www.KitGuitarsForum.com

That's an elegant solution

Today I experimented with bending the braces. I sketched a likely-looking curve on the top, cut out a bending form to match, boiled the brace about 10 minutes, then bent it over the form. I discovered a few things:

1. Boiling a 9/32" x 3/4" piece of brace stock does soften it enough to make it bendable.
2. The thing one uses for a bending form needs a clamp of some kind at each end that can be applied quickly.
3. I think there is going to be considerable spring back when I take the brace off the form. I'm quite likely going to
need to make a new form that exaggerates the bend so when it springs back it comes out correctly.

Here's a photo of my boiling trough and a brace on the bending form.

Well, here's the top with the braces glued on. Their size and location are not based on anything except intuition, most likely faulty. There is a slight bit of rational. The two large braces are about 1" in from where the ends of the bridge will be on the other side of the top. They should, in theory, be heavy enough to keep the bridge from rising and pivoting, so the top ought to stay flat. I hope.

There is also a picture of the back with some finish on it, showing the grain.

Beautiful wood.

WILD WOOD!
Interesting top bracing. Will be fun to hear it when the time comes.

Kevin Sjostrand wrote: ↑Fri Jun 24, 2022 10:43 pm Will be fun to hear it when the time comes.

I hope it's not more fun than I can stand. ;-)

Since I took that photo I've shaved down the braces considerably to lighten things up. About now I'm thinking how nice it would be to have a pattern to follow: the braces are THIS big and they go HERE. I've never been very good at following directions though. I always seem to treat a plan a point of departure, and in this case I'm departing in a big way, making the whole thing up. We'll see.

It's getting there. Now I "just" need to do the binding/purfling, carve the neck, cut the dovetail, put on the fingerboard, fret it, figure out where the bridge goes, apply the finish...

Nearly done, are ya?

Yeah, just a few minor details left to clean up. ;-)

My friend Carter is cutting the binding and purfling channels for me. A few years ago I made a Fleishmann-style binding machine and gave it to Carter with the understanding that I could use it when I needed it. We were having trouble scheduling a time I could come to his shop to do it, so eventually Carter just offered to do it. He's also going to cut the neck dovetail for me. I have a setup for doing that, but it's of questionable rigidity. I didn't want to take a chance of soemething slipping.