Contouring the rim...a.k.a. The rim job

Today I sanded the contour into the back of the rim. The reason for this is that the "flat top" acoustic guitar is not actually flat. The back of the guitar has a slight radius from front to back and side to side. A dome. To achieve this one must sand the radius into the back. You can buy a radiused sanding disc for like $80 bucks, but my kit came with sanding bar that had the radius CNC machined into it. I don't know how easy it is to use the disc, but this method worked very well for me. Look at how I have skillfully turned the wood into sawdust. LOOK!!! Nice.


I marked the edges with chalk to make sure I was getting the contour all the way to the edges. If I didn't, it would make gluing the contoured back onto the flat side quite difficult. If you click on one of the pics to the right, it will get really big and you will be able to see the area where I sanded off the chalk, and where it was left behind. I still need to sand where it is all chalky. Capish?



Here is the tail block after sanding. Soooo smooth. So silky. I know you want to touch it. But do not. It is just a picture on your computer screen. Do you know how bad those fingerprints look on the screen? I hate that. And they are so hard to get off...especially if you are eating potato chips when you touch it. Damn fingerprints. The radius is difficult to see, but it is there.




Anyway, here is the radiused sanding bar that came with my kit sitting on the tail block and neck block perfectly conforming to the curve I just sanded into them. I actually found it easier to sand in a circular pattern as directed if I put an index card under one end so I was only sanding one edge at a time in the beginning. Once I had the sanding started, I stopped using the card and was sanding both edges together. You have to pick a center point in the body and sand in a circle around that point, like a propeller spinning. That is how you impart the correct angle on the rim. I will find out if I did it correctly when I finish the back and try to put it on. I can always sand some more then. But really, how hard is sanding in a circle with a big radiused stick?