Back bracing and neck work....

I was able to get quite a few things done last night and today. First I got the back center braces glued down and cut for the back braces. I then got all of the back braces glued up. This was a little time consuming as I only have one go bar deck so I had to do one task at a time, but I got them done. I used hot hide glue again on this one, and I am really liking working with it. It cleans up nicely and dries good and hard. It also grabs a fairly good tack within a minute which holds the braces in place without them slipping around. Of course, I have to work very quickly but it isn't too hard as long as I am prepared. With that being done, I started working on the necks. I first cut a straight edge on the blanks so they can sit flat on the table saw in the scarf cut jig. I then layed out the scarf cuts, then proceeded to cut the scarfs. That is when I realized that I messed up one of them by accidentally using the wrong layout line on my jig. I ended up cutting one end too short. Fortunately, I purchased 30" blanks which gave me some additional length to work with. I was able to cut another scarf cut and with a bit of fudging with the glue up, I had enough length to get it done. Tonight I cut the peg head end to 13mm thick using my scarf joint jig again. All in all it was a good day.

Oh, I almost forgot..... I got my package from RC Tonewoods today with the rosette blanks I ordered. They are beautiful and very highly figured pieces of wood. Now I have to decide which ones I am going to use on these. I have plenty to choose from.

One back center strip glued down.

And the other one in the go bar deck.

Before gluing the back braces, I took a good look at them. I noticed two had some problematic runout in them so I trashed them and re-made two new ones. They probably would have been fine but I didn't want to risk it. They were very stiff and I couldn't snap them so I am probably being a little over cautious but better safe than sorry!

One back in the go bar deck having the braces glued down. The other was done today so both are finished now.

Here you can see my scarf cut mistake. The bottom one had the cut too high.

Just a picture of the jig I use to cut these joints.

Here you can see how I had to shift the new scarf joint so I would have enough wood for the neck. If I would have glued it like normal, the neck would have been too short. Since this ends up getting thinned to 13mm, it really didn't matter and the glue line is the same length after it is thinned.

Both necks glued and clamped. It kind of has that assembly line look to it doesn't it!

I got my package of rosette blanks in the mail today. These are some really great looking blanks and I should get some beautiful rosettes out of them.

I came up with a much safer way to cut the excess off of the peg head using my table saw. Before, I would freehand cut it sliding the neck along the fence. It was a very scary process and I knew it was just a matter of time before I destroyed a neck doing it that way. I realized I could clamp the neck back in the scarf cutting jig and slide the neck through the blade. It held the necks very securely and it felt much safer.

Both necks after the peg head has been thinned. They are perfectly parallel and nest together like I actually knew what I was doing!