Mold Making

Okay, I am officially back at it again. I spent all afternoon in the shed, making myself a OM mold… or at least starting one.

First I cut a sheet of MDF into 600 mm squares with a jigsaw and on the Triton. My plan being to make sanding dishes, go-bar deck and the form from the same sized pieces.

To make the form I cut these squares to make (near enough) 300x 600 mm rectangles. I used oven baking paper to trace the OM plan that I got from Australian Tonewoods and then stuck the baking paper to one of the rectangles with tape.

I should clarify here that Tim from Australian Tonewoods does not draw up his own plans. With his kits, he supplies plans from the popular Stewmac or LMI ranges. The guitar that I am making now is the from the OM LMI plan, which suits me as I can follow Robert O’Briens DVD that came with my last kit. It was comforting for me to know that the plan I would be follow was tried and proved.

I used a Stanley knife to scribe the outline of the plan from the baking paper onto the retangles and then took my time to follow the line with a jig saw.

On one of the squared edges, I screwed the curve template I had created. This left me knowing that the centre line was square the curved sides – does that make sense?

I them used a router for the first time ever. After getting rid of the excess, I used a bearing guide bit, to follow the curve and created my final template.

Using the jigsaw, screws (to secure template to next section) and router I created 5 more copies of the template. So now I have six 16mm thick pieces of form which I can glue/screw together.

Making the form was a surprising easy step – One that I was too fearful off last time to attempt – I wish I had off. I don’t think that my wood working skills have improved that much on the last build. It really was not hard.

That said – It helped having my fathers Triton table saw and router at my disposal.

Time taken : 4 hours
Tools used : pencil, rulers, T square, baking paper, Stanley knife, Jigsaw, Router, Table saw, tape, drill, 25mm screws, sandpaper.
AU$'s spent : Pine wood $7.08, Alumminum tube $2.25, Threaded rod $4.09, Washers, .30, Wing nuts $2.96, Two 2400 x 1200 x 16 MDF sheets $27.00