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...

Day 19: Planing and Scraping the Sides

As you may know, my main project is a harpsichord based on an instrument built by Andreaus Ruckers in 1640. As I was sanding the sides and posting about my progress on Facebook, a couple of my Master Harpsichord Builder friends pointed out that I should only use sandpaper sparingly, especially on instruments and tonewoods. Well, this is an instrument, so I switched from the sander to a little bench plane and a card scraper.

Planing and scraping not only leaves a nicer finish, it's vastly easier. I set the planer to take off an astonishingly small amount of wood - enough to make the resaw lines disappear. Then, I scraped to a fine finish. I sprayed a little water on them to raise the grain (through swelling) and finished up with a green Scotch-Brite pad (please don't tell the Masters).

I should have the finishing done on these pieces this week. As soon as they're completed, I will finalize a faux body design and bend the sides. I will also need to build a small jig to hold the pieces while they cool and dry after bending, so that goes on the shortlist, as well.

Until next time...

Day 18: Sanding Sides

Now that the bridge/pickup box has been completed, I can get on to bending the sides for the faux body. I decided to go with some sapele I had for a guitar build that never happened - at least I never used the wood for a guitar. I picked it up about five years ago, so it's nice to be finally using it. Before I could start on the bend, I cut the wood into 1 3/4" strips. I noticed the resaw marks were pretty nasty on one side. These needed to go, so I started sanding them off with a little orbital sander.

Halfway through the process, I posted a photo to good, old Facebook and my Master harpsichord builders were kind enough to remind me that I should not be sanding tonewood; rather, I should be using hand planes and scrapers, if not my 12" planer. I was already done for the night when I posted the photo, which means I'll not get back to it until tonight. I'm going to start with a card scraper to see how it goes and take it from there.

Until next time...