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Back plates glue up

More done today
Got the end blocks glued to the sides. Sanded both top and back in my combo 15ft/ 30ft radius dish.
Cut out the profile on the back plate and glued on the inside spruce back strip.
Tomorrow I'll glue in my homemade mahogany kerfing.

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Today I got all the kerfing glued in and both top and back rims resanded in the radius dish.
I also made braces for the back and glued them on in my gobar deck.

That's all till next week.

Looking good Kevin.

I got back to this one today.
Glued in some side strut braces and carved the back braces. Got the positions marked on the sides to inlet the back braces too.

You always do nice work.

Notches done back fits really well right on centered.
I won't glue it on until I have the top made and fit.

Next step, make the top.

Today i joined the top plates; A nice AA graded set of sitka spruce from LMI. It's going to look nice...loaded with medular rays.

Laid out the bracing patterns on the inside and started the rosette. This will be another single ring of 4mm abalone framed in BWB purflings.
What I'm doing this time is using my .055" bit and installing the two purflings first. I cut the 2 channels after carefully measuring and checking that my abalone rosette will properly fit between the purfling when linstalled. With the channels routed to .070" deep I brushed some shellac into the channels and a bit over the top surface either side of the channels. Now the purfling fits down in very snuggly if not perfectly tight. Light taps with the hammer make sure they're seated. This leaves them .010" proud.
Now I wick using a pipette CA just along the OUTSIDE of each purfling ring. This will set/glue in the putfling but not to the inside area that will next be routed out to allow the shell to be inlaid. This way when I routed this area out the purfling won't be glued to the wood and I can get real close to the black line so the wood left can just be peeled away without risk of cutting into the black line.
The shell is .060" thick so I want to set it .065" deep.

So the purfling is glued in and leveled via my drum sander.
Next I'll rout out between the rings and set the shell. When the shells all in I'll flood over the top with CA, probably 2 or 3 applications so when dry I can level it to the top without sanding any of the shell away.
I hope to complete that tomorrow.

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