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Corner Blocks - for beginners


Rue

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I have tried to look up some specifici information about corner blocks, but it was eluding me... :angry:

 

I know what corner blocks are - little pieces of wood...mostly spruce or soft wood...

 

I know where corner blocks are - 4 of them...2 at each C bout

 

I know what corner blocks are for - to provide greater area to glue the plates to and to provide added stability

 

I know that violins with corner blocks are preferred to violins without corner blocks and that many less expensive violins were (and still are) made without them.  I also know that old violins have done perfectly fine...for 100s of years...without having corner blocks and that it doesn't necessarily reflect in the selling price of the instrument.

 

But I don't quite see how you 'install' them (glue them on the form and then file them to shape? And I can't figure out how the rib linings seem to ooze into them.  How/why do you do that?

 

Thanks for your patience!

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Davide Sora should have a video on this. 

 

The two videos I have on the argument show the extraction of form from the ribs and gluing of the linings, do not know if can help.

On blocks I only have some pictures not exhaustive of the entire process, but maybe they can help understanding.

 

http://davidesora.altervista.org/photogallery/ribs-making/?doing_wp_cron=1446243578.5446150302886962890625

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Back in the day when woodturning was part of my daily grind, we used to laminate up blanks which were to be turned to two identical halves, by gluing together the two halves of the blank with paper in between, so that the glued joint could be easily split after machining was completed. Is this a common practice when gluing the blocks to the mold, or would it be perceived as totally unnecessary? Presumably the blocks need to be glued to the mold with only a couple of drops of glue?

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The Brian Lisus videos are fabulous. While by no means exhaustive, they still provide some sort of insight into some standard practices. I think that the hour long video shows him cutting the little mini mortises for the linings. It's done with a mini chisel if you want the squared-off look. You can also use a knife for the more shallow single cut triangular look. Roger Hargrave has a whole buncha info on corner blocks if you need it.

 

http://www.roger-hargrave.de/PDF/Book/Chap_02_The_Mould_PRN.pdf

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A write-up by yours truly on how to build a rib structure, which will include some information on doing blocks, tools used, getting the linings to "ooze" into them, etc., is still forthcoming (as promised in the group build thread probably in July sometime).  You may not need that after reviewing these other amazing resources, but otoh, it will inevitably be written at a beginner's level because I'm writing it.  :)

 

I'll actually have some rib structures to document this month, joy, so watch for the topic if you are still curious.  I figure it's a little late to post it in the group build thread.

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Ok, glad to hear it!  I'll get going on that as soon as I have something to document.  I found my dslr a couple weeks ago, so there will even be decent photos of the process. 

 

Bianca is a sweet but demanding creature.  At any given moment she is either sleeping, having explosive diarrhea, or sucking me dry, and sometimes all at the same time.  Perhaps this means she is a fast learner/multitasker? I'll try to find a moment when she has a clean butt and is alert and not hungry, for a photo op.  There are not many pictures of her yet.  :unsure:

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