Day 156: Finishing the Soundboard Trimming

As with the sides of the soundboard, I marked and cut the front and then trimmed it down with a bench plane.

You can see in the top photo above where I scribed a line and then cut roughly 1mm away from it with the band saw. I then simply cleaned it up using the little bench plane and checked the fit in the case.

As you can see, not too shabby. Of course, I have a ton left to do with the bridges, nuts and underside bracing, but I'll get to that soon enough, especially since I discovered I cut the nuts incorrectly. I trimmed them backwards and also put the bevel on the wrong side. Ah, heck, it was good practice, right? I'll be cutting and preparing new ones this week.

Once I get them completed, I'll set up the template to cut the tuning pin holes into the pinblock. As with anything that's permanent, it's going to be a nerve-wracking process, but I can plug any hole and have a do-over, hoping I don't end up having to plug too many - or any, really.

I'm anxious to get these two major tasks completed so I can move on to creating jigs for the jacks and, well, the jacks themselves, another exacting process (aren't they all?).

Until next time...

Day 155: More Soundboard Work

I was able to work on the soundboard a bit over this last weekend. Now, before I go any further, I'll address the gorilla in the room: I used a jig saw to make the final cuts on the soundboard. As I shared this tidbit on the book of the face, heads began to spin. I explained how I use a couple of marking tools that actually slice into the wood. In a soft wood like spruce, this allows me to create a mark and cut, say, 1mm away from it. This not only makes a nice cut (I use a special Bosch jig saw blade that's super-sharp), it tears the wood away between the cut and the mark.

Later today, I will work on trimming the roughness down with a spokeshave or block plane. All will be well. I promise.

The photos below illustrate what kicked off the flurry of comments.

Again...all will be well.

I also began preparing to drill the tuning pin holes into the pinblock by slicing and dicing the plan accordingly. In Mr. Miller's eBook Most Excellent, he describes gluing the 2" oak block block into the case once the cosmetic spruce laminate is glued over it. Then, he describes how you can also wait until later to make that happen. I should have waited until later. Likewise, I should have left the bottom off until much later in the game. I have many of these (hundreds?) that I won't bore you with at time time (I certainly will later). Regardless, I'm now in the tricky position of drilling holes relatively freehand using a drill bit guide block.

Once I finish cleaning up the soundboard, I'll get the pinblock drilled. It's still incredibly hot in this part of the country. As you may know, I work in a two-car garage. The garage door is on the sunny side of the house, so the aluminum (aluminium for my British friends) heats up nicely, turning the garage into a cozy, little oven. I'm hoping things settle down soon.

On a tangentially related note, I was able to get the new router installed into the table saw extension plate. This required some fancy geometry that I thanked my high school algebra/geometry teacher for in absentia. Yeah, I finally used it.

I laid out the holes on a piece of parchment and transferred them with a felt pen to the plate. I then drilled with abandon and, before I knew it, the thing was mounted.

Drilling aluminum is a wonderful thing.

No excuses now - time to route something.

Until next time...

Day 154: Cutting the Nuts

As I explained in my previous post, cutting the bridges and nuts go hand-in-hand because they represent two parts of a whole when it comes to stringing the instrument. As you know, I cut the bridges first. As a building newbie, I must admit I would have preferred to have cut the nuts first, mainly because they're shorter. But, what is done is done and now both the 8' and 4' bridges and nuts have been cut, beveled, and scraped into submission.

The interesting thing about the nuts and bridges is that they mirror each other. I mentioned the diminishing cuts in my past post. Well, these happen the opposite way on the nuts from the bridges. This is so that strings can clear the proper structures (particularly the 8' clearing the 4' bridge) on the soundboard. Now that they're completed, I can get on with mounting them onto the soundboard, as well as gluing up the bottom bracing.

On an unrelated note, a Bosch router for the table saw router extension came into Tortuga Early Instruments Worldwide Headquarters last week. Interestingly, it came with an adjustable sleeve, so the one I purchased previously has been rendered completely useless. This rankles quite a bit considering the fact I tried my best to save money over buying one of the fancy schmancy $500-$1,000 router raising gadgets. I may try to sell it or just hold onto it for the future.

Now, I must drill the holes and mount the thing into the extension insert. I'll be accomplishing this over the coming week, but I have no idea when - temperatures are reaching 106 degrees here today and I don't have an air conditioner in the shop. I'll get it in when it gets in, right?

Until next time...