Carving Bracings?

[turnertj]

Hey all...

How do you guys carve your braces on your soundboard and backs? What I mean is this. I've got my back all glued up, with the rim location marked and a bit extra which will become the amount to trim. My bracings go off the rim area, and some even off the shaped back plate. I figured I'd carve them all down, but do you guys carve them to a certain thickness and then chop them off at the rim so you only have to carve out a little of the kerfing to get the back to fit? Or do you let the braces hang out past the rim position and then have to cut notches into the sides to make them fit when you glue up?

Thanks!

[johnnparchem]

I carve the braces to 1/8 inch thick at the ends. When I fit the plates to the rim I mark both the braces and kerfling where the brace intersect the rim. I pull off the top or back and on the braces I measure the width of a kerfling from where I marked the braces and cut them off there. I use a straight edge to align the marks I made on both sides of the kerfling and mark the path of the brace into the kerfling. I then use a dremel with a very small end mill to make the 1/8 inch deep rebates into the kerfling.

Ken's way would work as well. I am just describing how I do it. I never felt good cutting into the rims, but that is just me.

[turnertj]

Yeah, I just red Ken's method. I totally get it, but I'm worried knowing me that I will cut past the depth of the binding and then it will show.

Thanks!

[johnnparchem]

Yeah, I just red Ken's method. I totally get it, but I'm worried knowing me that I will cut past the depth of the binding and then it will show.

Thanks!

My fear as well!

[Kevin Sjostrand]

I have used a file to cut the slots in the sides for the brace ends. This is slow, but you are not likely to cut too deep if you just watch what you are doing. I now use a trim router with a base, and as long as you have the depth set correctly, you should be okay. Don't cut any deeper than 1/8", then trim your brace ends to fit.

Kevin

[tippie53]

I do it like Rick. I don't like to go through the sides.

[Jim_H]

On my first, I used a dremel and routed a slot using an 1/8th inch mill. I ended up doing a lot of chisel work to clean it up.

On my subsequent efforts' I'm just using a razor saw to cut a diagonal slot for the edge of each brace tail, that doesn't go through the sides, and then cleaning up with a nice sharp chisel. I feel a lot more comfortable doing it this way than using the fast spinny metal things. IT takes longer, but I'm determined to not be in a hurry. =)

A trick that Rick taught me is that if you leave the tails of your braces at exactly 1/8", it takes out part of the mystery. You know exactly how deep to make your slots. When I'm carving my braces, I use the end of a digital caliper to make sure the part that goes into the lining is exactly 1/8" tall, and then chisel 1/8" deep slots in the lining.

I"m getting ready to do this on a prototype Dreadnought I'm building. I'll try to get some pictures to post.

[deadedith]

Kinda like Jim, I make all the brace ends exactly the same, but I use a popsicle stick to gauge that height.

[nkwak]

I just glued the back on my first and cut notches in the kerfing and the sides for the brace ends to project through. I was told to do this by a friend who was told by several others more experienced than he with the justification/logic that the braces would be "locked in" and thus making the rims sturdier.

I don't know I totally buy it even now but I followed through with it I did a little measuring and a lot of eye-balling to get a tight glue joint between the plate and the side/kerfing then after the glue-up I trimmed off everything flush to the edge of the sides with a router. I'm told common practice is to use a flush-cut bit but I didn't have access to one so I eye-balled it. When it comes time to rout for the binding the area will be further cleaned up and covered by the binding/purfling.

That being said, I think the whole thing was an ugly process and I will be trimming the brace ends on future builds so that the meet the inner surface of the sides and I only have to rout out the kerfing with a Dremel.

[turnertj]

In some ways if you route well for the binding, should it really matter? But I'm not the one to answer that since I haven't done it yet!