Oh, she looks so good
Oh, she's made out of wood.
Oh, she's made out of wood.
One sign of a good joint in wood is the ability to use light clamping pressure during gluing. When the parts are out of alignment, excessive clamping is used to force the surfaces together. This generates internal forces that can work against the joint or result in warping the parts over time. When the parts mate up well, you only need to hold things in alignment until the glue bonds the parts together. I was very encouraged by how well the back and sides matched up during dry fitting this time around. Although the most previous attempt did not produce all of the desired results, keeping the back and sides glued together as long as I did seems to have reformed the shape of the sides to match the outline of the back. I realized I had a small window of opportunity to attach the back this time, before the sides began to spring out of shape again.
Painters tape seems to have just enough elasticity to hold things in place. I added the bar and spool clamps to help bend the back panel into the slight curvature, as it was off by about 1/8" from the end block to the neck block. I also used cauls under the two bar clamps, to make sure the back adheres well at the end and neck blocks. Since applying the glue this evening, I've checked on her twice. So far, everything is holding and there are no sings of slippage. I'll let the glue dry for at least 48 hours this time before removing the clamps and tape.
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