Getting Crafty

So one of the first tasks that seems to be the inevitable for building somethign as intricate as a guitar, is templates, whether for the guitar its self or the jigs that help you along the way.  Templates seem to be a necessity.  I could try to test my draftsmanship and try to hand recreate many of the templates by hand, but with photoshop and 3D software so easily at my disposal, I'll forego the hardcore traditional route with tools that are second nature to me and will offer much greater precision.
 

The pickle though is since these will be made via computer, they need to be printed. I don't have access to a plotter (printer capable of 42"+ prints)  nor do I have the inclination to find a place that has one that I can use for a fee. So I came up with the  simple solution of printing the templates in segments then attaching them together to create the final product. I figure for my purposes, this will provide a precise enough template, plus there was something kind of fun about piecing together these templates.


Using a couple of push pins and piece of hard packing foam, I would attach each piece of the template via registration marks that I added to the template design in photoshop. Each printed segment has 1 inch overlap to allot for the registration marks and any line up that may need to be done. Using one of the push pins, I'd carefully poke a hole at the center of each registration mark on all of the printed segments. Once the holes are punch. I then proceed to align each segment together using the push pins and the foam board. Once happy with how everything lines up, I take regular tape and attach the segments together. Now that I have a finish template, using contact spray cement, I'll afix the template to whatever material that I am cutting. In this case I it is a template for sound board bending heat box.

Thats it for tonight. Tomorrow I'll show off a the Go Bar deck I made.

cheers!