Placed another order with Stewart-MacDonald this morning and decided to both update my materials lists on the right side of the screen, here (been kinda lax about keeping that up - sorry), and post a couple more pictures about what I was able to get done yesterday.
One of the things I forgot to include yesterday was that I built myself a thickness measurement stand to check my soundboard (and, later, the base) thickness as I carve.
As you can see, I made this out of a deep C-clamp, an inexpensive dial indicator (both purchased at Harbor Freight) and an old bolt. I removed the clamping screw from the clamp body by simply unscrewing it. As it reached its maximum opening I kept unscrewing, forcing the clamp-end off and allowing the clamp screw to come all the way out leaving me with just the clamp body. Through the hole where the clamp screw had been, I inserted a bolt that now serves as my reference base. Using my angle grinder again, I then cut off about an inch of the other side of the clamp body (enough to allow for the thickness of the dial indicator body) and drilled a hole with which to mount my dial indicator. With the indicator and bolt lined up, all I needed then was to clamp it into my vise. Overall, this measurement stand cost me right at $25. I could have purchased a similar device from one of several suppliers for about $100.I was able to about 5 to 6 hours yesterday working entirely on shaping the top of the soundboard. Not having much of a feel for just how much material I am removing with each stoke of my carving gouges, I took it pretty slowly. I am pretty happy so far with the results.
With my blood stain still on the scroll, you can see that it is indeed still the same piece of wood. At this rate, I expect I should be done with this stage in next couple of days (dang that pesky day-job stuff).
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