Posted by Jerry on September 29th, 2004 — Posted in Music, Woodwork
I was giving some thought the other day to how best to put together an online course in fiddle playing. But I am easily distracted, and out of idle curiosity started searching for instructions for making a violin – preferably in as few steps as possible and in the simplest manner possible. But this is a violin we are talking about – they aren’t meant to be easy are they? Well, structurally we are just talking about a box with a handle on it… Anyhow, I encountered Derek Roberts’ site devoted to detailed instructions on making a violin in 24 days – or at least 24 episodes. It is beautifully structured and well illustrated. Even if you are not thinking of making a fiddle – the site will give great insight into what goes into making up a violin. He starts with selecting the wood, and goes from there. It has full marks from my point of view – and I’ll be adding a link from my band’s web site. After all, if you are thinking of doing an online course in fiddle playing, you’d better think about getting yourself a fiddle! Highly recommended 🙂
cheers
Jerry
Comments Off on Making a violin in 24 steps
Posted by Jerry on September 27th, 2004 — Posted in DIY, Technology, Woodwork
A while ago I made a primitive electric motor using instructions from an old school science book – My excuse was that I wanted my then pre-teen daughter to see how they worked, but really it was as much for my own satisfaction and fun 😉
The one I made used a large bolt (with corresponding nut and washers at each end for balance) which was inserted transversely through a pre-drilled hole in a cylinder of wood. The axis of the cylinder had a couple of nails inserted as axles – and the rotor assembly was supported on thick wire supports. I wound a fairly long length of insulated wire around the bolt and set up two electromagnets made the same way and lined up with the head and nut of the bolt. I used a couple of pieces of tin can tacked to the wooden shaft as contacts for the brushes (which were themselves made from the springy tin cut from a tin can and sanded to make a good contact surface. There were not that many windings so it took four of the big square ‘dolphin torch’ batteries to make it go – but it worked – to the amazement of my neighbour 🙂
A slightly similar (and simpler) one can be found at this site – their motor looks like this:
and they give instructions for making it.
Today, doing a bit of surfing I came across a web site with images of a wide range of early electric motors and their precursors – some fascinating devices! I loved the magnetic beam engine…
Enjoy!
Cheers
Jerry
2 Comments »
Posted by Jerry on September 26th, 2004 — Posted in Woodwork
I read about a great finishing technique in Fine Woodworking magazine – it involved treating the varnish as though it were French polish. Now I’ve never been really great at applying smooth finishes – I usually wind up rushing things and putting on too thick a layer of polyurathane varnish and then trying to sand back runs and making a general mess of things.
This week a friend came over bearing an unfinished wooden box, and asking very very nicely if I could just make a small lid insert and slap on a coat of varnish. Obviously she had never seen any of my finished work or she might have looked elsewhere.
I did have some 3mm MDF for the insert and was able to cut it accurately but the finish was the daunting part. Now, I have in the past been able to get a slight french accent on my polish, if not actually achieve the essence of french polish.
Enter Fine Woodworking… the box was assembled, but as yet had no hinges or catches – a good thing – but it was just in roughly dressed timber and still had quite a rough surface. So I set to work with 300 grit sandpaper on my triton orbital sanding attachment, and gave all six surfaces a bit of a going over, then went to a couple of finer grades up to 1500 grit until the surface felt like talc. Then making sure all my brushes were locked away, I cut up some chux superwipes into thirds and folded them over to make a pad, and using a small amount of Wattyl Estapol Gloss I rubbed the gloss varnish into the timber as though it were shellac dissolved in spirit – and voila! one of the best smoothest finishes I have achieved so far!
I reckon the box should be finished and assembled by about Wednesday – more then!
Addendum: And here is the completed box
The embroidery is by Annie Whitsed
Cheers
Jerry
Comments Off on wood finishing – a new technique
Posted by Jerry on September 25th, 2004 — Posted in DIY, Journal, Woodwork
Well, I’m not likely to get me welder’s certificate anytime soon!
At least I was able to strike an arc and this time I didn’t just burn a hole through the metal like I did the last time I tried. I was able to actually lay down some metal on the mild steel plate – though it was a bit haphazard. you see, the arc is so bright you need to wear this really really dark shade on the protective helmet to avoid eye damage.
Thing is you can’t see a thing when the shade is down. I tried it outside and could see a faint outline of the table where I was meant to be working, but there was too much light coming in from behind the helmet. So back into the garage I went. There I set up a couple of the band’s spotlights shining directly onto the work – that did the trick!
Now I just need to be able to keep the arc going for a while so it builds up a continuous bead of weld metal. Maybe I’ll have better luck tomorrow….
I did manage to find a good web site for the amateur welder though – just click the link 🙂
Cheers
Jerry
Comments Off on Arc welding – my second attempt
Posted by Jerry on September 18th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Woodwork
Woody stuff…
One of the things I picked up at the wood show was a thread cutter for wooden dowels – this will open up a number of possibilities – particularly for building embroidery frames with adjustable tension. The prospect of collapsible or adjustable-height stools has a certain appeal too – especially for camping at folk music festivals
I have since bought the matching 5/8″ drill bit for the 3/4″ tap to match the 3/4″ thread cutter. And they work a treat. Okay, so I put a square nut on the end of a broom handle, but it’s a start!
And I have been trying to set up my dovetail jig for ages – and managed to destroy the bearing on the dovetail router bit – so a trip to Carba-tec got me a replacement bit (AUS$29.95) that’ll teach me to release the plunge on the router too soon! You would think that a simple chinese half-inch dovetail jig would be easy to set up, but I needed to see the demo at the wood show to learn that if the offset for the vertical piece is inboard of the horizontal piece then tearout is much less of a problem. I have also learnt to use backing pieces to stop this problem altogether… oh well we live and learn 🙂
Cheers
Jerry
3 Comments »
