It's sanding weekend, innit?!

Oh how I HATE my thickness sander. Does a terrible job at the moment. I'm going back to hand planes and scrapers.

Thickness sander - if you read this: you have one week to change that crappy attitude, or you're going back to being a lathe. I mean it.

Wanted: a diagnosis...

There might be something seriously wrong with me. I keep starting new projects when I really should finish some of the ones that are under way already. Like the three piccolos on the bench. Like Robin's soundboard. Or any of the ukuleles on the order list.

But what do I do? I renovate an old plane and start jointing and bookmatching some koa sets I got this summer. And who will get the three koa ukes I'll build? Me, Mange and Robin of course...

No sanding this weekend. Got stuck in Tbilisi because of fog over the airport. But on Saturday, I promise.

Robin's new soundboard

Halves are jointed and glued. This setup with string and wedges is really effective and, better still, easily stored. This is important when you're building at home, but I have seen really nice board and clamp systems. Maybe I'll build one of those some day.

Thickness sanding this weekend. It makes too much noise to do in the evenings. And I need to empty the dust collector.

Maybe I could make Robin do that for me?

New tools

Santa came early, packing concealed knives. I'm excited, and very grateful to Rob at Metropolitan Music. A very good webshop, check them out at www.metmusic.com

Resurrection of number 8, pt 2.

I got busy with one of the sharpest knives, and after 20 minutes I had gotten rid of the cedar and the glue around the edges. Even the wood under the fretboard extension was easily removed.

And we found some very nice cedar for the new soundboard. From Rob C, even.

Resurrection of number 8, pt 1.

So tonight Robin came by with the broken soprano. I told him I'd take it in, but I wouldn't open the case. I didn't think I could stand looking at it.

Bad news: it was a lot more broken than I would imagine possible.

Good news 1: it was just the top, sides and back were intact.

Good news 2: I handled the encounter better than I thought I would. Lump in throat but no tears.