Visual Overview of Making Laminated Slides

by Larry Breslin

Originally published in American Lutherie #111, 2012



Laminated sides can be fabricated to be light, strong, less prone to cracking, flat across the grain, and form fitting. The following technique is one way to produce this type of side.

Three veneers are cut to size 31˝×4 1/2˝. The outer veneer is .030˝ Brazilian rosewood and the center veneer is .022˝ maple. Both of these were purchased from a supplier. The inner veneer is .050˝ spruce, resawn in-house and thicknessed on a drum sander. To assist with the resawing, a Lennox blade alignment gauge is temporarily clipped to the 3 tpi bandsaw blade. The fence of the bandsaw is set parallel to the guide; this allows the blade to cut accurately (Photo 1).