Someone call me an ambulance......

DAY 15

Because I think I just had a heart attack! Not really, but I think I felt my heart stop when I took a look at my braced up back which was hanging in my warm closet. The humidity in there is 42% where the humidity in my shop is hovering around 48%. Evidently, that is too much of a humidity change for the back to handle. I went to get the back only to find it terribly warped backwards. In other words, it warped so much, it bent the braces backwards. After I gained my composure, I decided to do a quick internet search to see what to do. I had nightmares of having to order a new back, or take the braces off, reverse it and put them on the other side. Well, after some searching I was happy to hear that I am not the only person this has happened to. The answer was fairly simple, I just hope it works over the long run. From what I understand, when the humidity drops, moisture comes out of the wood. That makes sense. When this happens, it shrinks, again that makes sense. What I failed to realize is that the braced side holds it from shrinking at the same rate as the un-braced side. This caused the un-braced side to shrink faster than the braced side, thus causing that side to cup inward. I was surprised that it was strong enough to actually bend the braces backwards, but I guess it is. Live and learn I guess. Anyways, the fix was to put a damp cloth over the unbraced side, then iron it with a clothes iron. This forces steam into the wood and that relaxes it so that it goes back to the correct shape. I tried it, and it worked like a charm. I let it sit in the shop while I worked on other things, and it did a fairly good job of keeping its shape. Just before I left, I hit it again with the iron and damp rag to get it to hold the shape of the radius, then I clamped it in the radius dish where it will stay until I glue it to the sides. My only concern is that if it gets dry again, it will do the same thing, this time with the sides glued on causing stress and possible cracks on the sides. My thinking is that the sides with the top and back glued will be strong enough to make it hold shape. And once the finish goes on, that will help the outside to keep its moisture longer than the inside.

Anyways, once that little trauma was over, I finished the braces on the top and then did the heal graft with figured maple. Everything is drying now.

AAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!! This is what the back looked like this morning. Notice how the brace bows the opposite direction.
[Take a deep breath, that is not a heart attack even though the heart may have stopped for a few seconds!]

A little ironing over a damp rag and the bow disappeared and it went back to the correct radius.

Here you can see that it is close to the right radius. After a second application of heat and steam, it went completely back to the 15' radius. It is now clamped in the dish and will stay that way until it is time to go on the sides.

A little old business here. This is the scrap pile I had left after cutting the braces. One full billet and probably about 1/3 of a second billet left. I started with 3 billets.

Here are the top braces all cut and rough shaped. The 3 soundhole braces are cut but I ran out of go-bars to glue them down. I will do them tomorrow.

I was looking at the bridge brace. It is a very figured piece of curly maple. It is hard to see, but is a beautiful piece of wood with a lot of shine to it. It is a shame to use it in a place where nobody will ever see it. It is just sitting here now, not glued in.

Everything all glued in and go-bar'd in place. I used every bar I had for this.

Next, the tail graft. I marked the cut-out and lined a straight edge (steel ruler) to act as a guide. I cut along the edge of the ruler for a straight line.

This is a little trick I learned in woodworking. If you bevel the edge of the graft a tiny bit, It will fit perfectly in the cutout, even if the cutout is not perfect.

The graft all glued and clamped in place.