Official Luthiers Forum!

Sticks are too curvy and irregular to turn into a long dowel, but you probably could cut short pieces and do it. Then hold the end with a collet chuck while shaving the taper.

For sanding I just use a regular 5mm collet. It can't actually clamp the taper, but as long as you keep positive pressure on it while sanding it grips just fine, and is super quick to swap to the next pin. But for cutting the head as a separate operation, the taper collet is a good idea. Definitely make it out of wood. Aside from being easier on your reamer, the friction grip will be much better than metal.

I was thinking with sticks, once a segment was round enough to stick in the shaver and turned into a cone it could be lopped off and the next segment run into the sharpener.

So really the stick would only need to be reasonable straight for an inch or so and the sharpening would make the cone straight. You could whittle it round enough to start in the shaver pretty quickly.

Doesn't have to be a dowel per se. The dowel plate was more for folks wanting to cut lumber and form dowels to start with, but could be used with reasonable straight sticks to get close to shaver dia.

The "ice cream" knob on the top of the cone need not be round or regular as long as it is bigger then the finished ball end.

I like the stick idea. Every now and then you find bushes with very hard wood and interesting grain that would never get big enough to mill lumber. Lilac wood is one, there are lots of others, many fruit trees are hard and heavy too. I'm going to start collecting!

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Made the very first setup ever on a vintage Guild B-302 bass. Truss rod not so bad, bridge and nut slots were both stupid high. Saddles on A and G strings were reversed (probably from the factory). Now it plays nice and sounds unique - closer to Rickenbacker than a Fender.

https://i.imgur.com/43WT6XX.jpg

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Always cool to get your hands on vintage gear. I am surprised how poorly setup some of the basses are that I get in the shop. Owners are pretty amazed when they get them back.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

It’s amazing how often actual players are clueless about the functionality of their chosen instrument.

In all fairness, this belonged to a student and his instructor asked me to "make it work".

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Just about finished with the French polish on the BRW classical

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Beautiful John!

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

That’s a gorgeous finish, John!

I've been doing oil paintings this year, painting from a National Parks daily calendar. I've done about 2 dozen so far. Getting better. On the last one still of the panel I used some Sandarac varnish I got from an artist who makes varnish. I got it for violins! I did that entire painting in less than 3 hours, and it was dry to the touch. I didn't thin it with turps like he said, because my wife doesn't like the smell. I do. I don't like OMS. Ordorless? I don't think so. That varnish (the smell was very mild, and was gone by the morning with the painting in the garage overnight.) will be my go to.

I want to do some plein-air paintings. Not in the cold though. I made up a pochade box with a 12 X 16 glass palette; and an easel attachment. The box goes on the legs of my tripod, and the easel on the camera attachment.

I'm making a box to carry 8 canvases/paper on 4 panels. I call it a small camera. Something an artist back in the early 1800's could carry on a trip, and bring back memories. Maybe do them bigger. I'd like them to be good on their own. The 3 hour one is 7 X 11. The camera can hold 9 X 2 panels. That works out to 4 hours. I have to get faster than that.

I cut 4 of the 8 grooves to slide the 4 panels into yesterday. 1X 2 from Home Depot; from NEW ZEALAND? Marked it out deep with my marker, and then cut it with a Dremel on a purfling groove attachment. I don't have a fence for it. It worked great. Now I have to do the outside grooves, and get a 2 X 4 smooth sided hardboard panel. HD only hard ones that were corrugated on one side. That won't do.

So I did do some woodworking, on the pochade box, the easel and now the 9 X 12 -8 frame "camera."

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Why be normal?

Nice work Ken. Only painting I've ever done that looked any good were the ones with numbers

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Steve,
It's only a matter of mixing the paint color, and putting it where it goes on the drawing. Somehow I'm good at it. Visual Communications (water color, and still life charcoal) in college was my favorite class in 74.

I watched a video and decided I'd make my outdoor thing just for the 9 X 12 size max. I'll use the big one, and the huge one I got real cheap at a garage sale at home. So I added a tang on the bottom, to attach it to the tripod. I have a piece in the middle that will be an open box, that can hold a cardboard box with paints and stuff; attached to it will be the smaller palette, and not the big one with the swing open cover. The palette will be at about a 45degree with the painting holder that also works as an easel.

The big problem is that smooth double sided hardboard seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur. Why? It was nice stuff. That corrugated side stuff is nasty. I found chalkboard that seemed like a good bet, and I will use it. But I found after cutting it that it is WAY heavier than the 50% thickness difference between that, and 1/8 hardboard. 4 panels is 3 pounds? Why?

Well, I weighed the large smooth hardboard panel I use for 12 X 16’s; it’s almost exactly twice the area of the 10 X 13 chalkboard panels, and it weighs 1.5 pounds. Apparently the hardboard is actually denser.

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Why be normal?

The pochade box is pretty much done. I need to put t screws with flat heads on the center piece to hold the blue plastic boxes to hold the glue bottles with oil, and solvent. It could use some sort of finish maybe. It folds up with a box that holds paints, the glue bottles, and palette knives. A rollup brush holder carries the brushes, and should fit in against the outside of it, with the paper towel.

It is pretty stable on the tripod. The center of the painting will be at eye level, and the palette is right in line at about 45 degrees, so you see it flat. I might figure out some straps to carry it on my back. The tripod, a garage sale find, has a bag with a handle. I'll drill holes in both pallet covers to hold brushes; clean on the right, and used on the left. If I have brushes with every color on the left, I can just grab them, unless I need something smaller.

My other palette I made is twice the size. I will just find, or make a table to set it on, and use it in the basement with the huge one I got for $5 or $10 at a garage sale during the M15 garage sale they have every year the first weekend in May, that started this painting thing.

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Why be normal?

Just upgraded my oven for baking tonewood.

1) Drying rack for 4 sets or a whole bunch of braces, each layer separated by 15mm aluminium tubing located with threaded rods. Springs between washers with a wing nut on top to tighten snug. This allows for the shrinkage of the wood
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2) Two 150 watt bulbs in the bottom of an old filing cabinet saved from a skip, (insulated all round) with aluminium shielding above the bulbs with. One inch hole was drilled in the bottom to allow air in for circulation

3) Perforated aluminium sits on two threaded bars to spread the circulating hot air.

4) The rack goes in with the panels vertical to get best circulation past the wood possible without a fan.
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5) Insulated lid.

6) 3/4" Holes drilled in the lid towards the corners to allow humid air to escape.

I use my PID controller (thermocouple down through one of the top holes) to switch on and off the heat from the bulbs and a long meat thermometer central in the rack to control and monitor temperature between 98 and 100 deg C. For about 2 days - check the air escaping from the holes in the lid with a mirror that the escaping air is dry.

Switch off and leave to cool overnight, then transfer the rack to my humidity controlled workshop to acclimatise for at least a week.













Sent from my moto g(50) using Tapatalk

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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.

I like your arrangement for clamping/stickering. Thanks for posting this! I just use the kitchen oven for this and only one top at a time (because of the limited space). I've been afraid to use metal stickers because I wasn't sure if there would be any staining. Have you had any issues with aluminum?

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

None at all after about 8/10 batches, but I would probably put paper against the tubing if drying wood known for staining like Koa, just in case, as condensation could occur as the unit is heated up.
I used aluminium because wooden dowels might leak resin or colour at least initially.

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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.