Day 32: Ship-Shape Sharps

I finished cutting all of the sharps. The process gave me pause for reflection regarding my band saw blade - I think I need a new one because the cuts were a bit frayed. Heck, the blade came with the saw when I purchased it; I probably should have picked up a new one before now. Regardless, the entire cut sequence went smoothly over the course of two days, resulting in 21 sharps ready to go.

Sanding them was a quick matter. I used a sanding block with 220 grit sandpaper, some tasty indie pop music on the Bose, and a cold Miller High Life (just like high school). I had the entire batch completed within 30 minutes.

I positioned one of the sharps on one of the longer key pieces in the photo above so you could see how I will be mounting all of them at a later date. Now, it's on to notching the end of each key. These notches will work with the end rail guide pins to help the keys remain stable (i.e., no clacking allowed) as the instrument is played.

I will initially notch them on the band saw using a blade with more teeth. Saw blades like this are measured in Teeth Per Inch (TPI). The general rule is that you want at least 3 TPI, which depends entirely on the height of the wood you are cutting. Because this is such a small cut with astonishingly miniscule tolerances, I'll be using a thinner blade with more teeth. When completed, I will flange the end of each using my trusty Dremel tool. If this is not clear, you'll see what I'm talking about soon enough.

Until then...