Carving the fan brace

Well this is consider the most enjoyable part of the guitar building other than stringing it up and play it.
I managed to carved the fan brace using little planes which I bought for violin making.
The planes are Ibex plane copy but made in China.

First I reduce the brace height to 3mm and then shape the cross-section profile to be rounded.
Finally I use chisel to smoothen the lengthwise profile to taper to 1mm at the ends.
The tapering starts just aftert the bridge and for the front part is just a short taper (maybe about 20 mm)

Here is the pics.

Removing the go-bars

Carving using the mini planes

Measuring the height of the braces

Removing bulk of the height using the bigger plane

All braces height done. Can see the doming quite clearly

Chiseling the sides of the brace to be rounded.
I just sharpen the chisel so it's very easy

Chiseling the end taper

Can see the lengthwise profile of the braces.

The mini planes close up

I taper the outer edges of the donut

The fan braces carved.

Next I cut the closing braces to size and glue them in.
Following that I glue the side braces but that's where I made a stupid blunder...
Originally I had the idea that I should use thin tall brace for the treble side and fat wide braces for the bass side.
But I mixed them up and the fat brace ended up at the treble side...
No choice but to go with this flow...

Gluing in the closing brace.

Gluing in the side braces
Can see the taper in the donut. Looks quite nice to me

Next I began to saw the apertures in the harmonic brace.
I decided to leave the harmonic brace at 23mm tall but with a larger opening instead.
Also the profile of the parts which will be glue onto the top will not the straight, this is to reduce the stress on the grain lines.
In the middle part which is glued next to the donut, I try to extend the curve of the donut into the harmonic brace.
After all is cut, I shape the brace into a smooth curves.

Drilling the hole in the lower harmonic brace or Lower Traverse Brace(LTB) and cut using a coping saw

The bottom profile of the LTB.

Checking out how the curves looked.

From the other side.

After the glued dried for I began to carved the closing brace and the side braces.
And after that worked on the UTB
The top weight is now 190g within my target
Well if possible I would like to down further maybe in the region of 175g
But so far the tap tone sound good.
A bassy ring with good sustain.

Ready to be carved

Down the height of the closing brace

Height done

3mm max for the closing brace.

The braces all carved! Looks nice to me.

Carving the UTB. Drill the holes first.

Use coping saw to saw the aperture

Chisel them straight followed by file

Done

Top weight is now 190g within my target :)