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Quick Cauls
This technique's a classic! Styrofoam or Friendly Plastic are two materials that make great imprint patterns for creating protective cauls.
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i-quickcaul Updated 05/07
Classical guitar maker Thomas Humphrey shared this trick for clamping a
classical bridge, and determining bracing alignment on cedar-topped
instruments…
“When you're clamping the bridge on a classical guitar you must have a
well-fit caul on the inside for the clamps to contact. Cedar tops in
particular keep me on pins and needles because they're so fragile; they
dent and ding easily, and excess clamping pressure can crush the wood
fibers. Also, with cedar tops you can't use the old light
bulb-inside-the box trick to see through the top to locate the braces
(for making a caul) because cedar doesn't illuminate like spruce does.
I use styrofoam to take an imprint of the top bracing before
transferring it to a wooden caul.
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“Make a caul from a piece of wood 7" to 9" long x 1-1/2" wide x 3/4"
thick (or whatever goes in and out of the soundhole easily). Then
double-stick tape a 1/8" to 1/4" thickness of styrofoam to the block.
When the block's clamped lightly in place, the styrofoam takes an
imprint of the bracing pattern. Remove the block and saw along the
imprint marks, right into the wood. Remove the styrofoam, deepen your
saw cuts to match the height of the braces, and chisel out the waste to
make channels which fit over the bracing. Chamfer the sharp hard edges
of the caul to keep them from denting the wood, and be sure that the
caul matches the curve of the top and/or the bottom of the bridge if
there is a curve.”
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Friendly Plastic can be reshaped again and again — just drop it in hot water! |
Friendly Plastic makes protective cauls that conform perfectly to
hard-to-clamp areas.
Friendly Plastic pellets congeal
in hot water to become a malleable mass. Form a small
lump (you can use a small flat wooden block as a base if needed), and
clamp it lightly against the intended area, such as an interior
soundboard brace. In a few minutes it hardens into a tough, perfectly
seated reusable plastic caul that can be clamped at full pressure.
The braces won't be damaged, and you won't have to spend your time
making custom wooden cauls in complicated shapes. You can make
perfectly seated cauls for clamping bridges, braces, fingerboards or
curved surfaces.
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Classical Guitar Bridge
Bridge Clamping Caul
Flush-cut Saw
Double-stick Tape
Friendly Plastic
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