#6 Progress

Rough cutting tunnel into fingerboard for drone string with rotary tool and small carbide bit.

The other side of the groove. Messy, but hidden. You can see the two carbon fibre strips in the centre here too. I've tried to sand them down a little so there is room for the walnut to contract later (it's quite damp in the shed and flat at the moment). You can also see that the headstock isn't planed flat yet - I did do it before the glue-up.

Drilled Tension Hoop

I had hoped to make drilled tension hoops the last two times, but didn't quite dare, and also thought that the 1/8" thick brass might not be thick enough. This time I'm using 3/16" thick brass and it seems to have worked well. The 3/16" brass was much harder to get a perfect bend in though, and was much harder to silver-solder too. Still some work to do to get it perfectly round.

Silver Soldering

This time I decided to fit the cross dowel horizontally because I was worried that otherwise the extra lamination could split when the bolt is tightened.

I silver-soldered a brass square onto the cross-dowel to keep it from turning away from the bolt.