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It looks like everyone is enjoying the OLF swap meet - always a great time!

The weather here is Michigan is fantastic and I spent all day yesterday outside so spring fever is definitely here at Flushtone....

As such I didn't get much done in my own shop this week but here is what I have been working on.

This old plane continues to be a good time although flattening the sole is taking hours. I know from my buddy Link that I will have to do the final flattening once it's assembled but it was so very out of shape when I started that this is probably the heavy lifting as far as flattening is concerned.





I finished the body on this Blackwood/WRC OM trimmed in BRW:





This one came in at 2lbs so it should be 4lbs or less when finished.



I had the sincere pleasure of speaking with Simon Fay this week and we agreed to collaborate with David Collins on some fairly detailed and comprehensive hygrometer testing and then post our results here on the OLF. Simon is a very cool guy and again it was a sincere pleasure to speak with Simon.

That's it for me this week, so far... so let's see what's happening in YOUR shops please?

Thanks

Just glued together the main part of my headstock inlay.

It's looking a little grungy at the moment, but that ought to all sand out.
The only problem is, I realized after routing everything that I may not have made the tree's roots long enough to match the length of hole I'll be cutting for the truss rod access... Oh well, it'll probably look fine even if the cover comes up farther on the tree than I was planning.

Now whilst I wait for my jeweler's saw and respirator mask to arrive, I need to make a little portable cutting station that I can take out on the porch to avoid dispersing abalone dust inside the house.

I also went to a muffler shop to get a hunk of pipe for my bending iron, but the best there was in the trash can was this monster.

About 3 inch diameter, and .1 thick. It may work just fine, although it would be nice to have something thinner that I could squeeze into an oval. It's going to be a pain cutting it to the length I want. I may have to mount it with some L brackets instead of the "cut tabs and bend outward" method since it's so thick, but I'd really rather not have to be watching to avoid scratching and denting my sides on the brackets all the time... Maybe it will be sturdy enough if I use a bunch of small ones.

Hesh: Flattening large surfaces like the bottom of a plane is quite a job by hand. A metal scraper might make the job easier. I've used a scraper made from large machine shop hacksaw blades. These blades are about 1.5 inches across and about .060 thick. They are quite hard and if you sharpen them on the 1.5 end with sharp edges you can use this to knock of the high areas on the plane sole.You can use this similar to using a wood chisel but of course remove much smaller amounts of material. I assume your plane is cast iron and that scrapes very nicely but a tad bit dirty. It's also nice to have a surface plate of some sort,a piece of plate glass will suffice and some mechanics blue. Wish I was there to show you. Did a bit of this type of thing in my other life as a machinist. Have fun.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

[quote="Hesh"]It looks like everyone is enjoying the OLF swap meet - always a great time!

I just got back in town and checked the swap meet. Looks like some good deals while I was away. Seems business keeps getting in the way of my hobby! I was hoping to find a deal on a OLF SJ and MJ molds and bending forms. Looks like the SJ was listed, but already sold. I've also been thinking about getting a full set of the GAL Red Books and did notice some there, but not a full set. I may pick up some of the individual books. Also hoped some of the OLF fretting templates might show up, but didn't see any of those yet.

As far as work on the bench, I have a couple of dreds that are about ready for finish...one maple and engleman and one EIR and Sitka. Getting ready to start an EIR and Euro Spruce OM with deeper Dread-sized sides. Haven't tried the deeper sides on the OM yet, so wanted to see what it was like.

I got my troji built, finished my binding machine, and cut some binding channels. I tried gluing in the bindings with CA, but it didn't go well. I've got some gaps and ended up with a couple of CA stains on the top. I was thinking about cutting it out and redoing it, but it's a parlor for my 7 year old nephew who doesn't yet play, so I think we will live with the flaws. But the new troji made scraping the bindings so fast and easy. Thanks for sharing those instructions, Rod!!!

Now I need to get my neck tenon jig finished. How long until I can call myself an instrument maker instead of a jig maker?

Let's see if I can make the pictures work.

Mike

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Mike Lindstrom

I'm looking forward to reading about your hygrometer testing - thanks for getting it organized for a posting.

Kathy

I am screwing up and learning the art of radial rosettes -

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

Hey Hesh, I've always heard that when you lap the sole of a plane the frog, iron and chipbreaker should all be installed but with the iron retracted. I personally don't see how those could flex the body of the plane at all but that's what I've been told.
Jason

I've been playing around with fooling around with sound clips with an OM I just finished. I've never posted on so let's see what happens............... la de da........... OK, it appears I can't post an MP3. I've taken it from my recorder to I Tunes on a Mac. Any suggestions?

Happy Easter,
Danny

As the ClearVue Mini CV06 cyclone (at least at the moment) ist not available I had to make my own mini cyclone
Fortunately on his website, Bill Pentz provides excellent instructions on how to make such a cyclone, including a scalable plan (Excel spreadsheet, "Chapter M").
Working with metal is not really my thing, so please forgive me the sloppy workmanship of that item... - after getting tired of soldering with my underpowered equipment I passed on to glue up the rest with epoxy )

Before starting with this build I wondered if for better particle separation it would not be better to guide the incoming airstream two rounds in the spiral instead of just one like the Bill Pentz / ClearVue design does. When I asked Bill Pentz if such a second turn of the spiral probably, against my intuition would affect the performance in a negative manner he said no, that my idea would be just fine, but that it would be even better if the inlet would be a gradually tighter getting curve (like a snail shell). So I modified the inlet (as you can see in the pictures below).

My mini cyclone is not yet ready to use because I could not buy the additional connecting hoses quickly enough. This is really bad for me because for the next few weeks I can't do any woodworking! Well, at least in this period the already made dust has time to settle down.

These are the pics of today:

You might upload your MP3 to one of those free file hosting sites (for example box.net) and post the link here.

Thanks Markus! I'll have a look at the site. I might need to change the format if possible. Stylin' little cyclone you've built yourself there. Looks good. You could start the new OCF (Official Cyclone Forum) There may already be one.

Cheers,
Danny

Some pretty cool stuff you guys are up to this week!

Great looking cyclone Markus and the first home grown ones that I have seen.

Danny be sure to post a link if you post your MP3 - I want to hear my bro play!

Right-you-are Jason but I knew that and said that in my original post.... Actually I didn't know that the plane has to be assembled for the final flattening but Link told me that.

John someone should do a rosette just like what you have in the pic and not make it all even and uniform. What kind of wood is that?

Thanks Kathy - we hope to be able to shed some light on the question of how accurate a Caliber III is out of the box AND 4 years later. It should be fun.

Nice Troji Mike!!! Rod put together a great set of plans for us all.

Alan I know from past swap meets that some of the best stuff is posted later in the meet. Let's hope that you find what you want.

Hey Tom thanks for that my friend. I am using a undersized surface plate and then I take the plane into the Ann Arbor shop with me to check it on the full size plate. I'm using red magic marker for bluing. It's slow going but good exercise...

Very nice Dennis - I like it!

Let's see some more of what's happening in YOUR shops please?

Thanks

I am on Spring break from the school so I spent a couple of hours last night carving a neck on an OM. I hooked up my video camera to my computer and did a live streaming video session from my shop and allowed folks to watch as I carved. They were able to participate with questions and comments as I worked. Folks from as far away as Canada were online for the event.

Oops! Sorry Hesh. I guess that's what happens when I just scan these threads looking at all the pretty pictures!
Jason

Hesh -

That is Walnut - the pieces actually are all even and uniform. The warping of the wood and paper made it look like this. But I like your idea and I see what you are getting at. That might be my next rosette !! I credit you in advance for the idea !

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

Here's what I am working right now. This is guitar no. 15 for me. I am just finishing up the insides. Here I am gluing in the last couple of "costillas" (ribs). I can't remember what you acoustic folks call these side strengthening pieces.



When that's done I will be attaching the back. Probably tonight. Here's a picture.



By the way, the back and sides on this one are Oregon Myrtle. It's the first time I've worked with this wood and so far I like it a lot.

Max

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Max Bishop
Brighton, Michigan

No pictures but I am getting ready to spray finish 3 guitars so Thursday I went to the local finish supply store to pick up my lacquer.While they were getting my lacquer out back I had a bit of a look around the front.They had some specials,abrasives,gloves,etc.and packed on a pallet were some 5 gallon pails,which at first thought was paint or some sort of Gyproc filler. Went around to the front of the pallet to have a look and it was Titebood glue, original and type three.Never seen wood glue come in such a large container.Was going to buy one but thought I might lose on that deal.....No doubt either the glue or I would be dead before all that glue got used.........!!! Hesh,think this is a cool thing you do every weekend. Appreciate all the guys putting up pictures of their work. I,m too computer literate to be able to post pictures. Keep up the good work.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Started closing the box on #2, an OLF OM.

Finished the Sitka top for the OM.

As this is only the 3rd top I did, I am quite pleased with the way it turned out...

Robbie -
It looks like you're vacuum clamped? Do you trust your top to hold up to the stress of neck carving?

Mike

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Mike Lindstrom

I spent two hours sanding sides, backs, and necks which were all rough sawn. I got to use my new dust collector which worked great with my drum sander.

Chuck

I am using a vacuum and it is fine for doing the neck carving.

So this is what I have been up to. My garage has been empty while our house was being worked on. I was thinking about doing an epoxy coat on the floor. I researched the epoxy coat but the process made me nervous with the idea that I could put it down and then a few years later it might come up and look worse than if I had done nothing at all. So I picked up a magazine on garage rehabs and someone suggested using Vinyl Composite Tile. When I figured out the cost it was not much more than the epoxy, I could get everything I needed locally, and if I was successful at getting it down, it would be down no worries. I also like the idea that you can park a car on it (I never do, but just in case) and if you drop something on it, it isn’t exactly like dropping it directly on concrete.

Here is a before pic after I patched some of the floor cracks.


Here it is after.


I just need to reinstall the baseboards and put down several coats of polish. All in all, I’m pretty pleased with it. I can’t wait to get my stuff back in the garage.

Just watching paint dry.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Some very nice looking OM's above.....

I've been busy with my Swapalooza sales, of course, but still found time to work on an OLF-OMC guitar I'm building for a bloke. After the sinker redwood top I was working on split in 3 places when I took it down to about 120 mil thick, and took on the tap tone of a piece of wet cardboard, I decided to nix it and changed the build plans completely. Now, it's going to have the same awesome Cocobolo b/s but with a (supposedly) master grade Italian spruce top. I made a new rosette (using coco offcuts from the b/s) that has more segments than before (was 16, now 24)....I think it looks much better. The top is done now. Here are a couple of shots of where things are right now:





Now onto the sides....fun, fun, fun!!

Cheers,
Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"