Bridge Construction Method

[Ron Nossaman]

>Let say we want to make a vertically laminated long bridge with nine 3.6 
>mm thick laminations. That will give you a bridge about 33 mm wide. The 
>figure below represents unbent laminations in the area of the troublesome 
>(for me anyway!)dogleg. What about laying up the laminations as below, 
>having let's say five (whatever in reality) laminations be continuous 
>through the dogleg, and the others terminate on either side of the dogleg. 
>Bend gently (never any more bend needed than in the sections not at the 
>dogleg), glue, and then trim the normal-looking dogleg curves with bandsaw 
>and sand. You've got a large overlap at the dogleg, I can't imagine there 
>would be any loss in strength - not torturing the maple laminations, 
>perhaps there would even be an increase in strength. As long as we are not 
>interrupting the "circle of sound" (heaven forbid!), I should think this 
>would ease the task of dogleg-making, allow the use of thicker laminates, 
>and give you complete freedom to make the dogleg dimensions (curve radii) 
>any size you want - you will be simply cutting these cosmetic curves 
>rather than having the curves originate from the integral bend. Heck, be a 
>radical - leave them squared-off as plate configuration allows!!!!!!!!!
>Waddaya think?
>
>Terry Farrell


But won't the sound leak out the open end grain at the doglegs and pile up 
in the killer octave area? I suppose it could be swept out occasionally if 
it proved to be a problem. It's a good thought, and I don't see any reason 
to think this won't work just fine. The joint will be stronger for longer 
than the often used scarf in solid bridges, not to mention the continuous 
through strips and should be easier to build than full continuous vertical 
laminations. I don't see a problem, and a veneer strip glued on both sides 
after the doglegs are contoured and before capping will turn it into a full 
continuous vertical lamination bridge until someone replaces the cap some 
day and finds out different.

Ron N