Day 136: Slotting and Exploring

After last week's attempt(s) at getting the upper register slots cut, I was able to actually get them completed this week! Naturally, the steps were the same - drill the relief cuts, line out the cuts, etc. The only difference this time is I used one of my little knives to scribe the cut lines using the register I had already cut. The initial step was to replace my thin-kerf, combo blade with Owen's monster.

I'm showing this photo because it illustrates how the retaining ring/washer gets hung up on the blade collet every single time I take it off and, yes, put it back on. Someone at Grizzly, okay, someone in China, owes me an explanation about this. Holy cow, how frustrating.

Once I got the lines scribed, I ran another down the length, which gave me axes on which to punch the divets for drilling.

Then, more drilling and cutting.

And...voila! I screwed up three of the cuts, so I plugged them and recut them. They're now ready for me to "close the comb," which I'll be doing this week.

On a couple of unrelated notes, I attended a Western Early Keyboard Association (WEKA) performance event that featured Dr. Mark Brombaugh, brother of renowned organ builder, John Brombaugh, who is located in Eugene, Oregon (a couple of hours south of Tortuga Early Instruments Worldwide Headquarters). Dr. Brombaugh's "Road to Hamburg" was excellent and I enjoyed his commentary very much.

He performed on two instruments from Reed College's collection - a French double and an Italian single after Grimaldi by Owen Daly of Owen Daly Early Keyboard Instruments. It was a good day.

I also discovered Portland Parks and Recreation Community Music Center has been holding out on me - they not only have a 1970s plywood instrument in their main auditorium, they have a lovely Flemish single kit instrument from Zuckerman Harpsichords International hiding downstairs.

Yes, that's me lying underneath, checking out materials and Zuckerman's building philosophy. It's a wonderful instrument that badly needs some TLC and replacement of those pesky plastic jacks. Maybe this is something I can volunteer to do for them once I get the jack making thing under my belt. I'll tune it up for them in the near future and clean out some of the bugs and dust on the soundboard, as well. I look forward to my next visit to the little fella.

Until next time...