the literature talks about shellac sealer “bringing out the beauty of...

You don’t need to wet sand, just sand.

I don't miss wet sanding, or seal coat/topcoat issues, at all. :-)

Ive never had a problem with shellac as a sealer, but I have with vinyl sealer. Any small sand-through in the lacquer at any time in the finish process leaves an area of clearer looking wood. Not...

While I'm rattling on, I don't use Cardinal lacquer. I use Mohawk. But I've never liked using shellac under nitro. I don't know who told me, but somebody said to use vinyl sealer. That's all I use on...