Bridges, vises and robots

In the humble abode of the Argapanator, stuff is after all happening. The piccolos have bridges. It was quite hard to shape them without sandpaper, and me whittling led to a bit more elaborate shape elements. Don't know if any of those are keepers yet - I'm quite happy with the more simplistic bridges I've used thus far. But they look rather good so I won't pop them off and start over. 

Maybe I'll slather on some more shellac tomorrow, before I go to Tel Aviv again to work. 

And now a word about my vises. In the pic you can see my Zyliss vise to the right, and my inline vise to the left. Between them is my latest addition, an inset vise from LeeValley / Veritas. A very fun job it was, to route the recess for it! Done with my new Record 71 1/2 router plane, no electricity was killed in the process. 

I made the cut-out for the handle so the Zyliss can be used on the short side of the bench - I use it like that for example when sharpening handsaws. I know I'm moving backwards in time but why not. 

The inset vise I'll use for planing. A few dog holes at the other ends and I'm ready to go. 

The inline vise also comes from LeeValley but it was quite cheap despite that. I bought it on a whim but it has proven to be really useful and versatile. And would you believe it, I saw the exact same vise in a book about guitar building. 

Now for the serious stuff. We bought the kids a wooden robot. They played with it for 15 minutes then said, "can we make our own, the same but much better?" Of course we could, and we did. Using only hand tools to plane, cut out and square all parts we had a grand time. The slots were cut on the small table saw though. 

So now all parts are ready. I expect robot number I to be done with number II when we wake up tomorrow.