So I finally got to work a bit on the mandolin this weekend again.
Today I glued the back brace onto the back, cut notches in the kerfing for the top braces to fit into, and trimmed the top braces so that they fit into the notches behind the sides.
First I glued the back brace on. Since I already wrote ad nauseum regarding gluing braces when I wrote about the top, I will refrain from kills virtual trees here repeating that information. I'll just show a picture of the back and back brace glued up. Next step for these pieces is carving the brace.
First I glued the back brace on. Since I already wrote ad nauseum regarding gluing braces when I wrote about the top, I will refrain from kills virtual trees here repeating that information. I'll just show a picture of the back and back brace glued up. Next step for these pieces is carving the brace.
The next step is to fit the top to the sides. To do this you start out by cutting notches in the kerfing so that the top braces, which in some cases extend almost all the way to the sides, can fit. We start out by lightly clamping the top to the sides, making sure that the centerlines align, and also making sure that we are clamping to the top (as noted in a previous entry the hole for mounting the neck is offset towards the back so we have to make sure we clamp the top onto the correct side...). Then we make marks on the sides where the braces protrude, and then transfer those marks to the kerfing, which we are then going to notch out. Per the instructions I used my handy Xacto knife to cut the notches. Here are some photos of the process.
Finally you have to trim the braces so that they are short enough to fit. I used my trusty Marples pull saw and a chisel. Here are photos of that:
And here is the top, "snapped" into place with the braces in their notches.
