Day 167: Bridge Update

After reviewing the bends in the bridges via Facebook photo, Owen Daly declared them inadequate. Dammit. Now, you know that I always take Owen's comments seriously - all of them. So, this time, I compared the bridges to the plan and, while Owen is right - the lower end of the 8' needs a little more roundness - I believe I can achieve that with a little extra bending to bring it into shape. The 4' will work just fine.

And I still get to cut them on the band saw with its table tilted at 30 degrees. The fun just never stops.

On a tangentially related note, neither travel to the Oregon Coast nor food poisoning will stop the acquisitions at Tortuga Early Instruments. I mentioned the new CNC machine in a previous post and, well, here it is assembled and ready to go:

Cool Craigslist Guy sold it to me as an XL (19" x 33" cutting area), so I expanded it to XXL with an extension kit from the manufacturer, Carbide3D. This required basically gutting the thing and reinstalling the y-axis rails, as well as all of the wiring. Fortunately, everything was clearly marked and their online installation instructions are top-notch. I was able to test their Hello World design with a felt pen taped to the router and it worked just great.

I then realized I needed a dedicated computer of some kind to run the machine. The technical requirements to run Carbide Motion are not too bad, so I settled on an Insignia tablet I found on eBay for $200. Right before clicking the Commit to Buy button, I decided to give Craigslist a shot and, wouldn't you know it, another Cool Craigslist Guy was offering an 11" Windows 10 tablet with a keyboard, an extra 128gb SD card, and a Swiss Army case for $40. So, there you go.

The thing is tiny, but looks much bigger in the photo. Regardless, it runs the software just fine. What will I do with the CNC contraption? Well, I've already been approached by an experienced harpsichord builder to explore cutting intrument registers (jack guides) on the thing. The tolerances at which the machine cuts are just right for this sort of operation and I may or may not have other mini-projects in mind, as well. I'll keep you posted as this new tool continues to transform the way I cut wood.

Until next time...