Day 46: First Painting

I applied the first layer of paint to the sharps last night. The only thing more terrifying so far has been slicing the keys up freehand on the band saw. Well, it turns out it's not really that bad. The one thing I didn't realize is that spray paint covers everything within a ten foot radius, which is nice. Safety tip: Don't spray paint anything black if your car is white and you left the garage door opened. The photo below illustrates the first coat. I'll add another coat tonight and give it another 24 hours to dry before sanding with 320-grit sandpaper.

Because watching paint dry is about as much fun as waiting for water to boil, I decided to get started on slicing and dicing the natural key covers from the African blackwood I cut into 1/8" veneers a couple of months ago. The first cuts are for the front-to-back measurements at 1 3/8" with the grain also running front to back.

I'll trim these for width using the band saw now that they're so small. This is what makes the project so interesting for me. I've spent the better part of the last four months working on this small scale with these minute tolerances for the keyboard parts. Once I've completed them, I move on to creating the case, which is furniture-sized work. I get the best of both woodworking worlds and a harpsichord to boot!

Until next time...