F Holes

[Malibu]

I wasn't happy with the F hole binding I did previously, so I took it all out again. There were a few places where the sticky tape didn't hold real well and the veneer opened up a bit.
I did figure out pretty quick that to juggle 4 pieces of veneer, glue, sticky tape and still end up with a perfect finish wasn't a small order so hopefully this is a better way to do it. Maybe it will give some ideas to anyone doing the same thing :)
An hour or so on the scroll saw to cut some marine ply with a 2mm space was the hardest part. A sliding plate to clamp it all together using some unbrako's tapped into a side piece.

Easy to use: slip a piece of veneer into the slot of the center part of the hole, support it with a wedge of wood and wet/bend on the bending iron. Hang on to it for a couple of minutes to cool and do the rest of them. It's easy to paint the glue on each piece in the jig until all the pieces are in place. Slap the bindings into the jig and tighten up the unbrako's. Let it dry for 30mins and it's all done :D
The time saved in making the bindings and the better finish more than offsets the time to make up a jig! :2tsup:

[JackG]

Superb work Malibu, I have struggled the last 2 day on mine doing the binding and I was thinking how tough would be an arched top... well the F holes (seems that way :) ) seem even a bigger challenge.

[contrebasse]

that's a very nice little jig ... but I can't quite work out how the unbrakos work to clamp it together. And why are they callsed unbrakos?

[Malibu]

A couple more of the F-holes and the result of the jig. :)
Just glued the last one this morning, so I'm waiting for it to dry and there's another one that I'd prepared earlier. The concept is good, but I think PVA glue would have been a better choice because there's a little more flex in it...

Matthew, the unbrako's push against the sliding part of the jig and squeeze the form against the veneer. It all just gets squashed in the F-hole shape until it's dry.
I just had a look at the photo's... it's not real clear in the first one, but the unbrako's go right through the side pieces and push against the slide. It looks like they're in a blind hole on the picture. In the 3rd picture you can just see the tip of it poking through the side frame.
Why are they called unbrako's? errrr... because that's what it says they are on the packet when they come into work :U
Serious though, I think it's because they're a high tensile strength bolt and is a suggestion that they'll never break. I don't know about never breaking, but they are bloody strong!