Soundhole ring

There seems to be a little too much glue spread around here, but a couple of passes through the drum sander with 240 grit paper will level this ring nicely and remove the excess glue.I just love the wavy figure on this redwood top. It is time to cut out the soundhole with the circle cutter. I can use a hand held circle cutter, or the dremel tool with the router bit doing the cutting, or the circle cutter held in the vertical drill press. The latter is by far the quickest way, but a little daunting. Once the cutout is complete, hand sand the edges of the hole smooth. Cut out the bridge reinforcement plate and thickness to 3mm, draw the cross braces onto the underside of the top, position the bridge plate over the location of the saddle and bridge pins, glue the plate down to the top with the rods of the go-bar deck. The floor of the deck has a 28′ radius scouped into it. Leave to dry for several hours.

Gluing the centreseam brace

Once the back has been thicknessed, the spruce centreseam, salvaged from offcuts from the soundboard, are glued inline down the centre of the back. The locations of the back cross braces will be marked later on, and small sections are chiselled out to take the braces.Try to precut the spruce so it ends at the tail block and neck block.

Gluing done on the bridge patch

Gluing the bridge reinforcement patch