Day 26: More Bending and Gluing

Once I had one side of the faux body belly bent and glued up, I started on the other. Not much to report from the last entry because it's really the same drill: Bend, let cool and set up overnight, glue. I'm making progress, though it's really been too cold to glue anything for several days over the last couple of weeks.

As you can see in the second photo above, I'm less rigorous with the clamps when cooling a bend off. The final glue-up, though, take a LOT of clamps and a LOT of pressure, especially when using Gorilla Glue, which expands when activated with water.

As you may know, I'm also working on another project, the Molnar Opus 1 Harpsichord Project. I've been at that project for the better part of two years. If you've checked into the blog, you'll know that I generally cool down the build process this time of year because I don't have a climate-controlled shop and the downtime allows me to do maintenance on my tools - cleaning, greasing, oiling, etc.

This year, I'm working on getting my various hand tools - planes, scrapers, spokeshave, etc. - into shape. Some of them are quite old, so it requires the use of a wire brush and some elbow grease to get them back into working order.

Once I got them cleaned up a bit, I went ahead and threw them against the Grizzly wet grinder/sharpener to get a nice, clean edge - most of them needed it. Badly.

I suppose hat's what you get when you purchase your hand tools at antique and junk stores.

Ultimately, I'll hone all of them up using he four new, ceramic "Shapton" stones pictured in the photo above. The grits are 1000/4000 and 3000/8000. I know, it's pretty astonishingly high. Imagine sandpaper at those grit levels. I will be using the 1000, 4000, and 8000 sides progressively until I have edges that I could shave with. Plus, it's really gratifying to grind and hone your own blades.

Until next time...

Day 25: Gluing up the Sides

Once I had the faux body/belly side lamination pieces bent and in the form overnight, I went ahead and started the process of gluing them up. The first decision was centered on which glue to use. I have several options available in the shop: Titebond I, Titebond I Extended (longer setup time), Garrett Wade Gap-filling glue, and Gorilla Glue. I was surprised during a recent visit to a prominent Portland harpsichord builder's shop to learn that he uses Gorilla Glue for all of this bentside laminations, so there you go.

I started with a piece of maple and a piece of sapele. The idea was to present light/dark/light layering that would look kinda cool in the end. Now, the thing about Gorilla Glue is that it's activated by water, so I sprayed both pieces and spread the Gorilla Glue and quickly realized that I don't really have enough strong clamps for the lamination process. It takes a LOT of clamps and they must be really, really strong to hold the lamination pieces in place, even after they've been bent.

As you can see in the photo above, I did the best I could, but the Gorilla Glue expands when it's activated, which resulted in a slight spreading of the pieces that left discernible gaps between them, which is simply unacceptable. The result is that I will be capping the sides with a thin piece of bent maple. This will be a vastly easier task than the laminations, yet it is a bit disappointing that I have to do it at all. Observe my progress below.

I should have taken a close-up of the final product so you could see the little gaps. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. Given the fact that I'm on a roll and will be capping the pieces, I'm going to go ahead and bend and laminate the other belly side today. Besides, we're snowed in - what better way to spend one's Snow Day, right?

Until next time...

Day 24: Laminating the Sides

After conferring with my neighbor, a master-of-everything kinda guy, I decided to go ahead and laminate the faux body sides to strengthen them. This means I will be layering two 3mm pieces of maple around one 3mm sapele strip. Before embarking on bending the maple, I threw the pieces of sapele back into the mold just to make sure everything was lining up properly. It was.

The first step of the lamination is to bend the pieces so they will more easily conform to the mold when it's time to laminate. This means I got to break out my trusty, old Home Depot bending tool setup.

Rather than spend hundreds of dollars on a bending tool from a luthier supply company, I put this together for around $30 and it works great. You can see in the photo below how the strips bent using it.

I left them in the mold for overnight cooling/drying and will be gluing them up tonight. It should be interesting to see if I can get a tight enough seal between the layers. Only time will tell.

Until next time...

Day 23: Resawing Some Maple

In thinking about preparing the sides, I decided to go ahead and laminate the sapele with some figured/flamed maple. This will provide a nice contrast, as well as strengthen them against unforeseen mishaps. The first step in the process was to resaw the maple.

Tonight, I will plane the pieces down to 3mm thickness and get them sanded for the lamination, which I may also start tonight. I can at least get the pieces into the mold for drying overnight.

Until next time...

Day 22: The Right Tools

In sculpting the contours of the body, I was using a tiny, cheap plane I purchased as a pack of three from Harbor Freight. I was having a heckuva time with it and figured it was my lack of experience that was causing the various unintended scratches and gouges I was making in the poor thing. Fortunately, I had ordered an ebony thumb plane from Woodcraft for an unrelated project and it arrived yesterday. I went ahead and tried it out on the body and, voila!, I was amazed.

The thing just glides over the wood and shaves off astonishingly thin curls like a hot knife through butter. I've been making an effort over the last six months to stop purchasing tools at HF and purchase, perhaps not the best, but tools that are vastly better than the Chinese, plastic crap from that place. In this case, the little thumb plane was only $20 - and worth every penny. I love Woodcraft. Now, where's the garbage can?

Until next time...

Day 21: Working the Body

I was able to make some progress on contouring the main body block over this last weekend. First, I drew a design on the block using one of the faux body bent sides. I then cut out the contours using Little Buddy, my Delta 12" bandsaw.

The plan was to use the Ridgid oscillating spindle sander to rough out the contours and then use a small hand - or thumb - plane to smooth out the edges.

I love it when a plan comes together.

I'll continue to work on the contours until I'm happy they the match on both sides. Then, I'll begin the process of mounting the bent sides.

Until then...

Day 20: Bending the Sides

Once I got the side pieces planed and scraped into submission, I could go ahead and start bending them. First, a note about my custom bending tool: I built the tool using $12 of galvanized pipe from Home Depot and a $20 heat gun from Harbor Freight. The result is an affordable workhorse that goes up to 1160 degrees Fahrenheit (about 300 on the pipe) and gets the job done.

While the bending tool was heating up, I drilled a piece of MDF and cut some dowel to create a bending form for the sides. To accomplish this, I taped the traced plan to the MDF and used a Forstner bit to tap in starter holes, which I enlarged with an awl. I then drilled the holes the depth of the Forstner bit (about 1/2"), shot a little Garrett Wade glue into each, and hammered the pegs home, using a square to make sure they were straight.

The result was a form that worked pretty well. The point of a form is to hold the bent wood in place while it cools and dries. I chose to leave the sides in overnight. First, I worked on the belly.

I then completed it with the top/shoulder.

You will notice some overlap. This is due to the lengths of the wood I'm using (originally intended for guitar sides). I've not yet come up with a final design, so I decided to let the bending process help me visualize what that might end up looking like. At this point, it looks like the pieces will blend into each other nicely - I hope. The next step will be to release the pieces and bend the other side. Then, I will work on the blending and cutting to size for tacking onto the body.

Until next time...