Earlier I checked the fit of the board to see if the presence of the case walls affected the fit. It seemed fine except the cheek edge felt a bit tight, so I gave that edge a little rub with coarse sandpaper and the fit was good to go.
After taping the edges of the soundboard and the inside edges of the case to protect against glue squeeze-out, generous amounts of fish glue were applied to the liners and the soundboard was set in place. An arrangement of clamps and cauls held the board against the liners and the upper belly rail. I admit that in a perverse kind of way I looked forward to this moment, as I was finally able to use 47 of the 50 F-clamps I bought last summer, plus a bunch of C-clamps.
The instrument is respectfully dedicated to my friendly harpsichord maker, and has been so inscribed on the underside of the soundboard.
A day later, the glue was dry and the clamps came off. I used my block plane to trim the front edge of the soundboard, which overhung the upper belly rail a smidgen along its length.
It should be clear in the photos above that I already trimmed all the overhanging case edges, which were left long as each piece was glued in (see the photo in the previous post for comparison). I taped each joint to protect the wood from scratches, and, using a Japanese-toothed dovetail saw held flat against the case, I sawed off the excess material at each joint. A little sanding smoothed out the cut edge, although I didn't aim to get the joints exactly flush at this point in time.
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