Gluing Top Braces - Part 3

This weekend I glued the last of the braces - the two lower face braces (tone bars), as well as the rosewood bridge patch. I also did some brace shaping with a chisel on the finger braces, but still lots more of that to do.
I can now put away all the go-bar stuff and concentrate on tuning the top.

Gluing Top Braces - Part 2

I started the portable humidifier on Saturday. It took two days to get the humidity back up in the 40%, but for the past three days it has been consistently around 43-45%... which is perfect for gluing. So tonight, I glued the 3 sound hole braces, the 4 finger braces, and the small patch over the X brace joint. And just like last time, I ran out of go-bar sticks... will have to wait until tomorrow night to finish.
Only thing left to glue on the top is the 2 tone bars and the bridge patch (see first picture). But prior to gluing the bridge patch, I need to make a clamping caul for it.

Gluing Top Braces - Part 1

Tonight I began gluing the braces on the top: the X braces and the Upper Face Brace.
I would have continued, but I ran out of go-bar sticks. No matter, I should be able to finish the rest of them with just one more session. 4 finger braces, 2 Lower Face Braces and 3 Sound Hole Braces. But they are all small, shouldn't take as many go-bar sticks as these did.

Back Joint Reinforcement

Last night I glued the braces onto the back. Today, I glued the reinforcement strip on the center joint.

Top braces ready

The humidity is still too high (never thought I'd say that in the middle of January), no gluing for at least a week. Nevertheless, tonight I finished up the top braces... they are ready to glue minus cutting them to length.
All I have left to do before gluing the top braces is to profile the top.

Back braces ready

Tonight I dry-clamped the back braces on the back. I was planning to glue them as well, but this heat wave has caused the humidity in my basement to rise significantly. The temperature should drop again soon and I can glue then.

In the mean time, I worked on the top braces. It shouldn't be too much longer before I am ready to glue them on as well.

Braces - Part 1

Now that the bracewood billets are all ripped and split, I needed to clean them up a bit before I glue them on. The surfaces that are glued needs to be smooth and either flat or slightly curved depending on where it goes. The best way to do this is with a joiner. But since I don't have a joiner, the best way for me to do this is with a hand plane.

As you can see, I mounted my plane in a vice upside down and then ran the bottom surface of the braces over them. This works very well, and doesn't take too long. This also allows me to roughly shape them to the proper 15' or 30' radius as necessary prior to sanding. I also cleaned/squared up the sides and top a bit, but those three surfaces will be shaped after they are glued on.

Bracewood - Part 2

The replacement billets came from LMI the day before Christmas. I have since ripped and split most of it yielding enough to brace both the top and back of the guitar.

All the above pieces are reasonably well quartered: ripped on the sides with one split face to be used as the glue surface. Obviously these need to be shaped, but the general dimensions and grain orientations are there.

Above is a picture of what is left over from the 5 billets I received. 90% of this is not quartered or straight enough to use so I'll throw a lot of this away. But there are some pieces that could be used in the future.