Viola: Jigs, Cutting Front & Sanding Concave Side
I'm finished with the front now. ^.^ Later today I'll be working with one of the supervisors to pick out what wood to use for the back and to fix the bandsaw (which I don't want ripping out my throat while I'm cutting the back out.) There's still a bunch of pics on my camera, including the ones of the break... I'll do halfish now, halfish later, since there's a lot to log about and I don't want to spend the rest of the morning on this.
I don't even know the dates for when I did all this work - I don't think they're going to kill me for not having them, but that stuff's all imbedded in the pictures if people are all that interested in particulars.
I feel really stupid for having done so little during the fall. I mean... yeah, I was busy, and there was hospital whatnot and family whatnot and friend whatnot but... well, that stuff's still going to be there this winter, and I still have a lot of work to do. :P So I'm really going to have to pick it up.
Without further ado:
Oooh, look, I have hair.
First thing I had to do was cut out the jigs. There's five total, two on each side and one in the center, that reflect the shape of the curve of the viola. I had to be really careful when I was cutting them out because I wanted both sides of the cut to be usable, so I'd have a set for the concave side and the convex side. Used the bandsaw for that.
*headdesk* I should have pictures of my complete jigs, shouldn't I? Will put that in the next log.
Now for the actual wood. Because teh piece wasn't quite wide enough, I cut two chunks off the board. To make a stronger joint between them, I used a router. Here's the bit:
And here's me using it:
I was a little aieeeeeeee using it because the router just sounds malicious. It's like... like across between the Thinny and a horde of killer bees. If that makes any sense. Anyway.
Then I glued the two sides together. It was pretty cool, it probably would have stuck together just fine because the router created a really tight joint, but glue's always a good idea. Took aaaages to set. People were getting exceedingly peeved at having a big board sitting on the dining room table dribbling glue all over.
*pokes at folder* For some reason I don't have any pics of me cutting it out... I probably just forgot to put them in the folder. *pokes at self* Will root around in my camera-dump folders later for that. Used the bandsaw for that anyway.
Much freaking out at the bandsaw later, that's what I ended up with. Obviously it's not quite it - there's some sanding to be done to do some smoothing out of the edges - very slight, though. That line around the edge is where the purfling would be, and the marks are where the various jigs go. Oooh, and the wood! You see those lines? Those aren't the growth lines. Those are sets of growth lines. The wood is awesome old growth. A lot better than the stuff in the viola I'm practicing with. Plus, it smells yummy. *thinks all wood should smell yummy* (Why I took this picture on my couch, I have no idea.)
That's a grinder usually used for sharpening metal. The supervisor was like, Oh, it'll cut the wood like butter! which made me go, Um, I don't want the viola to melt... (That's doing the concave side.) I was really really freaked using that thing, since... well, that's how I had to do it. Standing, bracing my foot on a big rock, basically using my whole body to press and move the wood. It's hard to describe how it felt using that thing. I mean... I'm not a big person. The wheel was moving really really fast and it's basically these big metal bristles and I'm trying to hold the wood really tight so it doesn't go flying to the floor while trying to be somewhat precise with it. It took me several days to really get the rough done because it'd leave me so physically tired.
You also get a fine view of the shop I slave away in. XD It's actually quite nice. Homey. Reminds me of my room.
After I got that rough done, it was on to working with a fine sander. At first, it was nice. "Ooh, I don't have to brace my whole body to use this sander!" But... it went very slowly. I think we used 120grit, but I can't quite remember. *puts on "to figure out" list* I spent many an hour in mah garage with that thing, sanding down millimeter by millimeter... but at least it allowed me to be precise. *shrug*
Because I'm lazy I have better things to do, I'll come back to this later and log the... *drumroll* CONVEX SIDE OF THE FRONT!
I don't even know the dates for when I did all this work - I don't think they're going to kill me for not having them, but that stuff's all imbedded in the pictures if people are all that interested in particulars.
I feel really stupid for having done so little during the fall. I mean... yeah, I was busy, and there was hospital whatnot and family whatnot and friend whatnot but... well, that stuff's still going to be there this winter, and I still have a lot of work to do. :P So I'm really going to have to pick it up.
Without further ado:
Oooh, look, I have hair.
First thing I had to do was cut out the jigs. There's five total, two on each side and one in the center, that reflect the shape of the curve of the viola. I had to be really careful when I was cutting them out because I wanted both sides of the cut to be usable, so I'd have a set for the concave side and the convex side. Used the bandsaw for that.
*headdesk* I should have pictures of my complete jigs, shouldn't I? Will put that in the next log.
Now for the actual wood. Because teh piece wasn't quite wide enough, I cut two chunks off the board. To make a stronger joint between them, I used a router. Here's the bit:
And here's me using it:
I was a little aieeeeeeee using it because the router just sounds malicious. It's like... like across between the Thinny and a horde of killer bees. If that makes any sense. Anyway.
Then I glued the two sides together. It was pretty cool, it probably would have stuck together just fine because the router created a really tight joint, but glue's always a good idea. Took aaaages to set. People were getting exceedingly peeved at having a big board sitting on the dining room table dribbling glue all over.
*pokes at folder* For some reason I don't have any pics of me cutting it out... I probably just forgot to put them in the folder. *pokes at self* Will root around in my camera-dump folders later for that. Used the bandsaw for that anyway.
Much freaking out at the bandsaw later, that's what I ended up with. Obviously it's not quite it - there's some sanding to be done to do some smoothing out of the edges - very slight, though. That line around the edge is where the purfling would be, and the marks are where the various jigs go. Oooh, and the wood! You see those lines? Those aren't the growth lines. Those are sets of growth lines. The wood is awesome old growth. A lot better than the stuff in the viola I'm practicing with. Plus, it smells yummy. *thinks all wood should smell yummy* (Why I took this picture on my couch, I have no idea.)
That's a grinder usually used for sharpening metal. The supervisor was like, Oh, it'll cut the wood like butter! which made me go, Um, I don't want the viola to melt... (That's doing the concave side.) I was really really freaked using that thing, since... well, that's how I had to do it. Standing, bracing my foot on a big rock, basically using my whole body to press and move the wood. It's hard to describe how it felt using that thing. I mean... I'm not a big person. The wheel was moving really really fast and it's basically these big metal bristles and I'm trying to hold the wood really tight so it doesn't go flying to the floor while trying to be somewhat precise with it. It took me several days to really get the rough done because it'd leave me so physically tired.
You also get a fine view of the shop I slave away in. XD It's actually quite nice. Homey. Reminds me of my room.
After I got that rough done, it was on to working with a fine sander. At first, it was nice. "Ooh, I don't have to brace my whole body to use this sander!" But... it went very slowly. I think we used 120grit, but I can't quite remember. *puts on "to figure out" list* I spent many an hour in mah garage with that thing, sanding down millimeter by millimeter... but at least it allowed me to be precise. *shrug*
Because I'm lazy I have better things to do, I'll come back to this later and log the... *drumroll* CONVEX SIDE OF THE FRONT!