Back ready for the purfling

I have the back of the violin about 12% thick right now, from 2.2mm to 4.8mm thick. It weighs 119g and the ring tone is E (328). It seems like the tone has gone down some. I thought it was a half tone over the Sugar Maple back, but that one is at 316, so now it is only slightly above the Sugar Maple one. I think it is the mode three that is throwing me off. This one mode 3 is only a sixth below mode 5 and the other is almost exactly an octave. Of course the Sugar Maple one is just about finished, and this one isn't. It's at the point now where I have to get the purfling in before I can go any further. I've had a bit of a problem with this one. I always carve the inside, then rough the outside. Now when I've started to finish the outside, the edges have started to curl up in the upper and lower bouts. It actually rocks on the center. It is a little better today. A few days ago it seemed like it was almost curved like a smile. Maybe the weather has something to do with it. I just brought the Sugar Maple one upstairs to check the tap tones. That one is indeed bent like a smile! I don't think it will matter. You can push it down easily, so gluing will not be a problem. Maybe I need to rough both sides in before finishing. But then again I haven't had this happen before.
The photo on the last post was out my front door one morning last week. We ended up with 7", and it's still here 2 weeks later because it hasn't been above 32 since before the storm. We are supposed to warm up for a day. Get lots of rain. And then freeze again. As long as the power doesn't go out it doesn't matter. Have a good new year.

Merry Christmas

I'm hoping that everyone had a nice Christmas and now are looking forward to the coming new year. Last year was not as bad a year for us as you might expect if you read all the stuff we've been through. I was just reading my daughters blog and she had random thoughts about Christmas and whatever popped in her head. Here are some of mine.

We started the year with 2 1/2 months of unemployment behind us, and only one job interview. 2 1/2 months later I had a job. 2 1/2 months later a better job, and 3 months later I was called back to my old job. Pretty solid progression there, but even when I wasn't working I wasn't full of despair. I remembered the song I wrote the year before, and how we've always gotten though other layoffs (the latest just the year before!), and all the free time was really quite nice. I enjoyed having the time at home with my wife. The uncertainty never bothered me. I knew something would change and we'd get through it.

Just when we hit the high point, the bottom fell out. The accident. There were many things that seemed like miracles then. Now that seems like a long time ago. Seems like I've been working there all the time.

After having so much time off, working takes so much of your time! There ought to be a law.

After a roller-coaster of a year the ups outweigh the downs by far. The point of a roller-coaster is the whole ride, not just the ups or downs. That is the way life is. Sometimes it is a kiddie ride, or a ferris wheel, or salt and pepper shakers. Sometimes its a roller-coaster. The point is to enjoy the ride. Life is the same. Enjoy the ride.

One thing that helps is to know that God wants to be with you all day long, not just through the tough times. He wants to be your everything. Think about it.

plate tuning fixture

Here is the fixture I use to tune the plates. Most makers are concerned about the tap tones the back and belly make in the free state. I use those just to get a rough estimate of their stiffness. On a finished violin there is no such thing as a free plate. They are glued all around the edge. My plate tuning is much the same as described on an excellent website by instrument maker Keith Hill. www.instrumentmaking.keithhillharpsichords.com It is called Area Tuning, and isn't based on free plates, but on the natural state of the violin belly or back, glued to the ribs. I haven't "mastered" this tuning idea yet, but I have noticed that the closer I get to getting it really in tune, the better sound I get out of the violin. It could be that my making is just getting better. But there is no blind study to prove that. My latest addition to this idea is mounting a sound post on it. The idea came to me and I gave it a test. Putting the sound post in position changes the tuning. Might as well tune it with the post then. In the top picture the sound post isn't glued in place! When you fit it correctly to the belly it will stand up on its own. I just took the big hunk of spruce off so you could see how I can take wood off the outside, or inside of the belly. I need a thinner piece anyway, the big one gets in the way.
It's Christmas Eve. I've had the last two days off, but have been busy, not much on violins. It's funny how the holiday has changed into just that, a holiday. It started as a celebration of the birthday of Jesus, and now is just a day to give and get presents, eat a meal with family, have some time off work. How many people think of it as the birthday of the Saviour? Many more are concerned about getting the right gift. Spending enough so you don't look cheap, to your family or outsiders. Giving for those reasons is like doing the right thing just to do the right thing. It really amounts to nothing. God doesn't want you doing good because it is the right thing...people will see you as good. God wants you to get to the point where you do the right thing because it is the only way you see to do it. Then people know you are good. At that point it isn't even you that is good. It is the spirit of God working through you that gets the credit. Without that you'd be just like everyone else, worried about opinions and how you stack up. Take some time over Christmas and think about how you stack up. Not in the opinions of people around you, but in your relationship with Jesus, the birthday boy.

Lazy Day

Well the snow hype has been just that...hype. Fine with me. Instead of shoveling I've had a chance to play! I glued the back on the ribs last night so this morning I popped the belly off and cleaned it up to the final outline. Then I marked 6 places to make cycloid arching curves for. To come up with the parameters for each arch I measured the arch height off the bottom using a dial gauge mounted on a magnetic base placed on my long plane that was upside down in the vise. By subtracting the thickness of the belly at the low point I come up with the total arch. As far as where the low point is I used 5mm in from the edge for the c-bouts, 7mm in for the u-bouts and 9mm in for the l-bouts. I then plug that information into the cycloid program I have in the computer. The program only prints one arch per page. I throw it back in flipped around upside down to print two to save paper. The main arch though the middle already on the plates is the right shape, maybe a little thick, but the right shape. With a gouge I cut some of the recurve out, not going all the way though to the edge. I use a plastic profile gauge to transfer the arch on the belly to the cycloid arch I printed out. Starting out you can see the center is correct, but the recurve is too thick. A few times back an forth between gouge and gauge and the profile is close. After getting them all close I smooth it up with a couple of scrapers. They are still thick right at the edge near the low point, and the purfling, but that will wait until after the purfling is in. Now I can take some stock out of the inside and cut out the f-holes. I want to cut the f-holes early so I can integrate them into the arching.

I really wasn't worried or upset about the snow or cold. Don't mean to sound like I'm complaining. I don't do that. Slow drivers find me at my weakest. I need more patience there. Anything else doesn't phase me. I know that all things will pass, and with God all things are possible. Even forgiving slow drivers...some time.

Finalizing the outline

I glued the ribcage on the belly today. I just glued the blocks because I'm just gluing it on to get the shape marked on. I had to compress the c bout and the length some to get it to fit on the belly, I didn't cut it out big enough around the corners and the top and bottom. Maybe I made the corners too pointy? The back is cut bigger and won't be a problem. The final measurements should end up around: 356mm oal,166mm ub,104mm cb, 205mm lb. I drilled the pin holes through the blocks and belly, and will drill through the back when I glue it on. I took care to keep the hole straight this time, and it is right on center of the belly even though I drilled it from the other side. Who needs a drill press? I marked the inside of the liners on the belly and marked the overhang using the washer around the ribs trick. After I glue the back on I'll take the belly off and mark the back the same way. After they are marked I can trim them to size and do some contouring in the re-curve area. I use the pin holes to locate the plates, but it would be nice, especially in the case where I pushed the ribs around some, to have some way to locate the corners too. I guess I should trim the corner blocks up some as well. They don't need to stick out so much. After I glue the back on I'll see what I can do about finishing up the other ribcage. It's kind of a gloomy day today, almost warm 38 degrees. That is supposed to end abruptly tonight with plunging temps, 2-3 inches of snow tonight, 3-5 more inches tomorrow, and temps around zero. Sweet. (Anyone who knows me knows I don't like snow or cold)

Full size drawing

Well here is my full size drawing. One side is right, the other is only kinda close. Which side do you like? The full size drawing works much better then the 70% scale. You can draw it up so radii end up on points that just happen to be describe radii. I'm happy with the good side (the left one by the way). I had to work today, on a Sunday no less. That I'm not so happy about. I guess I should be grateful, and I am, but you can't get anything done on a violin if you're never home!
I don't have anything else to talk about on the violin. I can say something about my songwriting. Here's the story on how I wrote the first song. I finished reading the local paper. The next to last page has a article written by a local church leader, they switch off week to week. My wife asked me how I liked the article. I replied that the idea was great but the story could be done better. Move some sentences around so that the paragraphs don't say the same thing. That night I woke up to the sound of wonderful music and then it stopped. Someone said "Now listen". And the song was sung to me. It repeated a couple of times. It was the same idea as the article I read earlier. The voice said, "How could you say the story could have been done better. Everyone will write the same story in a different way depending on their experiences and style. That's arrogant". Then the music started again and the chorus rose up and was really cool. In the morning I sang the song over and over in my head and tried to remember it. I wrote the words down and tried to write the music, not knowing how to do it. Sure I know how to read music, but I don't know how to write it. It took about a week to get the melody line down, and more than another week to get some harmony and a bass line. That's how it went. It's not as magical as the song I heard in my sleep, but the theme is the same...God wants be be your everything.

Drawing up a Violin Outline

I know I touched on this on about my second post, but since I've found my printer is not accurate I figured I'd draw one up by hand...just for fun. The photo shows how I go about it. If I'm using a poster it would be full size. This is a photo of a violin in David Rattray's book Masterpieces of Italian Violin Making. I like the looks of it a lot. Besides the frontal photos it gives dimensions and even some thicknesses. It doesn't have arch profiles, but I may be able to come up with something there. The first thing I do is draw lines through the center, bouts, and corners. Then I try to figure out what relationships they have. For the overall length you can use the real overall length, the length of the mold (with the blocks in) or the pin length. On this one that would be 353mm, 344mm and 334mm, about. Whatever one works on the violin you're drawing at the time is the right one. There was a neat article about how Strad and other Italian makers positioned their f holes by Alvin King that will give you some ideas, not only on the f holes, but also relationships that may come in handy. The lower eyes are always around 5:3 or 3:2 or phi the golden number down from the top. Sometimes the apex of the triangle formed by the eyes is the same number up from the bottom. Other relationships that may not be common for us were used often back then. When we think of angles we think of numbers like sines or cosines or tangents. They would set a divider to the relationships and come up with dimensions with no math at all. I draw it up after figuring out the relationships and then check it by laying the drawing on top of the photo on my lightbox. It won't ever match perfectly, but bad spots will be obvious. Changing a few things will get it good enough. Now I can draw it up full size on the drafting table and see how it looks.

Violin Outlines

I took the Red Maple ribcage off the mold the other day. Putting it under the Birch one I was surprised at how different they were in outline. I know I used two different molds for them, but I didn't think they were that different. I was going to make an assembly board up. A new idea I've had bouncing around in my head, but haven't tried yet. I thought if I had the outline of the violin on a board I could glue the back side of the ribs onto the board in the proper location. I could have holes in it to locate the pins, and help drill them straight. I could mark the overhang and glue the back on. Take the belly off, mark the overhang of the back. I would then get the plates almost done. Then I could glue the belly on the ribs. I could glue the bass bar on using it, and area tune the plate. Then I could cut the neck mortise, and set the neck, and glue it on. Then I could take it off the assembly board and glue the back on. I know this is not the way it is done. But my wife says my vanity license plate should be YBNORML. Anyway, neither violin fits the outline that I used to make it's mold with, even though it was made on the mold. They were tight on the mold. Was a bit of an ordeal to pry them off. Strange stuff. How do you make a board with a cut out in it when the ribs don't conform to the pattern? Then I started measuring. The printout of the form is not to size! I printed it two ways, the top in portrait and the bottom in landscape, and taped them together. None of the dimensions match the dimensions in AutoCad. My printer isn't that precise. When you draw out the form in the first place you notice that the original is wacked out of shape. I guess it isn't surprising that mine are wacked out too.
Want's the point of this whole post? Sometimes our grandiose plans never quite come together. Getting the right plan. Going to the right school. Getting a job in the right company. The right spouse, the right car, the right house. The list goes on and on. The problem with plans is they have a future. When you make them, and obtain them they are the past. We live in the present. Only the present. And it is the only thing we have any control over. What we do with what we're faced with right now is the only thing that will make a difference. The only thing that will help is to have God at your side with every choice. Not only the tough choices, when you're at the edge of your rope. All of them. I wrote a song about that. Anyone want me to share it?