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)...