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3: William Cumpiano makes a "thinline" cuatro (cont.)

	Preliminary carving in the heel area finalizes the boundaries for the fingerboard and bindings
	The edges are grooved to accept the bindings and purfling strips.
	The binding and purfling strips are glued on while being held in place with masking tape
	The binding and purfling strips are then scraped down until they are flush with the body.
	The ebony fingerboard is curved slightly and then slotted on the radial arm saw with a blade that makes a slot appropriate to the size of the fretwire. The spacing between the frets is calculated from a formula.
	The fretwire comes in rolls, is snipped to length and tapped into the slots in the fingerboard.
	The fretted fingerboards are then glued to the neck
	With the help of chisels, rasps, scrapers and sandpaper, the entire instrument is shaped and smoothed to final form.
	With all the woodworking completed, the instruments are prepared for the subsequent finishing steps.
	The finishing occurs in a dust-free, well-lit room. Note that the fingerboard is masked, so that it does not get any finish. Five coats of lacquer are applied with a spray gun, allowing sufficient drying time and light sanding in between coats. After the final coat, the finish is allowed to harden over a period of one to two weeks. Then it is polished.
	After the instrument's finish has been allowed to dry thoroughly for two weeks, it is polished to a mirror finish on the face and headstock. I prefer to polish the back, sides and neck to a low gloss finish because it does not show fingerprints and scratches as easily and actually feels smoother to the hands. After polishing, the bridge is located very precisely with a engineer's ruler according to a formula.
	After the bridge has been glued on, the pickup is added (you can see the battery through the soundhole), and then the label is adhered to the back so that it can be seen through the soundhole.

See the final work, all strung up and ready to go!