MikeC's bench

[MikeC]

Some more views of the arching at a slightly different viewing angle. 

It's still pretty rough, I need to work on the corners next and then inlay the purfling, then smooth everything and move on to hollowing out the inside. 

 

[MikeC]

After posting those photos and looking at my long arch template again, I realized there wasn't enough recurve at the ends of the long arch.  After working on that for a while, it looks a lot better.  Now I have redo the cross arching near both ends of the plate to blend those in.  

When looking at CT scans of the Titian and some other's available online, it's apparent that the arching is nearly flat as it goes over both end blocks, perhaps with only the slightest convexity if any.  

[MikeC]

I drew some contour lines.  Not to bad considering this is straight off the gouge and toothed smoothing plane.  Still some tweaking to do of course. 

It's a little full still in the lower corners and one of the upper corners and I always seem to get a dip along the center line seen here in the lower bout,  but managed to avoid that in the upper bout.

 

[MikeC]

Fluting the corners since I skipped over them when edge fluting.

 

 

 

[MikeC]

Finishing the arch and then start purfling.  

 

[MikeC]

Well I think the outside arch is finished.  My purfling channel will go half way through the end pin so I'll have to do the purfling last after the plate is glued to the ribs.  Stradivari style!  Not sure how I feel about that, I wanted to do the purfling first.  

 

[MikeC]

I haven't had time to do much to the violin lately.  Tonight I took a few minutes to cast a shadow across it to check the arch.

 

 

[MikeC]

Some final scraping of the edges.  Next I'll be installing the purfling 

 

[MikeC]

I started marking the purfling channel.  Stopping short of the corner and penciled in a bee sting.  It needs a little tweaking, I think it may be pointed a little too much towards the C bout.   But it's just pencil right now so I can adjust. 

Rather than using an exacto like the last build, I may make a purfling knife from some 01 tool steel.

 

 

[Sean Couch]

Looking good Mike. I wasn’t brave enough to try the bee sting on my first violin, maybe on the next one. It is a very nice detail.

[MikeC]

On 7/23/2024 at 7:48 PM, Sean Couch said:

Looking good Mike. I wasn’t brave enough to try the bee sting on my first violin, maybe on the next one. It is a very nice detail.

yeah I'm going for it!     I did the bee stings on my last build and it turned out reasonably well, hopefully these will be better.   My corner shapes could have been better.  I'll try to get them right on the top plate. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeC]

Here's some corners from my last build.   Not all that good really. 

 

 

 

[MikeC]

I started working on the purfling channel.  These videos didn't turn out all that well.   Some were lost because the iphone was not recording when I thought it was. 

 

 

[MikeC]

I didn't like how things were going so I reset my purfling cutter and started using it one blade at a time. 

 

 

[MikeC]

I wanted to see what purfling would look like so I put a couple short pieces in.  Needs some work, I want to make it a little more pointy.  

 

 

 

[Sean Couch]

Looking good Mike. You have much better knife skills than I do. If I had to hand cut the whole channel, I can’t imagine the mess I would have had. Lol.

[MikeC]

2 hours ago, Sean Couch said:

Looking good Mike. You have much better knife skills than I do. If I had to hand cut the whole channel, I can’t imagine the mess I would have had. Lol.

well it has been a bit of a mess but it's getting there. Slowly but surely.   I bent the C bout purfling to shape this evening but that's as far as I got with it.   

[MikeC]

I got the purfling fitted all the way around.  It's not glued in yet.  Far from perfect but as good as I can get it for now.  

 

 

[MikeC]

Gluing the purfling in. 

 

 

[MikeC]

Finished purfling,  Here are the corners.  

 

 

[ernym]

Mitres look good. Are you using hide glue? 

[MikeC]

21 minutes ago, ernym said:

Mitres look good. Are you using hide glue? 

Thanks!  These turned out better than the last build but I think there is still room for improvement.  I have an idea for the top plate to make the purfling groove a little tighter using a single blade cutter.  There are some slight gaps in places in this one.  

Also when I get to the top plate, I'm thinking of making a flat platform and purfling full depth.  So far I have been doing it as shown in Davide Sora's videos,  doing the fluting first.  but I get scared of going too deep and cutting through the edge.  

I'll get yelled at for this but for the purfling I used Franklin liquid hide glue.  I didn't want to heat up real glue.  And I figured the purfling is not a structural joint so it would be ok.  

[MikeC]

And finally,  trimming the excess purfling that is still above the surface.  

 

[ernym]

On 8/11/2024 at 3:39 PM, MikeC said:

 I'll get yelled at for this but for the purfling I used Franklin liquid hide glue.  I didn't want to heat up real glue.  And I figured the purfling is not a structural joint so it would be ok.  

Had a feeling that's what you used, HHG would have gelled. Roger's method or inserting the purfling dry works for me.  I glue size the channel, let dry, fit the dry purfling and brush hot water or very thin HHG to reactivate.

Trimming the purfling is one of my favorite steps. Nice job Mike.

[MikeC]

7 hours ago, ernym said:

Had a feeling that's what you used, HHG would have gelled. Roger's method works for me, glue size the channel, fit the purfling and brush hot water or very thin HHG to reactivate.

Trimming the purfling is one of my favorite steps. Nice job Mike.

I thought about using Roger's method.  I thought he glue sized the purfling strips rather than the channel?  I could be remembering wrong.  

I actually was thinking of using casein glue for the purfling.  I have never made casein glue but will make some to test with and see how well it works on scraps.  Maybe use it for the purfling when I get to the top plate.   Roger thinks it could have been used on some joins, like the ribs to corner blocks.   I'll only use hot hide glue for anything but purfling.