July 8, 2008

With all the care and concern over getting the Parlor mold to be square and fit together such that each side mirrors the other, I still assembled a skosh off kilter.  I am using 3/8″ bolts to hold together, through 3/8″ holes.  As the left side was a bit north of the right side, I widened the holes in one side, reassembled, and got both to match perfectly before drilling a key hole in each end to accept a dowel.  Now they match, and opening and closing the mold should bring it back to it’s original orientation using the key dowels as a register.

The prebent sides fit nicely, but there is still a slight gap between the waist and the outer dimension of the bouts which I can resolve through a compression clamp, or a tighter bend in the waist.  I think I’ll try the tighter bend using my newly acquired bending iron.

I prepared the heel block (or butt block) and realize my neck blank does not contain the dimension needed for the neck block.  I’ll have to get my hands on a piece of mahogany which is appropriate.  I also trimmed down the width of the spreader blocks, for fear I wouldn’t be able to release them from inside the Parlor body as the soundhole is smaller than my last guitars models.

I’ve scheduled an appointment with Carl and his table saw to use for squaring off the neck block in preparation for shaping the neck.