Soundhole!!!

Sunday, July 18th, 2010: This is actually what I did yesterday. My bloodwood had arrived on Friday, so I could finally get around to working on the top again. I first thickness-sanded the bloodwood (it was originally a peghead overlay piece) to about .070" or so, just a tad thinner than my finished soundboard will be. Then I used that Dremel circle cutter to cut out this bloodwood ring, after testing each cut on a scrap piece of spruce. I cut the ring to be twice as wide as the finished bloodwood soundhole rim will be; when I cut out the soundhole, it will reduce the ring to 1/8" wide. When I was removing the ring, however, it split in half along the grain. But it split very cleanly, and a little superglue patched it together quite nicely. (That's why it's on the waxed paper in this photo, and why it looks a bit shiny.)

Here I have routed out the channel for the ring in the cedar top. I have routed it so that the bloodwood ring will lie flush to the top of the channel; there will be just a very thin layer of the cedar beneath the bloodwood.

INDEX: Return to HOME PAGE Joining the Top and Back Template, Mold, and Bending Form Making Spreaders Beginning the Top and Back Soundhole Decisions! More Decisions, Demolition, and Braces Back Braces and Side Bending Deck, Sides in Mold, and Blocks Soundhole!!! Top Bracing, Kerfing Deck, Creases, and More Kerfing More Top Bracing and the Arbor! Scatterbrained — Odds 'n' Ends Soundport and Closing Up the Box On to the Binding Beginning the Neck The Neck, Day 2 The Neck, Day 3 The Allen Wrench Dilemma and the Peghead Bridge Shaping and Neck Fitting The Deck is Finished! The Fingerboard is Glued! Neck Carved, Finish Sanding, Wash Coat, Pore-Filling, Sanding, Sealing, Tru-Oil Paraffin Oil Polishing and Finishing it All Up! Saddle Compensation Jig REALLY Finishing It Up Now!!!

I have glued the bloodwood ring into the channel with Titebond.		Next, I did the final thickness-sanding of the top to around .090", cut out the 2-1/2" diameter soundhole, and finally bandsawed out the shape of the top, about 1/4" outside the line.		The last thing I did yesterday was to rough-cut my soundhole patch, allowing room for the kerfing strip and the neck block. That extra piece that's higher than the patch is to provide a little further support beyond the neck block for underneath the fingerboard. This is all just roughly bandsawn out; I will smooth out the edges and sand it all before I glue it to the soundboard. The grain of this patch runs horizontally.
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