Shaping the Braces

I did some work on the mandolin today. It's been a while because I need a few cam clamps for the really long braces on the back and top. Today I just decided to do something, whether or not it was the logical next step. As it turns out I was able to do something that was a logical step after all. I shaped the short top braces and glued on the short transverse top brace.

Now, it should be noted that the instructions do not show a step for shaping the short top braces between the steps for gluing on the short top braces and gluing on the transverse top braces. Although it's obvious that you need to do it once you really look at the transverse brace step, where you cut a notch into the trans brace for the short braces, hopefully this will be corrected in a future version of the instructions, because there's no instructions on how to shape the braces until much later in the instructions. A small oversight, perhaps, but still a glitch in an otherwise excellent set of instructions.

I didn't take any photos of the actual carving because I was too lazy to walk upstairs to get the camera. However, here is a photo of the finished carved braces and a closeup of one of the ends. Note the way I also used a razor saw to trim the ends parallel to the centerline of the not-yet-installed transverse braces.
















While doing the carving I learned a lesson the hard way. The instructions don't suggest masking the top wood with anything while carving the braces, and I was apparently too stupid to come up with that idea myself. I accidentally gouged the top while making a cut. The damage is minor, and on the inside, but I decided right there to cut out a protective mask from some cardboard (actually the back of the Xacto knife blister pack, which is thin but very rugged cardboard).

By the way, it's critical that the chisel be used correctly while shaping the braces. Here is a photo taken from the instructions showing the correct way to use the chisel in this step. Since your goal is to curve the cut, you need to have the chisel inverted with respect to the way you might typically expect to use it to allow the levering action required to curve the cut. Use an excreamly (my favorite Spoonerism of all times, by the way. My brother E heard an annoying noise and exclaimed, "That is exscreamly annoising!") sharp chisel for this, both for your own safety and to make it possible to make an accurate cut.

So that the short braces and the transverse braces will interlock and act as a team, you cut a notch into the trans braces to allow the short braces to interlock with them. As suggested by the instructions I used a very sharp Xacto knife to do this by making border cuts to depth and then just prying out the waste. Here are a few photos of the results.




















Finally I glued on the short trans brace. Although I also notched the long trans brace I did not glue it on because I don't have enough clamps to do both at once. Here are some (clickable) photos of the glueup.