Assembling the box
The big moment has finally arrived and time to glue on the back.
I modified the form so I could dismantle the ends to allow me to keep the form in place while the back was glued on.
Before fitting the belly I reamed out the end pin making sure the pin stayed centrally aligned inside the body and leaving 1mm gap between the pin body and the ribs.
Then I fitted steel pins to the belly where it meets the end blocks to make sure everything stayed aligned during gluing.
Heated everything up with my paint stripper air gun and then some weak hide glue and all came together nicely.
One seam had a small gap so popped it and re-glued.
Then I used a knife to round the edges and finished off with 400 grit sandpaper.
Fitting the neck
I marked the side of the neck where it should meet the top (280mm from the nut) and with an upstand of about 17mm on the bass side and 19mm on the treble side (due to the 1.5 degree cant on the fingerboard).
Then marked the mortice position with a knife and carefully sawed out the sides of the mortice and chiselled out the waste. When I got close moved to a file and chalk to get a snug fit with the fingerboard centred over the body and projecting a height of 85mm at the bridge position. This was definitely one of the trickier operations but I kept moving slowly with lots of trial fits and got there in the end.
Here it is assembled before gluing:
And after gluing ready for finishing.
