Looking more like pegs

Yikes, I hit enter before I wrote anything! Please kids, don't try this at home, these are trained professionals. Now, where was I. Ahh...my pegs. I turned the pegs down on the lathe the other day. I turn the shaft straight, so it is easy to turn the back end. Today I cut the heads a little with a chisel to make them all the same and not look clunky. Next I'll have to cut the "heart" out with a knife and tiny chisel. Then it's a matter of tweaking it until it looks good. I have one set I made that I like, but I wanted to make one without the little ball in the end. For some reason I keep breaking them off! I'm an animal. I'm not sure about the shape I have right now, it is just an eyeball thing, I didn't have a real design or print on these ones. Runny the good one was planned. Maybe I should have had a plan.


I had to work all weekend, but we salvaged the weekend by going to see a concert at Pine Knob (aka DTE music theater, yuk), We saw Francesca Battistelli, Jars of Clay, on of my favorites, and Stephen Curtis Chapman, my wife's favorite of group. It also started with Caleb, SCC's sons group (they also are his backup). Good stuff. Francesca sang all her hits. Jars of Clay played Two Hands, Flood, Dead Man, Love Song for a Savior, Five Candles, Lift up your Head, a new one, and maybe some I'm forgetting. Stephen Curtis Chapman played a bunch of his hits. The only problem was, (I can't believe it, I MUST be old) it was TOO loud. Loud is fine, as long as you have clarity. I didn't hear clarity. The bass drum (every band) pretty much made the bass impossible to hear. The guitars (all except SCC by himself) made the vocals almost impossible to hear. The vocal harmony and musical interplay was incredible in Jars of Clay, but would have been insanely amazing with clarity. But it was fun. I can hear music perfectly with my mp3 player, but I can't FEEL the music like that.

Neck glued in!

I finished smoothing up the neck last night and glued it in this morning. I really like the assembly board. Makes it a cinch to check the alignment and angle. As you see the eye of the scroll is in line with the line of the ribs. The nut is positioned right around the belly edge. The step is almost 7mm. That's a little high, but not too much. The projection at the 195mm stop is 27mm. I always forget what I set things to...need to make a booklet on each instrument where I can write down all the inspired, or dumb, things I did. You also see my unorthodox method of gluing. No clamps. I can't see the need! The neck is pushed into a dovetail, it can't go anywhere else. I brush glue liberally on the block. Then I slide the neck in place tightly, and double check the alignment and projection. Then you just let it sit. No fumbling, no mumbling.





Now it's on to the pegs. I have 5 blanks cut out. I'm a machinist. I know that one indiscretion can make a piece of scrap. At work it doesn't happen often, even with 62rc steel and .001" or less tolerances, but wood is a fickle thing so the chance of failure goes up. I also have another piece that could make 2 more, in case of disaster. As I've said before, one indiscretion in your life doesn't turn you into scrap. If you know you've done wrong, and confess it to the Lord, you have been made righteous. If it was only that easy on a lathe.

3 weeks on a neck?

Well. I have the neck joint fitted perfectly. Was going to glue it in. Then I remembered to check the dimensions off my Borman check list (http://www.bormanviolins.com/setupdimensions.asp), and I realized I just roughed it in, the neck wasn't finished! It was 2mm or more thick everywhere. Rather than trying to say "It's for a player with bigger hands" I resolved to make it to print. It's just about smooth now. I don't like playing with the neck after gluing. Especially around the button. Working on the fingerboard while attached to the instrument is easy, but the neck I'd rather finish up. I'm pretty sure I'll glue it in today or tomorrow, but I've learned not to promise anything in advance.






Today is fathers day and we went to visit with my dad yesterday. Spent about an hour and a half there. Don't know how much he'll remember. 5 months ago at the memorial for his brother (see Reflections, Jan. 19,2011), he was doing pretty good for 90. He knew everyone there and was just like normal. Now his memory is fading fast. He doesn't seem to have an attention span of more than a few minutes, then he's off, thinking or doing something else. It seems like he knows that he knows us when we show up. He gets happy and asks how we're doing. But as the visit goes on it seems he knows he knows you, but can't put a finger on who you are, or why he knows you. Physically he's in pretty good shape. Shuns his walker most of the time, and seems to be as comfortable standing around as sitting. He seems to be much more alert than the others in his unit, probably keeps the attendants busy. At least he seems to be doing well, and we were glad to see him.
I don't know why God has things like Alzheimer's to ravage the elderly. But His ways are beyond our comprehension. We want to figure out everything (my wife says she doesn't want to know anything about physics, but that's a different story), but God says not to worry and to carry on. So don't worry. Be happy in the Lord. Enjoy this fathers day while it is here. The memory may fade in the future.

Neck fitting

Well I started fitting the neck last night. This is the first time I've used my assembly board. I like it. I mark the top and bottom widths of the neck, actually mark them 1+mm small. Then I saw the edges and add a few more saw cuts in between them. The I used a chisel to rough out the dovetail. Nothing unusual there. Cutting through the spruce on the top always amazes me. How is spruce so hard? That 4mm chunk of spruce is not easy to cut. Now how does the board change things? When I start to fit the neck I can immediately see if the neck is straight to the center line of the body. Then with four measurements, the projection, the step, the top of the nut, and where the eye is to the top of the board, I can check the neck angle and be sure everything will be good.





Right now the neck is straight and the angle is correct. I just need to keep it that way while dropping it about 7mm. Maybe when I get more experience I'll only cut the slot 1-mm narrow. This is one of those tasks where I need my magnifying headband and some chalk. The small details I can't see well enough, even with bifocals. I always had perfect vision, even though no one else in the family did. Age wiped away my short vision. I fit the neck just like the bass bar, with chalk. When you're done you should be able to hold the violin, with the board, up by the scroll. If you con't feel comfortable doing that maybe your joint isn't good enough. If you don't feel comfortable in your faith, maybe it isn't good enough.

fingerboard glued on, heading down the back stretch

Finally got the fingerboard on today. Yesterday I "tuned"the fingerboard. I figure as long as I'm thinning the bottom of the fingerboard I may as well see if it needs tuning at the same time. I'm not really sure what I'm doing at this point! It seems like there are bands that are higher in pitch when damped, but there are also bands that seem to be harmonically higher on when you let them ring. Anyway...sometimes they don't need much, sometimes a little bit (like this one), and I had one that needed a whole bunch. I don't know if it makes a difference. Maybe by the weekend I'll have the neck on and can start playing with the peg blanks I have cut out.

I seem to have a problem with free time, or lack thereof. I started thinking about it the other day and it isn't really a problem, but a priority. I ask God to use me. To let me be his hands and feet. To see things through His eyes, and get a I chuckle when I hear His small voice say "see, I told you". But then I say I don't have time. My life is great. It is never quite what I think it will be day to day. My plans may not go according to MY plan. Thing is, it isn't MY plan. It's HIS plan. I've been doing some things to get some of my songs out. I joined a website to help with some lyrics and music. I even had some feedback on one today. If you feel like a chuckle, take a listen to one of my songs at : http://forums.christiansongwriters.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16500
It always makes me smile.

Getting ready to set the neck

Well I was going to set the neck. Then I realized the fingerboard wasn't smoothed up on the top, but that's not a big deal. The main problem was it wasn't cut away underneath. Kinda hard to do that when the neck is on, without pulling the fingerboard off, and I don't want to do that. That part is a lot easier when you by a fingerboard blank, it's already almost done! Like most of my work I pretty much do the cut out with a scraper. I try using planes and gouges, but I have the best luck with a good sharp scraper. Just hold it in my hand, don't need a vise, and in no time at all you have a prodigious pile of ebony shavings. Ebony (at least this hunk, and the last hunk, and the hunk before that)just seems too splintery to use a gouge or plane.









I use the thickness marker to get my thickness even, just like doing the back, or the belly or ribs. I set it for 6mm, and smooth it up after making all the punch holes disappear. I still need to cut the top and the bottom square. I leave them long when I'm making them because I've found the ends never come out right.
This way I can keep a nice crisp edge that I always seem to lose. Same with the masking tape on the sides. It makes it easier to see the widths, (still not even, but I'll sprinkle magic dust on it before it is done) and keeps the edge sharp. I might glue it on the neck tonight so I'll be ready to set the neck some time this weekend. Goody, goody, I get to work Saturday again.