Amati 1620 Viola

So.. I am going to try and make a Viola modeled after the Amati 1620 Viola.
I am going to use this Strad magazine poster I have of it as a model.




So off to make a mold I go.
This site has loads of good info.

http://www.platetuning.org/html/arching_and_thicknesses.html

Ready to attach top and back!!! And Completion

At this point I am itching to complete this thing. I made a plywood mold and used it and some adjustable cauls to do the work. I ordered this crazy bag of rubber bands to us as clamps.

Mold and Caul


Top and back


Glue up:





I removed the Mold... Now I attached the lining... could of done a better job in some parts. first time I used this type of lining.



Time to glue up the perfling on the top. I routed the channel using a el cheapo laminate trimmer.




Now the back is glued on, and so is the maple binding:
hey give that back...






Here the neck and fret board is attached and ready for finishing:





And I am finished:


Notes:
I set the action at the 12th fret to about .1". When doinf this I had a Capo on the fist fret.

Fox Style bender

So I got a watlow silicon heat blanket and started wiring up a temperature controller, then said screw this and took my thermo couple on my DM and used a power strip to turn on and off the blanket. I am the controller! I soaked the wood, covered it in tin foil and it worked great!!




You can see the temperature starting to rise on the DMM.

From Ukulele