Making the sides

The sides of the guitar are made from the same wood as the back.  Typically the wood is purchased as a set so it all matches.  I thin my sides down to about 2.5 mm thick. They need to be pretty thin so that we can bend them.  Bending is done by placing the sides in a sandwich of two metal sheets and a heating blanket.  The sandwich is placed in the side bending machine and the heat turned on.  We aim for 280 F - roughly before we apply the bending pressure.

Bending is pretty quick - the resins in the wood become soft and the wood (usually) bends to the shape of the form.  I then let it cool back to room temperature before putting the sides in the body form and clamping them in.  I like to let them sit in the form for a while so that they can get used to the new shape. Alot of guitar building is about gently coaxing wood to do things it doesn't necessarily want to do. Being patient and giving the wood time to adjust helps a lot and prevents warping and cracking later on.

Next I create little vertical braces to strengthen the sides and the end blocks.  The end blocks are made from cross grain mahogany.  The neck block is very important as it provides the place for attaching the neck. Getting the neck block angle right is a pretty tricky task.

Next up is the kerfed lining.  These are strips of wood that are cut with many slots so that they can bend around the edges of the sides. They are fitted on the top and on the back edges of the sides and provide strength and a larger glueing area for the top and back.  The lining is glued in place using a lot of clothes pins

Next up - I radius the sides on the sanding discs to ensure that they conform to a broad arc - deeper on the back, shallower on the top.  This means that the curved top and back will sit nicely on them.

I cut slots in the sides to allow the braces to embed in the sides and then glue the top and the back to the sides. 

Here's a picture of the back glued on.  You can see the kerfing, the side braces and the end and neck blocks.

Next up: 

Adding binding