Impossible joint and instagram

I'm still alive.

I got sucked into the sub-world of instagram to connect with fellow chilean woodworkers and that made me lazy to write and gave me lots of input to practice. I see a joint I haven't tried, and go to the bench to make one similar.

Today saw the "impossible" joint in the column and could not figure out the drawing, so went ahead and cut a test joint:

This is the drawing:

I cannot see the numbers. After lots of thought and the aforementioned fucked up test cut, I discovered the numbers. The dovetails  on the big side have sizes of 240-188 and 188-134. The slope of the dovetails are not the same (as I was expecting since the mitres are at 45 degrees), one is 52/200 and the other 54/200. I guess that's allowance so they can slip into each other.

The test I made had the upper dovetail going inwards instead of outwards, so it doesn't work. But I think I know how it works so I will try it again tomorrow or the day after.

Furthermore, I've came to realise that working only with handtools is a lot of physical work. I'm making a "small" 1.5 meters box for julia for 2 months already, and I doubt it will be finished any time soon. The thing is too heavy and the wood is to hard to handplane it to thickness.

So I've been doing more smallish stuff.

I brought some bows with me last time I came from Germany, and I've started to play with them. Broke the head of one while trying to re-camber it, and I'm working on a frog of Curupay since don't have ebony at the moment. I'm practicing the movements, procedures and tools you need to make the bow hoping that I can spend some time at a bow maker next year if I go to europe for summer.

I've also done some work in Cumala, something like mahogany but softer and oily, a pleasure to work with. Here is a poorly designed stool that falls of you touch it on the wrong place. Should have kept the 3/10 slope of the japanese.

The tools for violin making are slowly arriving, have new small planes and japanese scroll gouges. The cheap chinese planes are kind of nice, if you like to file your tools before use. These are the ebay ones, thing of them as rough casting and you won't be too disappointed.

The pin on the left one was bent, so I complained and they sent another pair of planes.  Still waiting for those though. For 15usd each you cannot complain.

Got also a new kiridashi real thin and fragile, perfect for f-holes

and that's pretty much it, the things in Chile with the woodworking community are moving albeit slowly, but have met a few really nice people interested in learning the dark arts.

Finally, I think the next course will be a week long class making a small stool, sharpening and eating. People have complained about not having enough time and doing only exercises without a final result. my idea was that people didn't want to pay for repeating the same joint several times in a project but seems that the joints in abstracto are not so interesting as for me. This class will be far more expensive than previous ones and will require a basic toolset and sharpening gear. I will provide dimensioned wood for the project. Lunch will still be a community thing.

snobbism turning technique

Sharpened the knife the boy broke back in puerto varas and the thing works nicely:

I had the idea the old kids didn't have enough money to buy rasps and shit, so they needed to make do.

There is a moment, as you work your way through the fiber, that you mind starts to be those fibers, and you know in your fingers which way to cut

and it's fun. Your forearm gets a bit tired though.

cutting edge snobbism

Nico came today and since I was planing some coigue panels we stuck to wood instead of brass as it was last time. We are trying to fix that coffee machine of mine but the sleeves in the group are a bit stuck and need some acid.

Anyway, so we went back to the mould and cut it closer to the lines plus made the cuts for the corner blocks.

Now comes the snobbery.

I don't like to use rasps or files for wood. They are slow and cannot be sharpened. I like them fast and sharpenable. And since Tanaka can, why shouldn't I try it at least.

The inner curves are a bit difficult, so you should cut the block holes first. Like that you can get quite close to the line with the chisel. For leveling use a spokeshave and finally a sharp low angle kiridashi

 The outer curves are easy, just keep the spokeshave level and spit often on the wood to keep it wet.

Or you can use camellia oil but last time I checked spit was for free. A free standing vise would be nice here, something like they use for leatherwork in japan where you can sit and hold the piece between your legs. The working asymmetrically makes for a not perfect position. If I had to make a few more I would totally build one, but since this just took 30min of work it's ok for a one timer.

not so square anymore

Managed another 30min or so at the milling Maschine today and what was square before, it is not so now.

 The same spiral cutter was used to cut the profiles, then I skimmed 2mm from each side, also from the wood.

And later went to "Pernos Irrua" to buy the studs. It's not only lighter but the relief lets you put your index finger there and it's way easier to hold.

We are still thinking how to broach the hole square, but seems like files will have to do, there are no small enough cutting tools in the workshop to shave it. For the knife I'm debating whether to cut one of the japanese nickers I have but maybe a cheaper iron will work too. Who knows.

Also and before I forget, when you have spirit varnish, you also need a lid for the container, so it doesn't dry:

for not being airtight it last surprisingly long. This is another of Opa's secret that I haven't seen online.

after 20 years of use that mug will start to look cool.

Varnish

Don't look at the plane. Look at the reflection of it on the wood.

there is a thicker part at the edge that I couldn't clean with my rag and alcohol. I guess it's still drying.

 It kinda reflects light, has a lovely texture, and it's handmade in valpo.

Die Rezepte comes aus Deutschland

grind everything very small. It's important to have a marking gauge to measure the portions of each ingredient. I think it's measured by weight but opa was not explicit on this.

Sandarac and benzoin go to powder real fast. Shellac no so.

Then leave in a bottle for some time. I left it 3 days but I have the impression 1 week would have been better. I think the benzoin didn't dissolve properly and that's why I have this thick coating on one part, I grabbed a lot of it at once.

Will make more and put it on some lenga, so you can appreciate better the lovely red colour of benzoin on a white wood for background.

Applied with a cheap brush (bad idea, hairs all over the place) then an expensive art brush (good idea) and finally polished with a piece of underwear with alcohol and camellia oil. To finish, some hand salve from Burt's bees and more underwear. It smells like the virgins jihadist martyrs are promised before blowing up. Real sweet.

A bit too square

Next tool needed to make a violin: purfling cutter. 

I tried it with a japanese double knife I've got but the blade is too large, so I was tempted to make some smaller and brassier. The model may ressemble somehow a certain Ibex purfling cutter out there. The handle is lenga.

 Started from square stock of brass from the university workshop and after some 50min of milling I was here:

Do you see that chip on the bottom? I was cutting "against the grain" on the milling machine and the whole thing just kinda exploded. That is, I was feeding it backwards if you know what I mean. 

The handle is lenga, the holes are threaded for M5 threads and I need to file that hole square so the blades will go there fixed between the screws. 

However, it's a bit too square at the moment, gonna take it to mill again next week and shave some 2mm from each side. 

Another important piece is the mould. Fecit 2016 on real wood. 

Why one would like to time-stamp the moulds? I guess to see how they move, and how your designs evolve on time. Or to know how long they last... anyway, it looks cool and had to visit my friend Alfred Dürer for some advice on the fonts. 

Next step is to drill the mould to accept the "clamps", wooden sticks that will hold the corner blocks with string or rubber bands. On the meantime still looking for suitable chilean wood for the top. 

The making of a violin maker

A bit of an update involving material goods and no electrons and logic gates. 

Wednesday grabbed some aluminium from the workshop and asked the technician to fix the new bearings I got for my bandsaw. Somehow the ID is in inches but the OD is in mm. That means factory bearings don't fit and I need to grind them to size. However, the bandsaw got new blade and orange tires, and it's finally cutting straight and smooth. What a difference it makes. There is some resonance on the vertical normal mode when I cut though,  the hole thing tends to move up and down like 1mm when I'm cutting wood at a certain speed. Any ideas how to fix that? 

Well, with the bandsaw working properly I can cut the mould for the violin we are planning on making with Nico. He's been learning how to draw violins with dividers and that's what we did on the metal plate:

I don't have a fret saw, so most of the time we spend it with the file. If somebody wants to make me a present a knew concepts would be appreciated here.

 After lots and lots of filing with the coarsest one I've got, we tried to leave everything 2mm oversized. It started to look like a violin.

 It may need some more care on the edge but it lives on the workshop already.

 Close up of the corners so you can check how precise you can work by file alone. Well, and some dowelled sandpaper.

 As you get closer and closer to the line, it takes more and more time to do a proper job

 here still need some 20 min of work.

I thought it was going to be much more difficult and time consuming, but you can finish this in an afternoon. A set of different size curved files would be handy too. 

With this mould, I will transfer the size to the wooden piece that you see on the background (bolivian cedar) and cut it. We are going for metal templates, wooden moulds, and no clamps for the glue up.  Thicknesser a la Stradivari and local woods for the body. Repeat in spirit what the old guys did. Oh, if you are sending me the fret saw as present, can you add some animal glue to the package? I cannot find in Chile and my marriage is too fragile to start cooking hide in the house. Patience has a limit too. 

I want to make another one on brass now. 

Hopefully with this new tag I can keep track of all the side projects necessary to make a violin. As you can guess by now, I'm not so interested in how to make a violin but in how to make a workshop that makes violin makers. That's what this is about. Let's see if tomorrow the mould is done.