Starting on the Belly

I glued up the belly yesterday when I re-glued the back seam. Today I started roughing the inside. My method is to rough the inside close, rough the outside a couple mm's or so thick, and then flatten the bottom. At that point I can start finishing. I figure that is the way the master received the job from the apprentice. I'm doing the grunt apprentice work now. With planes the work is very easy. Here is the first hour:

First I drilled 2 holes twenty mm's deep. I'm making a long arch based on two catenaries, kind of like a back, but with longer arches. I didn't want just a straight catenary, and I didn't want a Strad-like arch. It is more like a del Gesu. The arch is quite flat, so it should work.

It's hard to tell from the phot, but the long arch is all roughed in. I leave it a little short so if I have to take more off the bottom than a mm or so, the arch won't be undercut at the blocks. I write this like I've been doing it for years, but I just found in out when I was doing the cello back. At least I learned something. And I learned how to glue up a long crack.

As you can see the planes leave a big pile of chips in just an hour. But they are nice easy chips. I move the plane in a long motion, cutting the whole arch in one swipe. Sometimes I may have to work on an area to push it down; especially near the block where the arch rises quite quickly; but most of the time the plane bottom defines the cut, and make the job simple.

Now, I have to go to work. Tomorrow is Sunday and I'm off. I'll work on the cross arches then. It is supposed to snow. I've heard anywhere from 5-10 inches. Yuck.

Cellos are bigger

Cellos are bigger. You would think that I knew that right off the bat. I did notice that, but I didn't realize what it might mean. My back needed to be sawn, and that didn't go too bad. It cut straight, and even on both sides. The problem is that the outside of the board was only cleaned up in the middle from the plane, and the ends were still rough. I didn't think about how much off they were. I'm going to have to glue some shims on the ends of the back on the gluing surface to get it so they don't rock, and then we'll see if I need to do more after they are joined.

I'm trying for a 24 mm back. That's what I figured I could get out of the stock. It will go with a 27-28 mm belly. The pieces will make it, but only with the doubling. I guess that is the proper term for my wedgelike shims. If this happened on a violin, it would be an easy fix. Rub it on the diamond dust wheels that I have, and see where the low spots are, and glue on some stock. The cello back is not that simple. I don't have anything that big to grind it on, and it is hard to hold it in a way that keep s it flat all the time. One side I only needed doubling on one side to stop the rock, and the other needs it on both ends. Hopefully the ones I have glued on now will be enough so I can join them tomorrow after the glue dries, and I flatten them out.

I'll show pictures when I'm done.

I'm putting the purfling groove in the del Gesu violin today. The plan for it and the viola is to glue the belly on the ribs. Cut the recurve and tune them. Get the mortice cut, and get the neck set and glued in, and then glue the back on. I will cut the recurve, and tune the backs on my boards I cut out.

I'll have to get the scrolls done; I never did finish them, and rough out the radius by the botton on them.

And then they will only need to be strung up and tested, and then get finished off with some varnish.