It Worked for Me: Radiused Dishes

by John Calkin

Originally published in American Lutherie #113, 2013

Sometimes the simplest changes in the shop make a big difference in the pleasure of working. For the moment, I’ve switched to instruments somewhat smaller than guitars. The first step was to cut down my radiused dishes from 24˝ diameter to 14˝. This was done in order to reach the interior of the dishes, which I use as workboards, with cam clamps. This requires raising the dish enough to get the clamps under it, and for this I used to grab whatever wooden blocks were lying around. Said blocks always got in the way of the clamps. Most luthiers never go through this because they use a go-bar deck. I’ve built three different go-bar decks and quickly tore them down — I just don’t enjoy using them.

At this point readers are probably thinking, “Why not put little legs under the dish?” D’oh! It took me years to come up with that thought. T-nuts were sunk into the bottom of the dish, legs were cut from a hefty dowel, and all-thread rod was cut into short lengths and glued into holes drilled in the ends of the dowels. The legs provide enough room for the clamp jaws, plus a skosh.