What a fantastic day. We started off with the breakfast eggs and fake in Tolston jams and butter and tea. I always make an egg sandwich with fake and then jam on it and it's absolutely delicious. Igot to hear Dwain tell stories for quite a while which is always nice he's got great stories and they awere as delicious as the food that we had.We both had paddling stories. That is, we've both experienced paddling at school. I remember it was Dean Gonzalez who did the beating. I don't remember ever getting paddled, but I have a suspicion that my brother had his own paddle in that office. I remember that my dad was so upset because one of us got paddled, my sister I think, that he went into the Dean's office. There was a scuffle, and my dad was kicked off campus. My brother was eventually expelled from the same school. I made it through, though I have no idea how. Really.
Today was the day were going to glue everything up and we did. Because of all the preliminary work we did yesterday--which will happen on every machine--the instrument went together really nicely. There was one problem with the lining but that was easily fixed. It's really nice to go over this again because there's so many things that I forgot. And sure I could figure some of them out or develop my own methods, but I'm here to learn from a master craftsman; I'm not here to guess. We've talked about how my building will change over time, and Dwain has said more than once that I'm not here to do exactly what he does. But for these first machines I think it's prudent to copy his methods.
Once the parts were in the mold I started on the fretboard. Normally this would be done first so that the fretboard would have time to get used to its new configuration, but because of the break that I took when I went home our schedule was a bit screwy. But the wood has been living in its roughed out form for a while, so it'll be good.There is information that I wrote about in my sketchbook, but the notes don't list all of the steps. In fact, I cannot even recall doing this part of the process but I remember using the "shooting box" method of planing down the wood. Weird.
The first thing that I had to do was make the edges of the fretboard straight. I went around and around for a while with the differences between square and straight. And we had a good conversation about language, where I have to know the jargon of the business to talk with others. But words are hard for me, really. I know stuff, and I have a pretty expansive vocabulary. But sometimes I think a thing and use the only words that seem right.
Like the yesterday when we were mocking up the mold. We were putting the spring steel bars to hold the linings in. Dwain showed me how the bars should be put in so that the force keeps the wood against the mold, and the word I used is they push the wood in. Makes sense. Then I said that the other force is down, and Dwain was amused that I'd used down with in. But that is the force that I saw, down towards the tail block. We have a conversation about words almost daily, and I'm working to build a luthier lexicon. But still, stupid words! Which is why Goji or any other animal can help me with my words.
So straight. Yeah. The boards are rough cut down to almost the right size, and then the refinement comes once a board has been chosen. After I planed one side, which took a bit of chalk to mark the high spots, I had to work on the second. I was going to cut it down using the band saw and then plane it straight and smooth, but there was only about 1/16th of an inch that needed to come off. So I planed it off, but not without some difficulties.
Like tear-out, which is where the wood grain is loose and jumps free from the wood in a haphazard fashion. Here is a not so good pass of the plane where I was going "uphill" against the grain. This is a no-no unless it must be a yes-yes, as it was in this case. So I had to modify the planing a bit to get off the small amount of wood. I made a guide line so I could see how close I was getting to my final width. 
If you've never used a plane let me tell you that you can remove some wood really quickly! I started off planing the side that I was going to cut off, so there was a lot of practice. Then I set up so that I could plane down the top, but I wasn't even supposed to do that. There's a lot more practice. But the time I got to the right side I have a lot of shavings. But I'm getting better at planing!
I choose this piece of wood because the grain is really straight along the fretboard. But look how pretty it is on the side. Sometimes I'm reminded of the snakes that my dad used keep when we were growing up. Sure, it doesn't look exactly like a red rat or yellow rat, but it looks like a nice combination of the too.
At some point we went to have lunch. I treated Dwain to Thai food in celebration of my first commission. I'm so stoked to make the instrument for someone. Not that I'm not excited for the ones I'm making for me, but you get it, I hope. We got to stop into the bakery for some fresh bread. 
Did I tell you that Val has started making bread and ice cream? Well she has. She has been working her but off so that we can make it in TN. It will be really nice to be there permanently so that I can help her do stuff, like run the Palace Theater. She books shows and then is there to see the show through till the end. I've had dreams of doing a Kung Fu Theater on Saturdays, where we'd do a double feature of the best chopsocky films out there!
The last thing that I did was to cut the fretboard to its final shape. I started sanding it, but time ran out. I'll finish that part tomorrow because I have to change the sandpaper out on the drill driven drum sander. Ah tools. Of course I've been thinking about tools since I've started this process, and I've not stopped. Dwain has some that he is selling me or making me, and then I've got to get a bunch more. I really am going to try to build with the bare minimum of tools, but there are some pretty specific ones that I will have to have.
No comments:
Post a Comment