Day 86: Lamination It Is

After visiting master harpsichord builder Paul Irvin's shop last weekend, I've made a management decision: to go with laminated sides for this first instrument. Sure, I'd love to bend the sides with a huge steam box or bending tool, I just don't have the room or the power in the shop to make this happen. Paul also described how he's experienced "cupping" when he's attempted bending in the past. This happens when the bent wood curls in from the width (sides), rather than the length.

Given the fact that I don't have 220v in the shop, the potential for cupping, and the fact that I want to get on with things, I've decided to go ahead and laminate the sides for this instrument. Besides, I'm keeping this one and there is precious little chance anyone is going to order an instrument from me based on whether I laminated its sides or not. In fact, there's precious little chance anyone will order an instrument from me. Ever. According to Mr. Miller's eBook Most Excellent, the first step in the lamination process is to construct the form. Yes, there is a little bending involved, but they're really thin sheets. The photo below illstrates part of that form.

These are mounted to the sides of the form and hold the cross members that keep the lamination sheets under control. The photo below is from Mr. Miller's eBook Most Excellent and more clearly illustrates what I'm trying to describe.

Photo courtesy of The Harpsichord Project eBook 3.1 by Ernest Miller

The parts in the first photo above are the small blocks on the sides in the second photo above. Now that they are all cut and drilled, I can begin preparing the cross members and all of the other pieces necessary to get this thing completed. I'll also spend some time gathering the bolts, nuts and clamps you see in the photo.

In my ongoing efforts at improving the shop with tools and accessories, I acquired three new gadgets this past week. The first is Boeshield T-9 protectant for the table saw. Okay, it's not exactly a gadget, but it is something I'll continue to use for the rest of my shop days. Boeshield T-9 was developed by The Boeing Company as a metal protectant for highly corrosive environments. The table saw top is extremely sensitive to moisture and rusts if I look at it sideways. The T-9 will prevent this from happening in the future. One of the ingredients is paraffin wax, so it will help with pushing lots of wood though the machine, as well.

Another improvement is a "bench hook" first described to me by Jan van Capelle, a master luthier located in Holland. I whipped this little gadget together from shop scraps; it essentially acts as a brace for small tasks such as carving, chiseling and otherwise creating wood shavings.

In the second photo above, I'm carving the notch that holds a passive pickup for a little electric cello project I'm completing for my youngest son, Reed. This tool was great at holding the cello body fast while I carved away with a 1/2" chisel. I expect to use it a lot more in the future.

Finally, I welcomed a new Stanley family member to the fold last week.

When I head out to Sandy to see my kids, I occasionally stop at an antique/junk/auction shop in Orient. From time to time, they have hand planes in various states of disrepair. The one above is not in bad shape at all and only cost $15 - I had to pass on a couple others that were more expensive and rusted beyond repair. I'm not sure if the new member is a 3 or 4. It's fairly new, yet still of high quality. I look forward to cleaning it up and putting it to work soon.

Until next time...

Project Update: A New Zero-clearance Throat Insert

Because I've been ill and cleaning and working on birthday gifts and friend projects, I've gotten just about as much done with regard to the instrument in the last couple of months as I did over the holidays - i.e., precisely nothing. I have, though, organized the shop (again), purchased a new table saw, built a large assembly table and planned for great things; yet a wise person once said, "All the planning in the world does not a completed project make." Indeed.

So, in keeping with my theme of making no progress on the instrument, I've been working on a friend project that requires me to rip some thin strips of cedar. I love my new table saw. I really do. But the throat inserts that came with it are just one step above completely useless. The inserts do not sit flush with the table so that any wood I'm pushing through drops down a couple of millimeters and the mounting screws stick up above the plates so that the wood catches on them. Useless.

A zero-clearance throat insert is intended to help manage thin rip cuts on the table saw, and I may leave it in place for good, or at least until I need to make any angled cuts. The first photo below displays the regular (red) insert that I use for most cuts (until I build or purchase another). You can see how it offers a somewhat large space where the blade protudes from the bottom of the saw. If I were cutting, say, the 1/16" thick laminates for the sharps on a keyboard, they would fall right through the red insert into the saw, or worse, kick back into my precious body. A zero-clearance insert mitigates against this, making the Tortuga Early Instruments Worldwide Headquarters a safer place because, as you know, it's safety first for the Tortuga.

Given the awkwardness of the current set of inserts, I was hesitant to purchase a zero-clearance version from Grizzly. I also did not have the bandwidth or timing for a trip to Woodcraft, Rockler or Woodcrafters, so I decided to use a piece of the scrap walnut I picked up from the FREE bin outside of Goby Walnut and Hardwoods. I resawed the piece on Little Buddy (the Delta 12" band saw) and planed it down until it was just right (about 10mm). I then finished it with two coats of Tru-Oil. The photos below document the process. The "fun" part was pushing the blade up and through the insert while the saw was running.

It really is a thing of utilitarian beauty and only took me about a half hour to create (my time is entirely worth it - at this time). Granted, a quick $25 spent at one of the supply stores would have solved this "problem," yet I needed to make something again. It was wonderful to be back in a creative space where I was making without a plan and hoping for the best. As you can see, my hopes and dreams were fulfilled.

On an unrelated matter: I've got a line on a large piece of pipe to build a bentside bending tool. My dude hasn't yet delivered, but he says they're cutting the pipe this week and I'm welcomed to any leftover they may produce, I just hope it's long enough. I may also ask him for some design and welding help with the final bender setup - they build trailers, so they've forgotten more about welding than I currently know, which isn't much. Hopefully, I'll have the bender put together in the next month so I can get to that bentside and get on with completing this thing.

Until next time...

Project Update: Cleaning for a Visit

I'm still recovering a bit from the various illnesses, though I was able to make some progress on getting things organized over the weekend. I had offered a couple of months ago to open up Tortuga Early Instruments Worldwide Headquarters to the Guild of Oregon Woodworkers members on this last weekend and it kind of snuck up on me. Okay, it totally snuck up on me. I worked my rear-end off on Friday and early Saturday to get it into shape, which was good because I did have visits. The one remark I appreciated when I apologized for not having it 100% was, "Hey, it's a shop."

Before

After

I know, it doesn't look that much different before than after, but it is. I cleared out a place to put the new toolbox and started transferring tools and small wood pieces to it, put the jointer up on a mobile base I had purchased for it months ago, and got rid of stuff to Goodwill that I hadn't touched in over a year. It is cleaner. It really, really is. I promise.

As you can see in the photo above, I was able to get the assembly table crossbeams installed on Friday, making the table much more stable. I had intended to route out and install t-tracks into the table to accept the miter guage from the table saw. One of the GOW dudes who showed up simply said, "Why don't you just put the saw on some plywood? The point of the outfeed function is to catch the wood, right? And the chances of you perfectly aligning the tracks are pretty small." Duh. So, I decided to go ahead and order up a mobile base from Grizzly for the table saw; it will elevate the saw sufficiently while making it much easier to move the beast around.

Finally, I still have a couple of projects to complete before getting back to the instrument. The electric cello for my son still awaits, as do a couple of friend projects. Oh, and I have a line on some pipe that will be sufficiently large for the bentside bending tool - more on this later.

Until next time...

Project Update: Back at It

The CTScan is still pending, but I'm feeling much, much better. So much better, in fact, that I've jumped back out into the shop.

The beer is optional.

While out there, I decided to go ahead and complete the assembly table before starting the case of the instrument, a pretty big job. Rather than just slam lag bolts into the sides, I decided to use eye bolts because I can foresee a time when I will need to use rope to secure the pine boards when jointing the case bottom, as well as other large pieces.

I just need to install the 2x4 cross beams and it's done!

On an unrelated note, two major events are taking place this weekend in the Portland area: A Gathering of the Guilds at the Oregon Convention Center and the Handmade Musical Instrument Exhibit at Marylhurst University. Admission is free to the Gathering and $3 for the Instrument Exhibit. I'll be attending both. In fact, I'm displaying the keyboard at the Gathering this Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Guild of Oregon Woodworkers Show and Tell booth.

It should prove to be an informative and interesting weekend, indeed.

Until next time...

Project Update: The Tortuga Always Wins

Greetings from the house attached to Tortuga Early Instruments Worldwide Headquarters! I wish I could report I'm doing much better healthwise, but I'm still having a significant amount of kidney pain. I'll be returning to the doc this afternoon to try and discover why. I've not set foot in the shop for more than a week and the withdrawals from that are nearly worse than the kidney thing.

Some good news to note is that I'll be displaying the keyboard at A Gathering of the Guilds at Oregon Convention Center on April 24, 25 and 26 - that's next Friday, Saturday and Sunday. My work will be included with other members' works from the Guild of Oregon Woodworkers. It will be fun to see what sort of reactions it prompts, if any. Of course, I'll also provide a summary sheet of exactly what a harpsichord is, what the immediate and long-term goals are for the instrument and Tortuga Early Instruments, etc. I hope people like what I've done so far.

I go off the antibiotics this Sunday and will still need a few days for the stuff to work its way out of my system before I can jump back into the shop. At least, that's the plan so far. I may learn differently this afternoon. They want me to have a followup CTScan, which I do not take as a good sign. The additional scan and the pain are causes for some pretty deep concern here, but I've learned over the years to not make up stories until I have all the facts. Then, all bets are off. Please send me your prayers, good energy and general good wishes (I think I may need them).

And don't forget: the Tortuga always wins.

Until next time...

Project Update: Pausing to Heal and Wax Philosophic

Well, I've gone and gotten a massive kidney infection and will be laying off the project for at least two weeks while I heal and take an antibiotic that threatens to shatter my tendons should I attempt to lift anything. Or walk uphill. Or breathe. Needless to say, I'm not going to make any progress on the project for at least a fortnight. Dammit.

Before I came down with the latest malady, I was able to work up a crosscut sled for the table saw. This is an important safety measure for the Tortuga Early Instruments Worldwide Headquarters, especially when I cut smaller items. You simply cradle the wood you intend to cut gently in the sled and then cut away. The fence nearest the operator prevents kickback because, you know, it's never good to have small pieces of wood flying past your head at high speeds. I've not yet run the blade through the sled in the photo below.

Along with this, I still have a lot of work to do on the assembly/outfeed table before I consider it completed:

1. Install two aluminum (aluminium for my UK friends) t-tracks in the table to accomodate the crosscut sled and miter gauge rods,
2. Install the 2x4 crossbeams to the legs using lag bolts (I still need to pick up washers of sufficient size),
3. Install dividers underneath the top to store wood vertically in what I consider a more organized manner than shifting the piles next to the walls to a larger pile under the table top,
4. Lag the top into the legs using large eye-bolts from which I can hang various tools, gadgets and gizmos for easy access,
5. Drill 3/4" holes in the table top for use with holdfasts and dogs and 
6. Install a torsion box grid system under the top to further stabilize it to act as the bottom of the inevitable go-bar setup (still need to work on the ceiling mount for that).

It seems nothing is ever quick-and-dirty at Tortuga Early Instruments Worldwide Headquarters. Then again, I made this bending tool using $12 worth of pipe and fittings from Home Depot and a $20 heat gun from Harbor Freight.

Okay, some things are quick-and-dirty. 

Speaking of quick-and-dirty, I've been struggling with my 12" compound sliding miter saw since I purchased it four years ago; it just never made a good, straight cut. Ever. So, I got to looking at the miter fence and, lo and behold, it's held on by four bolts. Even more amazing is how I discovered those bolts actually determine the alignment of the fence. As I loosened them and aligned the fence with the blade, I said a little prayer for the bonehead who originally assembled the saw without properly aligning the fence to the blade. May he or she someday discover that simply using a square to align a compound sliding miter saw fence to its blade during initial setup is a metaphor for life.

Until next time (in at least two weeks)...

Project Update: Assembly Table Mostly Completed

The chest cold has about subsided, so I was able to get back into the shop last night to begin the process of finishing up the assembly table. It went fairly smoothly (gotta remember that "measure twice, cut once" thing) and it's 95% completed. I just need to mount the top and bottom with lag bolts into the legs, get the 2x4 crossbeams in place using lag bolts and drill some holes for iron holdfasts. These are a great way to clamp large pieces to the table; they wedge themselves in with a strike of a mallet on the top of the holdfast and then you tap it on the back to get it to come on out. The same holes will also accommodate bench dogs for clamping. As you can see from the links, the holes will need to be 3/4" and I will be adding a couple of quick-release vises to the table over time to use with the dogs.

I will be adding dividers under the table for the various wood species I have buried in boxes along the shop walls. This will help me keep the woods organized and clear the walls so I can move tools closer to them, creating more working space in the shop. I'll be extending the table saw miter slots with miter channels routed and placed into the assembly table to maximize it as an outfeed table for use with the table saw miter gauge and crosscut sled I intend to build soon. Finally, I will be adding a torsion grid structure underneath the top to support the go-bar setup in the near future, but I need to get back to work on the instrument case, as well as a side project for my son that's due on the 9th (eight days from today - and that's no April Fool's joke) for his birthday.

Until next time...