Before I hollow out the peg box, I must first lay out the area to be hollowed. I begin with my compass, set to 4 millimeters wide. I draw a line with it following the outside edge of the peg box. This will be the thickness of the top of the peg box wall. Next, I reset the compass to six millimeters and draw a pair of lines, again following the outside edge of the peg box. This will be the thickness of the peg box walls along the bottom. The walls get thicker as you go deeper into the peg box for added strength.
Now I'll begin hollowing. This is the same handy jig I used to find the depths of my rough graduations. Now I'm using it to keep me from drilling to deeply into the peg box. With this step, unlike graduating the plates, I'm actually trying to remove wood, rather than merely marking particular depths. Consequently, I will be using the largest drill bit that will fit in the peg box without breaking the inside set of lines (representing the bottom of the peg box walls).
Notice I've drawn the profile of the peg box on the side of the scroll. This assists me in finding my final thicknesses, and in pointing the drill bit in the right direction so that I keep an even line onto the nut shelf. The bottom of the peg box is to be five millimeters thick. The real fear here is removing too much, which will weaken the peg box and perhaps lead to cracks later on. If I don't remove enough material at first, I can always get at it later. It is important to take a lot of material out, though, because the players will need plenty of room for the pegs. The instrument shouldn't be difficult to string up.
So here's the peg box after I've drilled my holes. A lot of material has been removed, but of course, not nearly enough. Now I'll take the neck back inside to my workbench and get at it with my chisels.
I'll use them first to remove the wood from in between the holes. Then I can come in and clean up the sides, going no farther than the inside lines. So at this point, I should have a consistent 6mm wall all the way along the edge of the peg box.
During this process, I'm also using my chisels to clean the bottom of the peg box, and establish its final thickness at the same time. I'll also come in at the ends, where the mortise is still rounded, and sharpen the corners.
But my walls are still too thick. Now that I've gotten the hard work out of the way, I just come in from the top and create a smooth, straight plane from my 4mm walls down to the already-established bottom of the mortise.
It doesn't look to bad when it's all done. But there's still work to be done on the neck before I can set it. I'll carve the volute along the outside of the scroll in my next blog.
Before I hollow out the peg box, I must first lay out the area to be hollowed. I begin with my compass, set to 4 millimeters wide. I draw a line with it following the outside edge of the peg box. This will be the thickness of the top of the peg box wall. Next, I reset the compass to six millimeters and draw a pair of lines, again following the outside edge of the peg box. This will be the thickness of the peg box walls along the bottom. The walls get thicker as you go deeper into the peg box for added strength.
Now I'll begin hollowing. This is the same handy jig I used to find the depths of my rough graduations. Now I'm using it to keep me from drilling to deeply into the peg box. With this step, unlike graduating the plates, I'm actually trying to remove wood, rather than merely marking particular depths. Consequently, I will be using the largest drill bit that will fit in the peg box without breaking the inside set of lines (representing the bottom of the peg box walls).
Notice I've drawn the profile of the peg box on the side of the scroll. This assists me in finding my final thicknesses, and in pointing the drill bit in the right direction so that I keep an even line onto the nut shelf. The bottom of the peg box is to be five millimeters thick. The real fear here is removing too much, which will weaken the peg box and perhaps lead to cracks later on. If I don't remove enough material at first, I can always get at it later. It is important to take a lot of material out, though, because the players will need plenty of room for the pegs. The instrument shouldn't be difficult to string up.
So here's the peg box after I've drilled my holes. A lot of material has been removed, but of course, not nearly enough. Now I'll take the neck back inside to my workbench and get at it with my chisels.
I'll use them first to remove the wood from in between the holes. Then I can come in and clean up the sides, going no farther than the inside lines. So at this point, I should have a consistent 6mm wall all the way along the edge of the peg box.
During this process, I'm also using my chisels to clean the bottom of the peg box, and establish its final thickness at the same time. I'll also come in at the ends, where the mortise is still rounded, and sharpen the corners.
But my walls are still too thick. Now that I've gotten the hard work out of the way, I just come in from the top and create a smooth, straight plane from my 4mm walls down to the already-established bottom of the mortise.
It doesn't look to bad when it's all done. But there's still work to be done on the neck before I can set it. I'll carve the volute along the outside of the scroll in my next blog.
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