Top Plate III

As promised, I’ve got the braces/tone bars fitted to the top plate. The fitting takes quite a bit of time and the one thing that you can’t do is run out of patience. This is how we start off…………

As the inside of the top plate is curved in every direction, you need a jig to ensure that the tone bar is always held in exactly the same position.

The first step is straight forward, roughly mark it out and then cut it.

And then it’s a painstaking procedure of sand, check, sand. The best way to check for a good fit is to use feeler gauges to locate any gaps. It took me about 1 ½ hours to get this one fitted and then using the same jig it was glued in place.

The next day, after allowing the glue to dry overnight, the process is repeated for the second tone bar. And on the third day the bars are shaped and the top plate fitted and glued to the rim.