Purfling Installed

I now have my purfling glued and pounded in. The clothes pins are holding miters together where two pieces of purfling join together.

Stings and Purfling Dry Fit

I have cut the stings in the corners for them to look more Strad-like.

I also managed to get the purfling bent and dry fit.

Purfling Channel Complete

I have finally finished cutting the purfling channel in the corners!

Purfling Channel

Today I cut the purfling channel using Mr. Reed's jig. Unfortunately, it was not able to cut the channel in the corners. Now it's time to start cutting the channel the old fashioned way, by hand.

Outline Finished and Locating Pin Holes Drilled

Today I finally finished getting the outline of the plates sanded, the corners carved, and the locating pin holes drilled.

Rough Arching Finished and Plates Spot Glued

I have now finished the second rough arching, and rough looking it is.

I have also spot glued my plates together in order to sand the edges of the plates identical to each other.

Finished First Rough Arching and Routing

Today I finished up my first rough arching and got the routing done for the purfling ledge.

Outline Finished, Rough Arching Started

Today I finished cutting the outline following the pencil line. Then I used the spindle sander to take it even closer to the pencil. I also started the first rough arching today.

 

Arch Heights and Outline

Today I ran my plates through the planer to establish the arch heights. After that, I scribed the outline of my rib structure on the flat side of each plate, and used the 'magic washer' to trace the outline of my ribs to the back. I also started to cut out the shape using the band saw.

Back Plate Glued

It took a while, but I finally got my top and back plates flat, but there were only enough clamps for me to clamp the back Monday night. My top is now clamped together for the night.

Linings Finished for Back

Today I finished taking the linings down to height and smoothing the edge of the linings closest to the mold.

I also started flattening my top and back plates to get ready for gluing them together.

More Linings

Today I glued in the linings on the back of the mold. I also had to put in a mortise in the c-bout area of the blocks so the c-bout linings are more secure, and also notch where the upper and lower bout linings will be installed.

Linings

I trimmed the extra length off of the upper and lower ribs. 

I also got my linings bent today. All of the bending molds were occupied, so I bent all of them by hand using the bending iron.

More Block Carving, Rib Bending, and Gluing

Today I carved the rest of the bout blocks, as well as level the top and bottom blocks to the mold.

I decided to make one piece upper and lower bout ribs. I bent those today as well as glued them in.

C-bouts

Today I got the c-bouts bent and glued in!

Templates

I finally finished my templates today!

Templates

Templates are due today. I'm not going to be finished with them because I need to remake 3 more of them!

Carving and Templates

Today I finished carving the inner area of the blocks.

Also, filing templates is very time consuming and frustrating, especially when you just realized that a corner chipped off from being cut with the band saw and needs to be remade.

Templates, Ribs, Cauls

I traced and glued my templates a while ago, but today I finally cut them out. Now to get them down to size.

My ribs were also sent through the time saver to get them close to the right thickness.

I also finished my cauls today. I ended up not measuring right, and the upper and lower block cauls are not as wide as they need to be. I will have to wait and see if they will work.

Carving Blocks

Today I started carving the inside of the upper and lower bout blocks where the c-bout ribs will be attached.

Gluing in blocks

 Dry fit

Blocks glued in

Blocks and Spacer sticks

Today I finished my blocks and spacer sticks!

Blocks

Today we got a spruce block to use as the starting point to build the rib structure.

Here are the steps to preparing the blocks:

1. Flatten the face (radial) surface
2. Square the edge (tangential) to the face
3. Split the block using a knife and hammer
4.  Mark the remaining surfaces using a razor blade and square from the squared radial and tangential edge
5. Cut excess material away-at least 1mm from where already marked
6. Use a disk sander to get close to scribed marks, and use a block plane to finish it off
7. Check with a square

We were also told about spacer sticks. They are to be 9mm thick for violin.

Mold Assignments

Today I was assigned mold #6 which is a mold of a 1715 Stradivari.

We were also told about arching templates and different materials to consider.