Closing the box

While fitting the bass-bar, I have glued in some temporary studs to help in placing the bass-bar in the same place each time. After the bar is glued in place, I'll remove the studs. Using chalk-dust to check the fit. I'm using a simple cradle to hold the top, which I liked for hollowing the plate, but I'm not sure about for this operation. To finish the fit, I finally went to just holding the plate by hand.



When the bass-bar is fit, it needs to be glued in place. 4 traditional bass-bar clamps and one deep-mouthed clamp. My simple bass-bar frame, a rectangular piece of cheap plywood made of as an experiment, has warped. I decided to go back to the 'old-fashioned' method of clamping a bass-bar today.



I use a thumb-plae to take the bass-bar down to final dimensions. It makes nice twisty shavings.



Here's the bass-bar at nearly its final shape -- just a little clean-up to do.



I've drilled a preliminary hole for the end-pin and glued in a label. Next step is to glue it all together.



The box closed.