Moulds for the 2 violins

I finished the moulds for the 2 violins. I make a half template, and put two holes in it with a 3/16 drill. I drill matching holes in the mould body, 10 mm MDF for the del Gesu, and some 12 mm board I picked out of the trash at work. It has a horrible smell like Harbor Freight, (must be the cheap chipboard), but maybe it will go away. With the template you can get the mould fairly symmetrical. Both of these violins are the most symmetrical of any I have posters for, and both are off only a little on the lower bout, and a corner or two are off very slightly. Quite unbelievable.

The template can then be used to mark off the corner and end blocks.

I used the one I cut for the Plowden, and never got around to. I had to trim it a lot. Now it fits the Plowden right too. What was I thinking? Checking with the poster photo of the back is the best way to get them right. Probably most are too big.

I cut a couple of the notches out too big before. Again what was I thinking? So I decided to glue 5 mm plywood pieces in as glue pads. That should work better for gluing than directly on to the MDF. On the other one, I decided to glue the 5 mm plywood strips on the top and bottom of the notches, and just glue to them, and not directly on the mold. I usually (always) end up gluing little blocks to the top just like that anyway. That should work good.

Do any of those ideas seem good?

While looking for something to make a template for the Montagnana, I saw this Bergonzi one that I used on the first one I made. It fits the Montagnana almost exactly! The c bout is flatter, and not as deep, the corners are very slightly different, and the ends are slightly rounder, and not as square looking. But just looking at them, the differences are hard to see.