New Dreadnaught

[John Reid]

Well, here’s what I ended up with.

I got nervous about having cut off too much wood. So, I glued the corners back on. Figured it couldn’t hurt and might help. I thought about trying to sand some sort of curve or other shape, but I kind of liked what I ended up with.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

I generally just round the edges a bit to soften the look.
Squared is fine of course! What ever you like look to be.
Good idea to add the material back on.

[John Reid]

Question about radiussing the top sides. I reviewed John’s videos and tried to follow faithfully.

Here’s (briefly) what I did:

Before gluing endblocks and kerfing
flatten the rim
radius the upper and lower bout areas
flatten the neck part of the rim (to get the right angle for the neck set).

After gluing endblocks and kerfing
flatten the rim
radius the upper and lower bout areas
flatten the neck part of the rim (to get the right angle for the neck set).

The question I have is about the top surface of the endblocks, mainly the Neckblock. After this process the sanding doesn’t hit all the top surface of the blocks - as shown in the picture. Is this ok? Is it ok to have this gap, or will gluing the top on fill the gap? (I’ve had this question with previous builds, but decided to ask this time.)

[Kevin Sjostrand]

I always radius the rims until I have contact across the whole neck block and end block. That's is I'm sanding the entire surface. If your blocks were not about an 1/8" proud both top and back when you glued them in you will have the issue there that you have.
I think you do want the top to be glued on the whole surface of the block. Which means you may have to bring the side height down to make that happen. You can measure how much to go with a straight edge across the block from the side.

[BlindBo]

I agree with Kevin. I try to glue my blocks in level to 1/32” proud on the back (because I’m lazy) and 1/16”+ proud on the top. To me, the back isn’t as critical as the top since the top should match the neck joint angle. Then cover the blocks and kerfing with chalk and “drive the bus” until I have clean wood ALL the way around. To me, then it’s ready for the top and back gluing.

From your picture, you have some more “driving” to do. I don’t think you want to depend on glue to fill any voids in your top/neck block joint alignment that could be removed by sanding.

[John Reid]

I did have he block plenty proud. But my dilemma is that after first leveling the rim, the blocks were flush (no chalk). Then I radiused the upper and lower bouts of the rim, keeping the waist flat. That’s where I am now.

If I continue to bring down the rim to remove the chalk, here’s what I have question about:
1) Won’t I end up radiussing the whole perimeter, including the waist, which I want flat?
2) Then when I flatten the upper bout neck area to help set the neck angle, won’t I just end up with the inside area of the block lower than the outside area again?

(I hope that question makes sense.) I feel like I’m caught in a catch-22.

[BlindBo]

If I’m following you correctly, you seem to be making this much harder than it needs to be. Buy a top and back radius dish from Blues Creek and get on with the process. You’ll be happy you did!😎👍

[Kevin Sjostrand]

I think where you went wrong was you leveled the rims, which in turn leveled your blocks. Then you didn't have the extra height on the blocks needed for the front to back radius.
Also. I know John uses a flat board with sandpaper on it and pulls it across the upper bout to the neck block to make a "flat" slope for the neck angle. I think I did that once and it worked out fine however i don't do that anymore.
I level and radius at the same time, starting out with the blocks proud to the sides. Then glue in the kerfing a bit proud and do it again until flush all around.

Then use the board to flatten if you want.
I think you just need to radius top and back and take off just enough to do that

[John Reid]

Thanks for that input.

That sounds right – When I leveled the rims, I knew I’d be lowering the blocks, but I thought that should be the starting step before radiussing. I’ll re-radius the rims and make sure the endblocks are flush with the sanding.

Have to admit, I’m still puzzled by the process.

[Stray Feathers]

I'm not clear on whether you are using radius dishes. If you are, you should be able to sit the rim into the appropriate dish, and see where it does not touch the dish - I like to see it touching everywhere. I sometimes use a light inside the rim to see where it leaks out along the outside the rim. I mention this in part because you say you want to keep the waist "flat", but in fact the waist will be higher (or lower, depending on how you look at it) than the rest of the rim, because it is closer to the centre of the dish, where it is deeper. You're on the right track; if you keep radiusing to get to the right point, you will not lose much more side depth. Bruce W.