The first thing on the agenda was getting the ribs onto the underside of the soundboard. To do that, we had to transfer the outline of the ribs to the back side of the drawing, so that we could have a drawing of the reverse side of the soundboard. Then we pricked through the corners of each rib with the awl.
The drawing was then placed over the back of the soundboard, and we put a pencil dot through each of those awl holes. After playing 'connect the dots' with those marks, we had a perfect drawing of the rib placement on the back of the soundboard.
The ribs were solidly glued onto the template. As a final step, the two ends of each rib had to be chamfered with the knife into a scoop in order to flatten out these ends.
The completed underside of the soundboard with chamfered ribs glued in tight, and the builders' signatures fitting between.
With the soundboard complete, it was time to glue it in. Clamps held the soundboard in tight over the wrestplank on the right and belly rail on the left. The mouse hole in the belly rail came in handy for the clamping job. The other sides of the board were held tight to the liners with small nails near the edge. These will later be covered by moulding.
The final soundboard glued into the case.
Remember the hitchpin rails? See Day 5. We earlier marked the holes for them through the drawing with the awl. Well, now was time to actually drill the holes. Those in the short bass rail were drilled through the hitchpin block underneath, and the holes on the long treble rail went down into the guide rack. Tape was used on the drill bit as a depth gauge, so that we wouldn't go too far down.
All the hitchpin holes completed.
The clavichord at the end of Day 7. Soundboard installed! And those important hitchpin holes drilled.
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