A koa soprano gaining momentum

Since the two piccolos have shifted into the finishing stage, I pressed on a bit with the new koa soprano I'm making for a childhood friend. 

I made a black rosette with my cutter from Micheal Connor, the master tool maker. 

The rosette is glued, levelled and the soundhole cut. And the plates sawn to shape. 

I glued in the neck block, the linings and then made spreader clamps for the mold. It's almost embarassing to admit, but I've used make shift, very bad spreaders until now. But no more, these are rock solid. 

Did I mention I braced the top and put the bridge patch on? I did, and then I shaped the braces. 

Shavings!

Back home, and back on track

After a short trip to Armenia I'm back and at it again. In the forst pic Patsy's mahogany / spruce piccolo is drying between glaze coats. We'll see how I manage the glaze part this time, it's getting better but how far will it go? 

Also behind it is a cherry piccolo I made, it went really smoothly and fast. It's all but complete except top coats of finish, tuners and strings. 

Then I glued the end block into a set of koa sides that I bent before going away. They had relaxed in the mold in my absence and were very cooperative. 

Restless mind, busy body

Well of course I could've waited 'til number 68 was dispatched but sides were already bent and Michael's been very polite so I started number 69 already.

The top got its patch and single brace yesterday and the rim was lined, so today I levelled the edge and crammed it down on the solera. 

The middle go-bar presses down on the bridge patch to keep the domed shape of the top, the other bars aren't really doing anything. My screw setup is working great! Well worth the expense of investing, a hunnerd bucks as I recall. 

See here: http://www.argapa.blogspot.se/2013/10/a-hundred-dollar-screw-investment.html

Then the neck blank. What you see is the Sjöberg Smart Vise, a bench front vise for... benches. Without a front vise. I just got it and it seems to be a good addition to the dungeon. 

First the fretboard area was trued, and a line squared across in the approximate location of the nut. Then the headstock got it from my number 3 smoother. 

And after the kids went to bed I took the rim out to show the dome of the soundboard, in these last pics. Goodnight!