Day 183: Jack Blanks the Traditional Way

Well, hello there! It's been a while since we last spoke. As you may recall, in my last post about jack blanks, I was executing on a hair-brained scheme to cut them on the CNC. Unfortunately, that's just not the way to go with these complex, little fellas. Sometimes, returning to first principles is the best way to go. Okay, using table and band saws is not exactly doing it like the Old Guys, but you know what I mean.

Since we last met up, I've gotten rid of some stuff and acquired some stuff. Before updating you on instrument progress, I thought I'd give a quick introduction to a few of the changes that have taken place at Tortuga Early Instruments Worldwide Headquarters over the last six or so months. First, I upgraded the CNC bed. While I won't be using it for much of this instrument, I will be cutting jack tongues with it later this month. The new CNC bed is composed of four aluminum (aluminium for my friends in the UK) t-track plates that will make it easier to clamp materials for cutting and carving.

Next, I purchased a Craftsman 6 1/8" jointer with a nice, long bed from Cool Craigslist Guy. The price was right because he had let it fall into a state of disrepair. He had lost the safety button for the power switch, cut the ground prong off the power plug, had the outfeed bed so out of level it sniped about 1/4" on the end of every cut, the adjustment wheels were hanging on by a thread and, as you can see below, he let it rust terribly. I can only imagine: "This thing is a piece of crap. I'm going to put it on Craigslist tomorrow and get it the hell out of my garage for good." His loss, my gain.

I broke out the WD-40 and a Scotch-Brite pad and went to town.

The rust practically melted off, resulting in this:

I know, I'm committed to hand tools and have owned four previous jointers, but it was time, especially with the MIDI keyboard project coming to fruition.

In the interest of keeping things on the straight and narrow, I also recently purchased a shiny new DeWalt 735 planer.

The thing is absolutely amazing (too many nifty features to mention here) and I now feel spoiled. Don't worry...I'll get over it.

Okay, back to the instrument. Once I had completed the design of the MIDI keyboard, I could confidently, and without distraction, jump back onto making the jacks. After an abortive attempt or five with the CNC, I decided to just cut them on the table saw and use a couple of jigs Owen Daly was kind enough to loan me. The first step in this process was to cut some 1" beech down to a more reasonable thickness (closer to 1/2").

I resawed the board and did a finishing pass or two on the new planer. The result? Material that was as smooth as glass and ready for the table saw.

Once I got the little pieces squared up, I went to town.

One pile became two piles in short order.

Though I need 104 jacks, I cut 120 blanks to accommodate the inevitable screwups I will introduce into the process.

The next step will be to cut the tongue slots and drill some minute (.4-.6mm) holes in the things using Owen's jigs and some astonishingly small PCB drill bits I acquired for the MIDI keyboard project. It's good to be back in the shop doing what I love: building a harpsichord. I can't wait to share my progress with you as I complete this mini-project.

Until next time...