A GoBar clamping deck is a nifty system for clamping.  By bending fiberglass or wood rods between the upper and lower “decks”, it is easy to put pressure just about anywhere you need it.  In guitar building, this is key for tasks such as clamping the internal bracing in place (more on that in future posts), where it is difficult to apply clamping force without expensive clamps with large throats.

You can buy a commercial GoBar deck for around $80 and the fiberglass rods for about $35 for 10 rods, or you can do it yourself for a fraction of the cost.  Here’s how I made mine.

I cut a 2′ x 4′ sheet of 3/4″ MDF in half to create the upper and lower decks.  Four 3/8″ threaded rods form the corner posts.  A threaded rod connector is pressure fit into each corner of the lower deck to hold the rod in place.

The upper deck has 7/16″ outer diameter tubing set in each corner using CA glue.  This allows the upper deck to slide up and down the threaded rod for adjustments.

Threaded rod connectors are used as adjustable stops when raising or lowering the upper deck.  When clamping braces on the front or back of the guitar, the upper deck is set about two feet above the lower deck.  Once the body is finished and it is time to glue and clamp the top or back of the guitar to the sides, the upper deck will be raised about four of five inches to give room for the guitar body without over bending the fiberglass rods.

For the fiberglass rods, I purchased a dozen 4′ x 5/16″ fiberglass rods with a bunch rubber tips from a kite supply shop for about $18 with shipping.  I chopped these in half with my Dremel and a cutoff wheel, added the rubber tips, and I had 24 clamping rods for less than ten would have cost from a distributor.  Nice!  And this will be handy for a variety of other woodworking tasks, or it can be broken down and stored if not needed for a while.