Best way to thin a soundboard

LazyRiver

LazyRiver

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I was hoping to build a cigar box since I'm having trouble finding a suitably sized "real" cigar box. I bought some wood from Hana-Lima Ia and found the matched cedar soundboards are 1/8 inch thick. I was expecting closer to 1/16. Is there a good way to cut down the thickness without spending the next 9 months sanding? I would never be able to sand it flat anyway. I do have a table saw, but not a planer or a sander.

The rosewood sides they sent me are 3/32 - closer to what I wanted for the top - but I guess it doesn't make acoustical sense to use the cedar for the sides/bottom and rosewood for the top.
 
Check with your local high school wood shop class.
They might have a wide drum sander they might let you use or maybe they be willing to sand it for you.

Failing that, try a cabinet shop.
 
I have finely tuned hand planes that would do the job, and a lot of practice. If you were to try this you would want to mark a clean knife line line around the perimeter and carefully plane to that mark. You could also use guide blocks that keep your jointer plane from cutting to far, they would have to be taller by the same amount as the cut depth, err but I don't like this way myself as i prefer to look at the marks as i go.

Also many shops I have worked in would put the piece through a drum sander for you but usually there is a minimum 1hr charge some will do 1/2 hr.
 
Go buy a case of beer and then proceed to your local cabinet maker. This works for just about any small job.
 
Cedar is soft. For a piece that small you can do it by hand with sandpaper and a block. I don't know what you're doing exactly but 1/16" is pretty thin for cedar anyway. Remember your goal isn't to get it exactly the same thickness throughout, but rather to thin the areas that need it and leave it a bit thicker in other areas. Discovering where those areas are on a sound board is what makes a good luthier.
 
You can thickness with a belt sander.

Take two pieces of metal of the desired thickness and attatch them to a flat board. Put the piece to be thicknessed between the metal and use the metal as a guide. Sand the wood. The wood will sand way faster than the metal. When you get to the metal, stop, you are done.

I used hacksaw blades stacked on top of each other as my guides the few times I did this. I have since been visiting a woodworker nearby that has a great thickness sander. They do in 2 minutes what it took me an hour to do. Sometimes I pay, sometimes they say today is a free day.

Moral of the story. It can be done by hand, but it is much easier to make friends with a well equiped woodworker. This wont be the last time you need their help.

Take care
Thomas
 
80-100 grit sandpaper glued to a board. Fix that to the bench and sand the lid on it. Careful with softwoods.

Oh yes, and then go through all the grits to make it smooth again.
 
I've assumed that 1/16 inch is the desired soundboard thickness because that's what I've read, but it seems to me most cigar boxes are thicker than that. There's even a lengthy thread elsewhere of someone building a custom cigar box uke and I'd be surprised if the soundboard is less than an 1/8 inch.

Maybe I'm worrying to much. In any case, I wonder if it makes sense to build the box first, then sand down the soundboard. At least I'll have something to hold onto. Attaching sandpaper to a flat surface and then passing the box over it back and forth is the easiest for me given my lack of tools or experience.
 
LazyRiver said:
Maybe I'm worrying to much. In any case, I wonder if it makes sense to build the box first, then sand down the soundboard. At least I'll have something to hold onto. Attaching sandpaper to a flat surface and then passing the box over it back and forth is the easiest for me given my lack of tools or experience.
Click to expand...

I would guess that there is a good chance that the center would bow away from the sandpaper. This would cause the edges to have more material removed then the middle.
 
thinning out the top

I hate giving away my building technique, but also I love the fact that more people are getting into building their own instruments - it is pretty gratifying feeling to build something and then be able to play it too. So here is a tip.

For $40 you can get an IBEX finger planer. I bought mine from Metropolitan Music Company. If you are not familiar with wood working tools, this is a very small manual planer - adjust the blade so that you are taking off an onion skin thin slice and gently work the inside of the box top. Violin, viola etc. builders use these to shape the arch top on their instruments, and they work just a well on a cigar box as they do on a sitka spruce violin board. I would stay away from heavy grit sandpaper, as it takes forever and strains the wood.

Hope this helps.
 
Russ Sonny Kemner said:
For $40 you can get an IBEX finger planer. I bought mine from Metropolitan Music Company. If you are not familiar with wood working tools, this is a very small manual planer - adjust the blade so that you are taking off an onion skin thin slice and gently work the inside of the box top. Violin, viola etc. builders use these to shape the arch top on their instruments, and they work just a well on a cigar box as they do on a sitka spruce violin board. I would stay away from heavy grit sandpaper, as it takes forever and strains the wood.
/QUOTE]

I never would have thought if this. Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
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