Happy Fathers day!
I had a fun weekend. Friday I picked up some buffers at Harbor Freight for the bass guitar and a slab of 3/4″ MDF board 2 feet square from Home Depot.
Saturday morning trip to the farmers market, zucchini, carrots, more sliced bacon, some lettuce and Duncan’s mushrooms. Not much at Salvation Army, a round ‘W’ french bread pan, a new can opener and some dowels. Home, the pillow blocks, fret wire and Velcro arrived in the mail, oh boy. The Velcro and pillow block bearings are for the wood surfacer I’m building to make wood flat, an abrasive planer of sort. I’m still waiting for the yard long 1/2″ steel shaft. I gave Joe a call to see what he’s up to. He’s working on the tree house for Jose, using the high grade wood he got from the door makers up the street for siding. That is the stuff I’d like to use for making a couple ukuleles, I think I’ll go visit.
I brought along extra lettuce and mushrooms, Duncan always gives me more than I can use. Also the fret wire, the ukulele plans I printed from work for reference, one of the pillow blocks and the uke fret board pattern I drew using the digital readout on the mill this week, exact. Josey and Joe are in the tree house, Joe is putting up studs for the walls and corner braces at 45 degrees. His wife Cat and mom Jane come out to greet me. We go in for snacks of new peaches from the tree, strawberries from the garden (yum), salsa and chips. Joe and I tape together the ukulele plans (Matthias Wandel’s tenor free) and I give him them for inspiration to hang in the workshop.
After snacks back to work, Joe lets me pick out all the good ones to use for instruments, some nice Doug fir and cedar for sound boards, mahogany, oak and a really sweet piece of maple perfect for the bent sides of a guitar or uke. Stashed in the truck with the maple bent round in the cab like a McDonald’s sign, some in the bed, short stuff in the cab. What a score.
We put put up some of the rest for siding on the fort, oak and fir, staggered in contrast, looking good. Working around the full sliding window Joe installed, with plans of a bell tower above the roof. This will be a superior tree house indeed. Paint inside, perhaps oil outside not to be painted, such beautiful wood.
Dinner’s ready, spinach cheese squares, browned baked rice with roasted onions, really tasty. Time for me to head home, with peaches, oh yea. Thanks!
Today, Sunday, to town for coffee. Strawberries, dollar pound cakes plain and lemon, whipped cream for the work gang, strawberry short cake, oh yea.
Back home I set up the saw horses and door bench for cutting the 3.5″ circles to make a long drum sander in MDF. Half way through, turned over and finish the cut, pried out with needle nose pliers Three sets of seven makes a 16.25 inch cylinder, but two are flatted a little, we’ll see, a guitar is only 14.5″ wide. I installed the 1/2 drill in the drill press and drilled each wheel square hole. Trimmed with a larger bit.
When the shaft gets here, I’ll glue all the wheels together and true them with course sandpaper. I’ll need to build a frame and all with hinges to hold the boards flat with a screw to adjust the thickness. I ordered 100 grit sandpaper with loops to fit the cylinder. I think I’ll need to order more Velcro to make the wheel longer. I checked out the motor I intend to use, knocked off the wheel Sky attached, 1300 RPM. It runs fine. I’ll need to get or make pulleys.
I messed about with the table saw, a simple zero clearance insert and a couple cuts to see how the door store boards could make a rosette inlay. I didn’t get anything done on the bass, but I had fun.
I cooked a batch of meat spaghetti sauce with fusilli noodles, and a chicken veggie noodle soup for lunches. Laundry done, and rinsed my lunch bag dry. Another week ahead, I’m ready.
8shotoflove8 