A pair

[B. Howard]

Now I can install my braces on my rims. I like wood bracing here rather than cloth and position them at key locations to help prevent damage from keys left in a pocket, bumps into door jambs and the other things I have seen split rims on guitars over the years. The first is the transverse brace support. The end at the brace is square, the one at the back is not. I hold a piece of stock in place, mark the angle with my pencil and cut the brace with my small backsaw and a pillow.

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I may need to sand the angle a tad with a block to get it to fit true and square and then I scalope the end that will be at the back. I do this by clamping the piece down to the bench and cut with a chisel.

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I also like to champher the edges. I do this with a block plane in my vice and take the pieces across like it was a small joiner. NOTE: This is a risky little operation, That blade will cut all the skin off of finger tips if you slip!!! Skill , poise and confidence must be exercised. About 15 swipes per corner gives me what I like.

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[B. Howard]

These are then sanded at 180 and glued in place.

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Notice I work quickly and efficiently by only pulling the clamps that are in my way to clamp the next piece. I can pull clamps while glue is drying on other parts after I glue them up. The remaining braces are done the same way. Meanwhile I am prepping the back by trimming back the center graft at the ends. Measured, marked, and paired away.

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The back is then positioned on the box and the ends of the braces marked out, pockets are again cut with my trim router.

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[B. Howard]

The linings and rims are now planed at the proper radius to accommodate my back. I left the line on my rims when I cut them with the spokeshave, I will now plane them till they just disappear. So, why don't I use a radius dish? Well, because none of my plates are actually a segment of a sphere. They are a parabolic shape, especially the back. I think this allows for better projection and clarity and also an aide to player comfort. So how do I do it? well that's a bit tough to explain. I have the ability to simply visualize the shape and plane to it. So that is what I do.

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This was actually done before I cut the pockets for the braces. Sorry I got a little out of sequence there. A few test fits are made and the mating surface of the linings are refined with a large sanding block and pocket depths adjusted until I get a nice fit. Overall about 4 test fits and I am a happy guy. The soundbox is then vacuumed clean and given a final polish with scotch brite. The back is polished as well and then we are off to the go bars to glue the back on.

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[B. Howard]

Meanwhile back at the ranch.....waiting for glue to dry....I needed a tail block for the dread, so I made a piece of stock that will yield about 4 of them. The blocks need a 20" radius on them so I grab billet of Mahogany, my radius gauges and a bench plane.

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Not to shabby...a quick finsh with a big sanding block and I can cut my tail block for the next box.

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I have also kept working on the necks. I cut out all my pearl diamonds for the position markers on them.

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[CavalierKingCharles]

More great work, very nice

[B. Howard]

While I assemble the other box I will keep working on my necks. I need to radius the fingerboards. I have a jig that I made that uses a router, but I seldom use it. If I needed to make a dozen boards all at the same radius it would be wort while to get out. Since I use a compound radius on all my builds I find it quicker and easier to do them by hand. Yes I could cut them at 14" with the jig and segment plane them but I will be done with them in less time this way so this is how I do. First I use my radius gauges and a file to make landings at each end of the board. 12" at the nut, 16" at the other end.I first mark the radius with a pencil and then file down to it.

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I clamp two pieces of scrap from my soundboards to the edge of my bench and set them so I can trap a board between them by springing it in and use my bench plane to connect the landings.

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When I get close to my landings I start to check that I am not leaving any depressions in the board with a straight edge. The straight edge must be used at an angle on a compound board, not parallel with the edges. You should be checking it along the approximate string paths cause that's where it counts.

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[B. Howard]

Here you can see how I have done. Not to bad. It will get trued up with my sanding beam after the inlays are glued in and scraped.

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Now it is time to taper the boards. I use a sled that I made for this and it is really simple. On the bottom of the board I mark out the edges at the ends and then place the board on the jig with those marks aligned with the edge, clamp it down and run it through the table saw.

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Push it all the way through, do not pull it back. Repeat for the other side and the other board.

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[B. Howard]

I give each edge a pas with a plane to clear off any saw marks. Now I will do my side position markers. I do this on my drill press with a fence. Since the boards are now tapered we will have to deal with this or have our side markers go in crooked. I take two of the pieces I cut off of the boards and tape them together to form a shim. This is then taped to the edge of the board opposite of the one that gets the markers, now my board sits level and I can drill the holes.

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A few minutes later and all my holes are drilled.

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My markers are then cut and glued into the holes.

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[B. Howard]

Next I can glue in my position markers.

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Now it is back to the shafts. One little thing that has come up with doing this newer type scarf joint is the truss rod pocket. The side of my neck is no longer a flat surface as the headstock is wider than the shaft. This was solved with a simple little spacer. It has a hook on the end so it will follow the shaft as I push it along the fence. If I decide to do all my necks on this series this way I will make an improved version with some more positive holding of the neck itself, but this proved the concept to be viable for production.

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The slots are cut, there is a stop block clamped to the end of my fence to control how long the slot is. The slots are not cut in one pass but in a series of cuts taking about .100" at a time.

[B. Howard]

Next I drill the pilot holes for my tuners. These are deliberately undersize at this point. I like complete support of the tuner shaft and these will be reamed to fit later. simply done on the drill press with a pillow block.

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The rough outline of the head stock and the taper on the shaft are now cut on my bandsaw. This is also done with various pillow blocks to get just the clearance I need above the table to make the cuts.

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The shape is then refined with a plane on the edges and various sanding blocks and files on the curves until all it needs is final sanding.

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