Day 8: Angling the Fingerboard

I wasn't able to make the April 9 deadline, but I did show the project to Reed and he's excited to see it come to completion. I smoked a brisket and made a birthday cake, which helped soften the blow. He was speechless for a bit when he first saw it and said, "I didn't expect that." Frankly, who would? It's not your usual birthday gift, right?

I'm feeling better these days, though I still have some residual pain and the second CTScan is pending. I've been able to jump back out into the shop to work on this and my other little project. My first task was to clean. I had left the shop with a fine layer of sawdust on everything and the assembly table was a jumbled mess. Once I got things cleaned up, I went ahead and started the process of figuring out how to mount the neck to the body at the correct angle.

As I worked on it, I could see where I screwed up. I should have left more wood on both the body and neck to create a good, solid joint between the two. Of course, I can remedy this, but I would have much preferred an alternate path. In this case, I will need to use a single piece of square dowel (for lack of a better term) to hold the neck and keep it from twisting over time. I wish I could have countersunk the neck into the body, but, as they say, hindsight is 20/20. Regardless, I'll ensure the joint is solid and the instrument plays well for years to come.

Until next time...

Day 7: Cutting Up

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 the April 9th deadline. Dammit.

The plan now is to bring Reed over on his birthday and introduce him to the instrument in its current state of disrepair. I've cut the body and neck to length and began sanding the neck down using card scrapers and sandpapers of various grits. This is always a difficult task, but one that cannot be avoided, so here I am.

I still have a LOT to do on this thing. The most difficult task will probably be mounting the neck to the body. I can't just glue it on and there is no way I can bolt it on without it becoming Frankencello. I will attach a protruding geometric block of wood to the neck, most likely a square, and route out the same in the body for insertion and glue up. This will prevent the neck from moving around after being glued while also providing additional stability to mitigate against the pressure that is inevitably put on the neck during play.

As you can see in the photo above, I was thinking of bending a long strip of maple into a "faux body" - a sort of outline of a cello body for him to rest his legs on - but, on further consideration, I think I will just mount extensions from the body that are curved a bit. I will also put one near the top of the body to mimic the body depth of an acoustic (i.e., traditional) cello. There is a still a lot to do on this instrument. The illnesses have thrown me for a real loop on this one. I'm hoping he understands and might even work with me to complete it - he's an experienced woodworker in his own right and I would very much enjoy working with him in the shop again.

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

Project Update: Assembly Table Nearly Completed

After a long delay in which I developed a nasty chest cold and then designed and built out a large assembly table for the shop, I'm ready to return to completing the cello. The assembly table was necessary for another project I'm working on and it gives me more room to work on everything. It's about 95% completed, but I need to get back to work. Because I've been using a 2' x 5' bench for many years now, it recently became glaringly apparent that I needed a larger bench/table, so there it is.

It's crunch time - the instrument is due to be delivered to Reed on the 9th, which is 8 days from today. And that's no April Fool's joke. I think I can get it done in time. I just need to do some cutting, shaping, sanding, jointing, finishing...ugh. I can do this, right?

Until next time...