looking for supplier for thin side material

[Greg Martin]

Im looking for walnut for my next arch top build,Id like to find suppliers to sell sides only 3/32 x 4 x 36 is a good starting size. Seems most suppliers want to sell acoustic sets, not sides only . Anyone here have suggestions. I could resaw in my shop, but dont have a planer or wide belt sander at this time. thanks

[Mark Fogleman]

Most of the guitar wood suppliers will sell side sets and custom thickness on request when you order. If you already have your wood and live near me I would be happy to do it for you.

[David King]

With a good bandsaw blade you would end up with a very smooth sawn surface that would only need a bit of hand planing.
Check out the bladerunner (Iturra) blades. You can certainly hand plane your sides or use a safe-t-plane in your drill press.
The Wagner Safe-T-Plane was discontinued a couple of years ago but Dura tools has taken up idea and sells them on ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-DRILL-PRESS ... 0985453431

[Randolph Rhett]

+1 on what David said. I have never bought a "set" in almost 15 years of building. Get a piece of walnut from your local wood supplier and resaw it on a bandsaw. I just have a Ridgid 14" with a riser block. 3" is usually max for an arch top, and most bandsaws will handle that no problem. Take time with your set up, ALWAYS have a test piece, and you will only need a good card scraper or sharp hand plane to clean it up.

NB: no knock on people who do buy sets. I've sold only a few instruments and mostly build for myself. If I had to build 2-3 a month and was selling them at $3500 a piece I could probably justify $200-$300/bft to have it milled for me. For now, buying raw mahogany, maple, walnut, cherry, etc for $7-$10/bft and milling it myself makes more sense.

[Clay Schaeffer]

"3" is usually max for an arch top, and most bandsaws will handle that no problem."

This could also be done with a 10" tablesaw in one pass, or a smaller saw by flipping the board over after making the first cut. Walnut is fairly easy to resaw.

[Greg Martin]

thanks for the tips guys I've resawn on many projects and hve a nice old rockwell 14 that is tuned perfectly. I tend to have to buy on line in order to get wood with curl and figure,There just isnt anything locally. I was hoping some online sellers with loads of choices could choose and resw for me saving time .
Its funny. Its like the cabinet maker who builds is own kitchen drawers because he had scrap lying around when you can order dovetail drawers online for same or less cost and while the drawers are out sourced it allows you to build the more important parts of the project. I guess that was my goal.

[Mike Conner]

To expand further on resaw using the table saw:
I rip a straight 4' long section of framing lumber. My saw is a 10" Craftsman "Frankenstein" with a 1 HP motor, and it can rip up to 3" using a 24T thin kerf blade. I use double sticky carpet tape to attach the plank to the beam. The side blank falls to the "out" side of the blade. This is way safer than trying to rip thin stock between the blade and fence!

I rip to about 3/32", then thin from there using a planer (for walnut and less figured wood) or brute force sanding and scraping for figured maple and cherry.

A bandsaw with a smaller kerf would yield more side per board, but my Ryobi is not the tool to trust for this. I make extras when set up to do this - for the next build, or backups for bending mishaps. I use the same process to make walnut neck laminations and binding. This also means that I can use the same board source for both the sides and back plate for a better match.

[Michael Lewis]

Probably best to rip your own sides, but if you are looking for generic side material most regular suppliers will often have "orphans" to sell at lower price because they are not a direct match. Just ask.