Today I decided to try my hand at making a radius dish. However, first I needed a jig to do this. I made a sliding jig similar to one I found online which basically is a sled for the router which rides on two curved rails which match the radius I want in the dish. The circle sits in the middle and the router goes back and forth cutting slices out of the dish until it is concave. It works slick, but it makes a huge mess. I have one dish cut at 15', and I will do the 25' dish tomorrow. Here are a couple of pictures of the setup.
This is the jig I made for routing the dishes. There is a completed dish in the unit and if you look at the straight edge of the sled, you can see the curve of the radius. The two rails on the sides are cut to a 15' radius so when I slide the sled back and forth, it rides up and down into the dish. The circle is pinned in the center so it can spin. I had to be careful because the router would grab the uncut area and make the thing spin around like crazy. It was kind of cool, but it really made a mess of things and made me jump the first time it happened!
This is my circle cutting jig for the band saw. It is nothing more than a piece of 1x4 pine with a nail 12" from the blade. The sheet of MDF spins on the nail and cuts a circle. Simple but effective.
Tomorrow I will route out the 25' dish and make the external mold for the OM. If I have time I will also get started on the side bender. I have a lot of cleaning to do too!
3 comments:
Hey David -
Glad the radius curve numbers helped you out. BTW, you mention making a 25' dish next, the numbers I posted on Ted's blog are for a 30' radius.
Great blog, you're giving me a lot of good ideas for things I can do for my own LMI OM kit. - Bill
Hey David, I've been out of the internet's reach (yes there are some places left) this week and I was amazed to see the progress you’ve made on both your guitar and your blog. You have really taken off. I think you'll really benefit from taking the time to make molds and dishes… doing the things that I did not have the patience and/or ability to make.
I posted 25' but really I am making a 30' I got both sets of numbers but after carving the templates, the 30 looks like it fits the shape drawn on the plans a little better. I will probably do both sizes while I am making dust though. I know that 25' is used at times so I figure while I am making a mess, I might as well 'go big or go home'!
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