My flatwork isn't flat

[Dr. Guitar]

I have them clamped up. We'll see if it works. Here's a picture of one of them.

[David King]

Forbon or whatever it is that passes for forbon these days sucks. it's hydrophilic and will twist up like a pretzel as soon as there's a slight moisture imbalance from one side to the other. That seems inevitable in a pickup unless you can seal it completely and permanently. I've only seen the stuff stored in big sheets, I find it hard to believe they would roll it up at the factory since that would cause a lot of misery in the secondary processing.

[Chris Klein]

Forbon Roll

Yep They roll it up..

[Possum]

c'mon....

I think you're fretting about nothing here, cut your parts out THEN just straighten them out with you hands, I still have Forbon left from five years ago, once its cut into thin strips for pickup making and lays around for months it warps. I just cut the stuff out and straighten, put the magnets in and its all done. The stuff is never going to be perfectly flat and it never was

[mkat]

I straighten them by hand if needed too. No big deal.

[Chris Klein]

fretting

Not fretting on anything... Pissed off at how people discredit others when they are WRONG.

[David King]

Chris,
"hard to believe", was a poor choice of words on my part as I had not meant to doubt your statement but merely point out that rolling it up was a dumb idea from a manufacturing standpoint. Sorry if I offended you. I stand by my assertion that Forbon sucks for flat work.

[mick]

Thats right , soon as it gets near moisture it curls , which is why I suggested not steaming it , yes you can straighten it with your hands but with an 8ft x 4ft sheet you will have a job on your hands , if it's curled when it's laser cut your holes will not be true , so your mags will be going in crooked , or not parallel or whatever you want to call it , but I guess it all depends on how much you give a fuck about your product really.. keep it dry if you can and it stays flat .

Mick

[Possum]

.....

I cut my flat work myself on a router, Lollar style, I have the remains of a couple sheets of forbon and keep it in its carton shipping container so it stays flat. But I cut it into appropriate strips to fit my templates and whack off pieces as needed. The strips lay around and warp but when you cut a piece out to fit a strat bobbin if its still a bit warped I just bend it straight, these get stacked with double stick tape onto the template, I use my small press to push on it real hard so it all sticks well together, then rout it out. When the magnets are pushed in and its all glued up its all straight. So if you're doing it like that it makes no sense to try straightening out larger pieces, you can never get it perfectly flat and it doesn't matter anyway so why waste time? Yeah for big sheets 4x8 if they are all warped and rippled and you're laser cutting that could be a problem, you need to keep that stuff in its shipping box and keep it flat in the first place; if it shows up warped and rippled send it back :-)

[mkat]

I bend after I cut the flats to size. If a sheet is bent, then I decide which way I want to cut it to avoid the bend (ie. across the bend rather than along it). If I can't avoid the bend, it's quite easy to bend the cut pieces by hand.

[Joe Gwinn]

Thats right , soon as it gets near moisture it curls , which is why I suggested not steaming it , yes you can straighten it with your hands but with an 8ft x 4ft sheet you will have a job on your hands , if it's curled when it's laser cut your holes will not be true, so your mags will be going in crooked , or not parallel or whatever you want to call it, but I guess it all depends on how much you give a fuck about your product really.. keep it dry if you can and it stays flat.

Forbon is a form of cardboard. The key is to ensure that the moisture is the same everywhere in the piece. I would cut working pieces from the 4x8 sheet and put the pieces in a big ziplock freezer bag for a day or two. This will allow everything to equalize. If the pieces are still curled, I would put the pieces (still in the ziplock) between two sheets of MDF with a brick on top, and ignore it for a week. The pieces should creep and achieve flatness. Then, cut flatwork from the pieces.

[Dr. Guitar]

Forbon is a form of cardboard. The key is to ensure that the moisture is the same everywhere in the piece. I would cut working pieces from the 4x8 sheet and put the pieces in a big ziplock freezer bag for a day or two. This will allow everything to equalize. If the pieces are still curled, I would put the pieces (still in the ziplock) between two sheets of MDF with a brick on top, and ignore it for a week. The pieces should creep and achieve flatness. Then, cut flatwork from the pieces.

Nice tip