Shellac finish

Just a quick post to show the French polish job so far on these two. I'll be darned if it isn't better than on my regular ones (the ones where the parts are sanded and scraped rather than planed.)

But I also changed my finishing method a bit, remember those heavy wash coats. 

Resonator activities

Last time I got out to the big workshop someone had left with the router table. So today I brought my jerry rigged table with the smaller router. 

It works really well, just have to make sure it's securely clamped. 

And then this! A fantastic old book press that I got from my friend, it's now essential in the making of reso skeletons. Clamping large flat pieces together is rather tricky without a press and this one is perfectly flat and very powerful. 

I make the skeletons by layering plywood pieces of different thickness. Between the glueing steps I route out the well and the contours using the top most piece as a guide for the flush cut router bit. 

Then I cut out the bottom of the well so what remains is just a ledge for the cone. 

And now, duct tape in luthery! I taped two halves tightly together and drilled the holes around the edges. These holes are for 8 mm dowels, and I placed them so the dowels will protrude outside the plywood. I'll sand that off to get a flat spot for the sides to rest on. 

A Saturday well spent

An electrician was supposed to come and fix stuff today but couldn't make it. So I got some time for myself in the cave. 

The zs piccolos got a few coats of shellac. They are starting to look really good. 

And would you believe it, I actually routed off the excess from the top and back with a flush cut bit! My small router that I found in the trash years ago works really good, it's mounted in a board that I clamp to the bench. I'll show pics next time it's up. 

Not much left now on this one:

What else... well there's the planing board I threw together from thick birch plywood and a sample of a rubber roofing sheet. The friction alone will hold small parts but I also cut dados with my plow plane so I can put wooden strips as planing stops. Doesn't matter if the plane hits one of those of course. 

I started on a rather lovely spruce top. I think I want a spruce top soprano. With rosewood back and sides. 

Anyway here are the dados and stops in a close-up. One of the stops is an old guitar brace that I swapped.