Back plates warped

[Benjamin Brockway Strings]

That sounds tricky but if you can press it down flat on a shooting board while cutting the joint or wet the board and put some weight on top of it then let it sit on a flat surface for a few weeks? I would be weary of the joint if you fit it before the wood acclimates back to your shop’s avg relative humidity

[Ian Davlin The Looth Group]

Here is an example of wood “stickering”.
This is how most manufacturers store processed wood.

[Frans Pienaar Adventus Guitars]

So would it return to its flat shape if I sticker it? Or would I need to wet it first?

[Ian Davlin The Looth Group]

That Im not sure about. Might be good to wet it. and flatten it first.

[Zach Lefebvre TreeHouse Guitars]

Hi Frans,

You can flatten out warped back plates using 3 large tiles and a kitchen oven (your oven has to be large enough of course). First you need to seal the endgrain of the plates, I use thin CA glue. Heat up the tiles to about 190 degrees Fahrenheit then dampen the plate surfaces and clamp them up in a double decker tile sandwich. Leave them clamped in the tiles for 8ish hours or until the tiles and wood have thoroughly reached room temperature. When you take the sandwich apart they should be dead flat.

With all that being said, I generally thickness my backs to a final measurement of 2.6mm… so already those plates seem thin as far as my building style goes.

Hopefully I’m not too late replying for this to be helpful!

-Zach

[Paul M]

When I was at Sergei’s I had a set of potato chipped Mahogany and he was just like press it flat and join it, it will be ok. That guitar is now 4 years old and ended up going from Quebec to New Mexico and apparently is still in one piece.

I don’t know if I’d do it that way going forward, I’ve had other builders tell me the same thing.

I am wondering if a clothes iron would flatten them, perhaps with a wet cloth in the middle?

[Frans Pienaar Adventus Guitars]

thank you Zach. I will give it a try