[pianotech] cutting down a MH bridge

[Terry Farrell]

Actually, a router is not a bad idea. I have a base for my router that I glue all sorts of jig stuff to. If you glued/screwed/somethinged two dowels to the router base, you could position them so that when you push the router bit into the wood it would stop at any desired depth - 1, 2, 3, 4 mm or whatever. The two dowels would be almost in line with the bit - one on each side of the bit. The lead dowel would ride on the uncut wood forward of the bit and the other dowel would ride on the cut wood following the bit. Of course, you could only get so close to the doglegs - you'd still have to do those by eye on the bandsaw.

With the dowels on the router, the depth would vary as the tightness of the curve varies, but at least in the treble sections the curve usually doesn't vary all that much. And if you had to, you could always plane some off the low tenor where the cut would not be as deep - just plane it off the convex side. Or if you have a plane with an curve-adjustable sole, you can plane both sides. I have one of those and it really comes in handy at times.

Let us know what shakes out with this.

Terry Farrell

On Nov 1, 2012, at 3:40 PM, David Love wrote:

> Or possibly a router.  I was trying to figure out how to build and position
> a guide so as to keep the cut a constant width through the curves without
> having to freehand it.  
> 
> David Love
> www.davidlovepianos.com