Posted by Chet Bishop on Saturday, September 8, 2012
Today I completed the back graduations, leveled the garland, trimmed the linings and blocks and installed the back plate. The corpus is sitting in spool-clamps, waiting for the glue to dry.
I also discovered that the upper three inches of my center glue-seam on the front plate had popped, so I thumbed hot hide-glue into the joint from the inside until it squeezed out on the outside, clamped it, and set it aside. I had intended to trace and cut the scroll blank today, but I am tired and have other things to do as well, so that is probably all I will accomplish today.
The front plate is ready for the bass-bar, and, once the glue is dry, I can remove the mold and clean up the inside of the corpus. I am using a flush-front mold on this instrument, so I still have to add linings on the front...but that is a fast job.
When I first began building, twelve or thirteen years ago, I would attempt to glue, align and clamp a whole plate all at one time...it was a panicky job, and didn't work well anyway. It finally occurred to me to clamp the whole thing dry, and remove a few clamps at a time and slip the hide-glue in with a palette knife. Works like a charm, and completely de-stresses the job. I'm sure it is not original by any means, but I tend to be slow to realize that I am doing things the hard way, and probably simply failed to recognize that others were doing it that way all along.
I feel perfectly free to grab a heat-gun with which to warm up and re-liquefy the glue if it begins to gel before I am done clamping. Life is much easier when I find ways to de-stress gluing tasks. :-) I have even learned to ignore the phone at such times. :-)
Chet Bishop Says:
Sunday, September 9, 2012 @7:46:38 PM
I went ahead and removed the mold last night, but, by the time I got home I was too tired to try anything more. I hung three new fluorescent fixtures, and called it a night.
Mandogryl Says:
Monday, September 10, 2012 @6:13:25 PM
Johnson and Courtnall recommend clamping the entire plate then removing a few at a time, as well. I clamp the head and tail blocks with locator pins in place, then clamp the corners. It is a fairly relaxing job. I keep my palette knife and brush in the warm water of the double boiler when not in use. I use the knife to insert the glue in the joint and the warm-water brush to brush glue squeeze out.
Chet Bishop Says:
Monday, September 10, 2012 @7:34:07 PM
Same here. Funny, I have the J&C book, and must have skipped that page. Not surprising...great book though. The pictures are so nice I sometimes forget about the text. :-) I have always been grateful I got the Strobel books first: if I had gotten the Johnson and Courtnall first, I would have spent the rest of my lif drooling over the pictures and never would have built a fiddle. :-)
Chet Bishop Says:
Monday, September 10, 2012 @9:09:53 PM
Got the linings in...pictures on the forum. Too short an evening. Gonna call it quits.
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