So you are gluing a soundboard or back to the rims - what is the best way to clamp it?
I know some like spool clamps. I have previously used the go-bar deck, but that is a bit fiddly to get around it on all sides and chase the glue squeeze-out.
I recently saw a post to a video on one of the forums (but I am buggered if I can find it again now) with a nifty trick. It showed the workers at a small Spanish classical guitar maker using clamps that were each made from a piece of wood bent into a circle. It wanted to spring closed, but you could prise it open to form a spring clamp.
It got me thinking.
- c-clamp 1.jpg (111.32 KiB) Viewed 47073 times
A piece of 150mm PVC stormwater pipe, cut in slices about 30mm wide, and opened on one side. It makes a c-clamp with the right width to span the sides of a guitar, and with a good degree of spring-back to provide clamping force. You just need to put some padding on the ends. I bought a length of foam water-pipe insulation from the plumbing section at Bunnings ($1.50 per metre) and attached it to the clamps with cable ties. or elastic bands when I ran out of those (the elastic bands are probably better).
- c-clamp 2.jpg (87.4 KiB) Viewed 47073 times
One metre of pipe ($30 if you buy it new, but I had some lying around), 2 metres of foam ($3) made 30 clamps, which is enough to clamp the whole perimeter of a guitar. Unit cost $1.10
The guitar is sitting on a block of wood to lift it free of the benchtop. You can apply the clamps with one hand, in a matter of seconds. And I like the way that they give you plenty of clearance to wipe up glue squeeze-out (unlike a spool clamp). And the guitar can stay in the mould - the clamps wrap around.
For a uke you could probably use 100mm or 90mm pipe, which is about $5 per metre
