Starting to Finish

Where we last left off...the violin looked like this. 3 pieces ...if you notice...there is the little black strips in the back. That's the purfling...it is 3 pieces of wood thinned down so much that when glued together they are only 1.2-1.3 mm wide total. You cut a channel all the way around the violin and inlay the purfling...the hardest part of this is that there is indeed a power tool that does the channels for you...but you can't cut the corners with it and have to do that by hand.



After the inlaying happens...this is what you get! (top)

Back:

Last night also marked the beginning of the journey to the end. The final archings...the metal template will perfectly match the curve of the whole entire plate when it's finished. For now...it's getting closer on the back. There's still some day light and gaps and they are pretty big ones. the little tiny thing holding up the metal template is a finger plane. That's what is mostly used to finish the plates and make them nice and soft looking and feeling and the right shape.



A view of the side. Where the shadow is is where the wood is removed to make it closer to fitting.

And next...hopefully I'll be able to show a further stage in finishing the back...then it's the same thing for the top...and after that is when things start to get nerve wracking (arching the inside and making the whole entire thing flexible and as thin as 3 mm or so.

Long Awaited Post

An overdue update from before the semester break...

This will turn into the neck of my violin...My instrument has kind of turned into an experimental one...the back is cut on the slab...and so we decided to do the neck on the slab as well. This is the most you'll see of it for now.

An upside down view of the margins being trued. This means that I have taken down the gaps between the ribs and the top to 3.5 mm. The corners are cut down and the top matches the back now.

Margins are matching and corners are mostly done

Another view

Here is another view of the whole thing put together. This is the last time the box will be "closed up" until it is permanently ready to be put together. The ribs are also slab cut. While this may be a very unstable instrument, it will be very pretty when finished.


Filing the margins down to match top and bottom.

Up next: The purfling is being put into to the top...

Progress Update

Another violin update. This step was really exciting...because you get to put the pieces together for the first time and it actually looks like a violin. Granted, it will have to come apart again, but you put the pieces together to work around the edges and get the edges or margins to the right size.

The top is glued on and arching is in phase two.

And this is with the back glued on.

Arching Goodness

So...another update. After things are cut out...the hard part starts. You have to take a gouge...basically a really long chisel that has a scoop and you have to scoop the wood until it is at the right height...after this, we had to use the router and take the edges down to be the right size. The C bout part is 4.25 centimeters, the corners are 4.5 centimeters, and the rest of it is 4 centimeters... and here it is in pictures:

Arching of the top

arching of the back

After routing the top

top and back after being routed

Top Happy

So...not too much has happened since the linings were put in...ok, ok, quite a bit has happened.

The top was thicknessed with the planer down to 16 cm...and before hand was made to be perfectly flat on one side.


The back was glued together (it's a 2 piece back) and the then thicknessed and re-flattened.
Then the shape was traced and corners drawn and then it was cut out with a band saw...and now, it looks like this:

That's the back...it's quilted maple, very preeeeeety :-)


The top

Back and top

Back again!!

You clamp it like that?

To glue them...you use the red thing, which is a thermal blanket and lay the pieces of wood in between, then you heat them and bend them over the mold.

After the linings are bent, notches need to be made in order for them to be able to support the rib structure.

Then you glue, using some of the worst smelling glue ever. Hot hide glue (...yes, the hide of an actual animal. It's pretty nasty, but works very well for violin making.

after gluing the linings, it was the fun part...covering it in clothes pins to clamp them on.



If you're counting...there should be exactly 57...but, I was in a hurry when I was counting. :-)

Progression...

Everytime a class happens, it seems like the idea of the mass of wood being a violin is more...realistic. So...on Tuesday, Violet underwent some more cosmetic changes. The corners are now all even there isn't any overhanging of the ribs, both sides are sanded perfectly flat and the linings have all been thicknessed to 1.8 mm thick. It's pretty exciting!

The ribs are on and not clamped anymore!





Another view...the corners are ready to be taken down


Planing down the corners...you have to hold it in this really awkward way to be able to get the corners to be flat. They were a pain, because they kept trying to chip and split.