Gluing the Upper and Lower Bout Ribs
Monday I arrived later in the day with my excited Papillon, Noble. Noble seems to be surveying things and thinking how cool to be in the inner sanctum of Indianapolis Violins with three new friends, the wonderful luthiers Ben, Chris and Ted.
Saturday, Ben cut and shaped the 3 pieces comprising the upper and lower bout ribs. By the time I arrived Monday he had the one piece upper bout glued and was ready for me to photograph the two piece lower bout being glued. Below you can see the upper rib glued and clamped to the neck block with cauls clamped against the glued corner blocks to apply pressure to the curved corners. As well, The two piece lower bout ribs are taped together overlapping with masking tape.
Once the glue is applied to the end block and the two rib pieces, the caul and clamps press against the rib pieces sliding them end to end to make a tight joint with the end block, no longer over lapping.
Because the final gluing of the lower bout will require that the rib pieces are pulled tightly to clamp on the corner blocks the end block joint must be allowed to dry for several hours. Ben did the final gluing before leaving the shop for the day.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Trimming the C Bout Corners and Preparing Willow for Linings
Below Ben carefully trims one of the C Bout corners to the finished point.
Thin pieces of black willow need to be cut from the larger remnant.
The thin strips then are hand planned to remove saw marks and will later be sanded to proper thickness and smoothness before being cut into strips for preparation of the linings which will reinforce the top and bottom edges of the ribs.
Below is the finished rib structure still with the form in place and prior to applying the linings.
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