Home - Ribs - Linings

Creating the strips



  1. Create spruce or willow strips 8 x 2 mm, ideally about 40 cm long. The wood grain should run parallel with the length. Both horizontal and vertical grain can be used.

    To thickness the strips, use your regular blade block plane, clamping down the one end of the strip to your workbench. See the Thicknessing section in [[Preparing the ribs|Preparing the ribs]] for thicknessing tips.

    Make sure the thickness of 2 mm is maintained all over the strip, as thicker strips are difficult to bend and thinner aren't firm enough.

Cutting the mortices



The mortices are to be cut 2 x 7 x 7 mm into the top, bottom and C bout side blocks. For this, use a sharp knife and also preferably a 1.5 mm wide chisel. Notice that the mortices are cut for the C linings only, see Fig. 1.

  1. Mark the 7 mm length and 7 mm depth lightly on the blocks using a compass.
  2. Cut the wall of the mortice opposed to the one adjacent to the rib to about 3.5 mm depth, using your knife.
  3. Cut the end wall of the mortice using your narrow chisel.
  4. Cut the bottom of the mortice using your narrow chisel and scoop out the material.
  5. Cut the wall again to the final 7 mm depth.
  6. Cut the end wall of the mortice using your narrow chisel, finishing it.
  7. Cut the bottom of the mortice using your narrow chisel, scoop out the material and finalize the mortice.
  8. Repeat with the remaining C blocks and on the other side.

Bending, fitting & gluing



  1. Bend the strips on your bending iron as you would the ribs and cut them to required lengths. If the outline of the ribs is perfect, the linings should be a perfect fit, no gaps whatsoever should be present. Any gap will tend to alter the rib outline quite significantly.

    This can be used to your advantage, if the outline of the ribs needs correcting. Leave a small gap where the ribs need to be less curved, clamp with your fingers and see how it affects the outline. See Fig. 2. for correctly fitted linings, here in red.

  2. After you have fitted all the linings, clamp them using rubber band reinforced clothespin and let dry. Take a look at Fig. 3. to get an idea of the distribution of the clothespins.

Gluing



  1. Work in parts, remove the clothespins holding one lining.
  2. Preheat the part to get longer working times.
  3. Apply medium thickness glue to just the lining. In case of C linings apply also some glue in the mortices.
  4. Put the lining in, make sure it is perfectly flush with the ribs and reclamp with the clothespins as quickly as possible. Again, make sure the lining remains flush with the ribs.
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The C linings are set into the blocks to stop them from moving off the ribs if they begin to straighten, the upper and lower linings are bent the other way so will not try to straighten and move away. - 2020-08-20 21:50:49
What is the reason for the penetration of c-shaped liners in the side blocks?What is the reason for the penetration of c-shaped liners in the side blocks? - 2020-08-16 00:28:40
On a second reading, disregard my previous comment; the linings are applied to each side before removing the block mould. After applying lining on both sides the ribs are stretched off of the mould. - 2020-06-11 18:18:28
I believe you still have to remove the mould block so only apply the linings to one side. - 2020-06-11 14:36:09
Should I do both the front and back linings at this stage ? - 2020-04-13 17:14:32