tres build part 2

In the last episode I had started the rough shaping of the braces. This brace has a radius cut on the gluing edge and has been flattened on the top edge for the clamps to hold while gluing.

Here I'm planing the brace down to its final thickness using a flat stick clamped to the bench as a stopper to hold the brace still as I plane it.

Next I work on getting the soundboard joined together. The two halves need to have a perfect fit along the seam with no gaps. This picture shows how the plates touch at both ends, but there is a gap in the center.

 

This is my combination "shooting board"/light table. My jointer plane is clamped to a shelf on the side of the light table.

The plane needs to be clamped down at an exact 90 degree angle to the table. Here you can see light coming through at the top of the square, so the plane will need to get tipped forward.

With the plane squared up I "shoot" (hence the name shooting board) the center seam edges of the plates along the plane blade to straighten them. The light table shines through the seam so I can see any gaps easily.

Now that both edges are square and straight, the two plates fit together with no gaps. There is a tiny gap at the very end of the seam, but that part will get cut off anyway.

Then the two halves get glued together. Wedges on the right side push the plates into the metal bar on the left. The board in the middle is clamped over the seam to keep the glue joint flat.

The two plates were not wide enough, so smaller pieces needed to get grafted onto the outer edges with the same process as the center joint.

And here the four-piece soundboard is complete but needs sanding. I'll go through the same process with the back plates. They are plenty wide, however, so I only need to do the center seam.

Before the braces can get glued onto the back side of the soundboard, I need to cut the soundhole and the channel for the rosette inlay. I cut all these with a circle cutter on the drill press.

I haven't done any more work on the neck aside from cutting the angle on the new headstock piece.

So that brings the tres to about this point. Next steps will be gluing braces to the soundboard, planing down the maple for the back and sides, and getting the new head on the neck.