Jerry Lynn

Congratulations, Brad. I've been using an airbrush for a number of years now as a part of my work flow in retouching. I think the first thing to remember is that it's an augmentative tool, and not a replacement for the paint brush - 95% of the time is sits unused. The areas in which is really shines are neck heels after a reset, shading work that's been done with a brush, and clear coating. Neck heels and clear coating is where I get the vast majority of use out of mine. A few points worth considering: 1) Mask of anything you don't want spray to touch. 2)If you can help it, start outside the area to be sprayed and work your way into it. 3)The closer the nozzle is to the work, the more thin, intense, and most likely glossy the spray is. The farther back the more diffuse and dry the retouch will be. This can be helpful as a mating effect, shellac based retouching can go on very dry if you wish. 4) Pretty much anything that you can paint with a brush you can get it to go out of the nozzle. Dry pigments may need to be ground further dependent on your equipment. 5) Listen for "black balls of death." As the brush becomes clogged, airflow will be become spotty. Point the brush away from the area you are painting and allow large bits to evacuate the brush. Otherwise, black globs end up on your work. Not fun 6) Clean your brush thoroughly after use. After spraying color, or clear, I run solvent through the brush to clear out obvious remainders of material. You will need, or will be forced, to take the brush completely apart to clean it from time to time. Especially if putting it away for storage. Since I use mine relatively frequently, I store mine in alcohol. It's not the best thing for it, as it degrades the rubber O rings. But, it keeps it going enough that I don't have to tare it down often. 7)buy extra needles if you can. Stuck needles can get bent, they are impossible to straighten to 100%. I think that's all I can think of now... Good Luck!

I suppose it depends on the size of the area you are trying to fill... I've had the most success with taking small slivers using a super tiny high-sweep gouge and transferring them to the outside to a channel made with the same gouge. Any wood added to the outside over time has the tendency to become more visible and separate, collecting dirt and needing to be replaced by something larger. At least that's what I see with old instruments. There are of course exceptions. I think as a whole you'll find a lot more restorers using fill, or a fill capable of having shaving glued on top. When if fails they can be cleaned, and new put back in with minimal original material loss.

Hydrocal white is my preferred casting medium, mostly because I know how it "works." You can keep the surface of the cast easy to scrape by lining with cellophane and filling with sand while it cures over the course of several days. This keeps a hard calcified layer from forming on the top. Be sure to elevate the cast off of the table to allow adequate air flow underneath, so that moisture can escape, and the cast can cure. I am currently trying to get more familiar with tecstone. I think with any new medium for casting there is a learning curve, and a comfort factor... you shouldn't expect success on the first pour. Like Jeff, I also use rigid closed cell insulation for cast forms. If you use open cell foam (styrofoam) for a cast form, you're going to be in trouble trying to free the cast from the form. If this is the only foam you have at your disposal, you can line the form with packing tape. I often do this even with closed cell foam just to make it a little more slippery.

Whatever you use on the neck for abrasion, I'd advise lightly wetting (and quickly drying with a hair dryer) between upper grits towards the end of sanding. Otherwise, hand sweat will do it for you, and make the neck not pleasant.

The luthiers whom I know who have recently come from abroad to work in the US have gained visas because they have baccalaureate degrees in a related field, and have fought to prove the relevance to their hiring in order to obtain an h1-B visa. There's also the EB-1 visa, for extraordinary abilities. I've known one or two who've gotten visas through that route. Either or is going to take a lot of money, time, and a lawyer. For the average bench monkey, and average employer, it's a tough sell.

What Jerry said, x100. It’s a process, not speed dating.

Pics would help clarify this immensely. One of the issues in dealing with a true full length cracks of either the top or the back, is that if you are not careful, one side tends to "grow" (or they both do a little) as the arching relaxes as the pieces are removed from the ribs - if they haven't already. If you can stabilize both ends of a stem to stern split (they align), do so and remove the back. Edit: If I think removing back has the potential to muck up the area around the button, I'll remove other things to ensure that I can safely get at the crack. If the whole thing is a train wreck, and you need to remove top and back, or top, back, and neck from the ribs, for co-morbidities suffered from an accident, I'd probably start by removing something else first anyways. There's almost always another problem...

Considering it as in buying it? The economics of the situation would have to be extremely favorable to consider it.

You can use clamps to temporarily put the top on to help with your center line. Checking the orientation and measurements of everything before you disassemble is always a good idea.

If I can at all help it, I try to drill the hole before closing the box when doing a replacement block, and with the block needing a tad bit of tidying after drilling. Keeping it conservative in size allows for adjustment later. I would stick with a standard twist drill, brad points are difficult to steer in the direction you want them to go. Keep it small, and go slow. Also, allow for the chips to clear, this will help prevent blow outs. For drilling new holes in a bushed box, I start extremely small - 1/16" as a pilot and use thin long dowels to check my orientation. I then step up using increasingly larger bits using a "hand chuck" (it's an overgrown pin vise). You can correct orientation easily with a twist drill going by hand (constantly checking with something like kabob skewers in the hole). I use small twist drills until I can get up to a fractional size reamer. Once I can get up comfortably to a standard size reamer, I switch to one. I have a small collection of reamers and taper pins that I'll occasionally put in all the holes to continue to check orientation at this point.

My "non-committal" was a poor attempt at humor. I do much as you do, it all depends what I'm going after. I find going after small anomalies easier with a flat bottom.

Like Bruce, I have and use both. I guess i'm non-committal...

Would a narrower bridge work? You can get violin bridges that are out to 44mm, and have a naturally lower heart compared to a viola blank.

I'll have to check that thread out

I'm not entirely sure what they mean, I've never personally seen that before. It might be the difference between a "9" and "10" body style from Despiau. I'd email and ask. If I can ask myself, why are you specifically looking for a low heart?