A violin project begins #4

[Kevin in California]

After making two guitars in the past year I decided it was time for another violin, before I forget how to make one.

I have a couple more curly maple sets for violins but I've had a billet of Spalted Sycamore for about 6 years and have been thinking for awhile that it could make an interestingly different violin. Sycamore is similar in density to maple.
The billet is 24" x 8" x 2". I had some crack checking on one end that came in about 3". So cut that off and figured out how to cut it up. I got all the parts is need cut out and milled today.
The side slats are about .050". The neck blank is 15" x 1.5" x 2.5". The back plates are 15" long x 5" wide x 3/4" thick, cut book matched.
The billet was quarter sawn but along the width of the piece.
To get the nice figure the pieces are cut across the grain but it will be fine for the back and I think the sides will be too.

I'll pair this with a spruce top. I thought about redwood and could change my mind but I think spruce will look better.

So off to the races. I jointed and glued the back plates together this afternoon.

[John Parchem]

Great I will enjoy watching it come together.

[Kevin in California]

Here I'm starting the temporarily glue in the end blocks and then followed with the c bout corner blocks into the mold.
Then I jointed a ND glued up the back plates and then the top plates. I used cord as a clamping system on the top because the wedge shape plates don't like to be clamped together, very hard to keep pressure on so the seam stays flat. This system works well to apply enough pressure to keep the plates in place while drying. I used Titebond to glue up the back and the top.

[peter havriluk]

Forgetting how to make one - - - it's so easy to lose details that matter when we don't continuously use them.

[Kevin in California]

I glued in all the blocks and today carved and spindle sanded them to shape. The mold is now ready for the sides. I have the slats made to size and thickness. I'll be bending them probably tomorrow.

Here is the neck blank with the pattern glued onto both sides and pilot holes drilled for the pegs.

[Kevin in California]

Not much done today.
Bent the c bouts and glued them in with fish glue

[Kevin in California]

I bent and glued in the upper and lower bout ribs. The sycamore bent nicely.
With the clamps off I used a mi I plane to reduce the excess height of the ribs close to the blocks on the top and back sides, then worked them on a sanding board until everything was level on both sides.
Then the top half of the two piece mold was separated by removing screws and then inserting 3 bolts in holes in the top half and screwing them in until they start to cause the upper part of the mold to push away and free from the corpus structure and then be removed leaving just the bottom half of the mold, the part that the end and corner blocks are glued to temporarily.

At this point I the top edge of the sides from the top corner blocks to the neck block could be planed down to slope to the neck block which was installed 3/32" lower than the sides. Then this was also finished up on the sanding board for a nice even slope.

Then I slipped that top part of the mold back inside the corpus so I could trace the it onto the top and back plates which will be cut to shape later.

Next step is to going in edge linings so just like a guitar, there is more material surface to glue the top and back to.
I'll be using multiple thin strips stacked, or laminated and glue them in to get about 1/8" thickness when done.
I can do this without having to bend the strips. They are thin enough to conform to the shape, and I'll just glue and stack them into place.