I'm using my new GO-bar jig seriously in this batch. It is especially useful when the bridgeplate and the reinforcement plate between the two braces below the sound hole are to be glued. With a radius disk (a plate that has been dug out to a radius in both directions) as a support, you can glue the plates with the correct radius in both the X and Y directions at the same time. It also becomes easier to glue all the different braces and plates in the top as each dovel takes up less space than a clamp.
After cutting and shaping all the braces and plates, the larger job remains to give the braces a radius that matches the shape of the top radius and make two of the braces triangular. The brace under the fretboard may retain its rectangular shape for maximum strength. I use a jig to grind out a radius and then triangulate two of the ladder-brace braces in my drum sander. My shelf with a mounted coarse sandpaper and a planer is used to roughly shape the radius of the brace before radius sanding and planing.
New for this batch is that I smooth the roughly sanded surface under the brace with a scraper. I get a a flat and shiny surface and gives the hide glue a better grip.
I made a new set of GO-bar dovels from scratch, those with a red marking were made a few mm longer for the lowest braces in the top. I used 8 mm round rods in birch that were flattened on two sides to 6,5 mm for just the right amount of elastic with the help of my drum sander. I bought the round bars from Slöjd-Detaljer, for 100 pieces they cost only 3,60 kr per dovel. I am very happy with the result!
Some pictures of the gluing in my improved and collapsible GO bar. I use the heat lamp and the heat gun to preheat the wood before I glue with hot hide glue. Excess glue is wiped off with a damp cloth and a palette knife. After about 30 minutes, the glue has gelled together so that you can remove the top from the jig and glue the next top.
The last two ladder-brace braces in the top is fitted to the two thin “A-frame” braces around the sound hole. They are glued in the same way as the bottom with a caul under the top with a small radius and U-beams in aluminum on top of the brace itself.
