|
Today I bent two bouts --- one of the upper bouts and one of the lower bouts. (I had bent and glued one upper bout already during this past week.) In the picture to the right, I have dry-clamped the two bouts, to let them set into their shapes. Tonight I will probably glue them to the blocks. (By the way, I've been using Titebond to glue the rims to the blocks.) I'm finding that it's best not to wet the maple strips too much, to avoid cracking along the flame lines. Draping the bending iron with a damp strip of towel helps; it creates steam, which eases the ribs into their bend. As I bend, I back the maple strip with a thin aluminum band, to further discourage cracking. |
 |
 |
Well, today was my last day of school, so I got down to finishing up the rims. During this past week, I glued the bouts you see clamped above and bent and glued the final upper bout. Today I trimmed the rims flush to the mold, on both the top and back surfaces. To do this, I used a 1/2" chisel, a little fingerplane, and a small sanding block (just a block of wood with stick-on sandpaper). When I was using the chisel and fingerplane, I had to be careful about the direction in which I worked, so I wouldn't chip out the maple. At the end, I ran the whole mold, top and back, over sandpaper stuck to a workboard. After that, I trimmed the overhanging corner rim ends with the bandsaw. |
|
|