"jtpr" wrote in message
oups.com...
Well, now I went and done it...

I put together a box for my tongue drum last night and glued everything
up tight except the top. My thinking was to tune the top and then glue
it on. Of course, as these things go, I found an expert and had a
conversation with him today and he said you glue the top on first and
leave the bottom off. Chisel wood off the keys (tongues), flip over,
listen, flip over, chisel, and so on. So, I need to get the bottom
off. the sides are bird's eye maple with a 3/8" x 3/4" rabbet cut in
the bottom edge. Fitted (and glued) to this is a piece of 3/4" poplar.


Any ideas on getting the piece of poplar out without ruining the bird's
eye?

Routing it out would work, but it will be very touchy. Having a box side
between the fence and the bit isn't something I would want to do.
Maybe if you have a bottom bearing that is smaller than the bit, you could
run it against that. Yeh, that would work, it would even be fool-proof;
only problem would be the round corners, but maybe you could round off the
bottom to fit.

How about making up a new box out of poplar, setting the top on it, tuning
the top, and tranferring the top to the real box? If that is possible, it
would be much easier.