Esquire-esque

[fender3x]

...On that train of thought - a 12" radius is where the circle would have a 12 inch radius - so any cylinder with a 24 inch diameter would make a good "reverse radius" to slap some sandpaper on..... like a large pot plant holder?????

Any cylinder with a 24" diameter would do it. Double sticky tape a piece of sandpaper on it and sand away. The plant should not even be bothered with it.

If you don't have a planter the right size but you do have a router, you can also use a circle jig to cut a 12" radius on a piece of scrap wood.

If you don't have a router...is this the sort of thing that men's sheds have? If I ever get to Australia, that will definitely be something I will visit. They exist in the US, but are not common. The nearest one to me is an hour and a half's drive...and is the only one in Florida.

[EsquireEsque]

Yes - I thought about routing a circle (or quarter circle) ... but it'd be a thick slab to be useful..... and a big one to make a circle

Men's sheds - yes I think there are about 3 or 4 within 5 to 10 minutes drive (probably more). Few are actually called "men's sheds" and will simply be "woodworking shops".... there are a number of women who will also turn up to make something.

(There is the one "celebrated" time when an old lady turned up... the guy running the shop was concerned for her safety.. and asked if she'd ever worked with wood before..... she replied "yes, I made a violin once"...from scratch!...)

We have the normal Machinery.... bandsaws, table saws, drop saws, sanding machines, thickenessers, jointers as well as a lot of both power and hand tools etc....."keeps us off the streets" - and for some of us, away from our wives!

I've thought of another use for your "reverse radius" technique.... Neck sockets.
slap some sandpaper on the heel of a neck and use that to sand a way at a very soft wood to make a jig for the neck socket.

Ear-marked for the next body that I'm making.....

[fender3x]

In fairness, I have *used* the radiusing technique but I did not invent it ;-)

One thing to note... If all you are doing is making a radiused caul with a router, the piece of wood doesn't need to be all that big. 1/2" thick, 4" long, 2.5" wide should be plenty. The piece needs to be 12 inches from the center, but technically it only needs to be a bit thicker than the width of a fret, only a little wider than the fretboard. The piece of wood needs to be 12" away from the the anchor for the router trammel, but the piece itself doesn't need to be very long.

I bought my radius block because it cost less than $20 and would have taken me a while to make the jig to put a radius on a long block. T

If you are making blocks for a lot of different radii, maybe it would justify purchasing or making a jig.


Australia is truly the leader in crafting sheds. I am at a conference on aging at the moment, and am becoming increasingly interested in the health benefits.

[EsquireEsque]

I'm actually more interested in the technique for making the neck socket.

it's easy to get the sides of the socket right - not so easy to get the end (particularly if the neck's heel is rounded as in a strat neck - and uneven).