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Fitting struts and gluing the tail I decided that it was necessary to link the gluing of struts to the gluing-up of the tail, as the two tail sides only came together after the lower two struts were attached. It also proved quite difficult to glue and clamp both the tail and the struts at the same time. I had to work out very carefully what was needed and how to do it. As will be seen shortly, I did not get it all right first time. Never mind! |
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| Here is what was left of the struts in situ. The others were rattling around inside the instrument, but the locations are clearly visible. | All struts were removed and cleaned, and their locations transferred carefully on to the card template. | Here are the old struts are lined up on the new top ready for gluing. |
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| The lower 2 struts are being glued. They force the top to bend, and therefore bring the tail pieces together. I also used a crack clamp to help bring the tail together, and the caul to try and ensure the join was flat, not angled. | Unfortunately, because I did not clamp the centre of the strut, the top lifted a little here. | I needed to remove it and reglue, maintaining a caul on the tail to keep the join flat. |
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| The top strut was easier, but needed to be remade, as the original had pieces chopped out to allow for crack re-enforcements in an old repair. | Here are views of the two sides of the tail..... fairly successful, though the next time I will use a wider caul underneath the centre join. The edges of the join met nicely under the top, but not quite as cleanly on top. | |