The author describes
the construction as follows: The work will be facilitated by making
a jig or mould as in Fig. 1.9. This may be made from any timber, screwed
and glued together firmly enough to hold the segments of the soundbox
in place.
fig. 1.9 - click for a larger view
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Saw and plane the
eleven segments until they fit snugly into the jig. Care must be taken
to ensure that the joints are suitable for rubbed jointing. With a
light coloured wood, the glue line can best be disguised, and the
general appearance of the job enhanced, by the insertion of a contrasting
coloured veneer between the box segments as in
Fig. 1.10.
fig. 1.10 - click for a larger view
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To secure the segments
in position, we suggest driving a thin panel pin through the segments
and into the frames of the jig. Do not drive them in completely so
that when the glue has hardened, the panel pins can be extracted.
Now take the soundbox off the jig, handling it with great care. Place
it open side down on the bench and set out the oblique base cut, which
is 58° in our case. With a coping saw, cut the base along this
line, and replace the sound box into the jig.
Now fit the baseboard
against the bottom of the soundbox, and with a pencil scribe carefully
around the inside. Draw another pencil line 5mm outside, and cut the
base along this second line in order to have enough wood to allow
for the bevel. With a jig saw, cut out the round hole in the base.
Glue the baseboard into position, and secure it with thin panel pins
and proceed in the same manner for the top of the soundbox.
With the jig, baseboard
and top combining to take the strain from the joints, a start can
he made on cleaning up the inside of the box. You can choose at this
stage to leave the interior segmented, which means that only the surplus
glue need be cleaned off, but I favour the idea of having the inside
of the box rounded to match the exterior, as I gather that the rounded
interior is musically more desirable. A curved scraper such as that
produced by "Sandvik" is useful for this interior shaping.
After scraping the interior, cut strips of glass fibre tape 25mm wide,
coat all internal joints with resin, let it gel, and cover all joints
with tape. When the first coat of resin is set apply a second coat,
but without tape this time. This will reinforce the body considerably.
The sound holes
at the back can be marked and cut out at this juncture. After a final
clean up, the side rails can be glued, and two coats of white polish
can be applied to the interior. The body is now ready to receive the
soundboard and to do this, proceed in the same way as described in
Method No. 1.
