Top Bracing

Monday, July 19th, 2010:

Here are some quick photos of what I've worked on so far today, as I wait for the top braces I've glued so far to set. Oh, yeah, now would probably be a good time to eat some lunch, too. (I tend to forget when I'm really into the building.)

The first thing I did this morning when I got up was to sand and smooth down the soundhole patch I had glued up yesterday. I also rounded over the soundhole rim.

 

 

 

 

Here I am gluing on the bridge patch (I'm using the ebony bridge here as a clamping caul).

 

INDEX:

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  1. Scatterbrained — Odds 'n' Ends
  2. Soundport and Closing Up the Box
  3. On to the Binding
  4. Beginning the Neck
  5. The Neck, Day 2
  6. The Neck, Day 3
  7. The Allen Wrench Dilemma and the Peghead
  8. Bridge Shaping and Neck Fitting
  9. The Deck is Finished! The Fingerboard is Glued!
  10. Neck Carved, Finish Sanding, Wash Coat, Pore-Filling, Sanding, Sealing, Tru-Oil
  11. Paraffin Oil Polishing and Finishing it All Up!
  12. Saddle Compensation Jig
  13. REALLY Finishing It Up Now!!!

 

 

 

         

Here is the bridge patch, all glued up.

 

 

Next, I spent about an hour or so, first bandsawing the braces to their proper heights (a couple are 1/4" tall, most are 3/16" tall), and then cutting out notches so that they fit over the bridge patch. Here I've laid them out on the bracing plan, so I wouldn't forget which one goes where.

 

And, finally, what I just finished doing was gluing about half of the braces onto their positions on the top. I resorted to using some popsicle sticks as cauls, to increase the clamping pressure.

Okay....now it's time for a late lunch....See ya later!

         

Okay....I'm back from my late lunch. I took the go-bar sticks off, and here's the result. Here's a bit less than half of the top braces glued:

 

So now it's time to glue on the other braces. The trickiest thing was gluing those two teeny-tiny 1/16" by 1/16" curved braces. After those are set, I need to notch two more 2" long braces into each of those skinny little braces. Then, after all the braces are glued on, I can do the scalloping and tapering of the braces. That should be fun! Right now they look ugly, but later they will look elegant.

 

My final task for today was to get a start on gluing on the kerfing strips onto the side set.

         

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