jezzupe

ugh, lots of that going on...hope things are better now

Hmmm, minwax

Some thoughts on this, always establish and then gauge your channel width based on the purfling you have. Always start on the top in the upper bout crown where you will be cutting that out for the neck mortise anyways. This is your "get it figured out" small test patch on the actual work. Simply make 2 hash marks with your marker and then hold the purfling to eyeball what you have done, if it seems good, cut a short bit, pick out the channel of your short test and then place it in to see how your fit is, obviously adjust accordingly. Your execution looks good, your just jumping the gun,not thinking about what needs to be thought about ahead of time, I do suggest slowing down the initial approach to any task and really try to think ahead a few steps, I think you were too "into/polarized" cutting a good channel, but just forgot or didn't know to check the width, much like the last time, just the opposite thing, but the same problem, you did not use the actual purling to check the width and "went to town" instead of doing just wee bit to see if you were good to go. Also being someone who has trained many woodworkers/builders, I see this issue in a myriad of trades and it all come down to "lack of experience with the eye" your eye needs to train it self to see any channel, set of hash marks, some guy holding his hands apart , really any approximated measurement and be able to come up with a good approximate ball park of what that is. Be it standard or metric your working with you need to know, by eye, to a close degree of "eyeballishness" what 1 mil 1.5 mil 2 mil and so on "looks" like, you need to be able to hold your thumb and forefinger apart and go "this much is 2 mil's" or whatever, because once you do it dramatically reduces errors by your eye immediately, with no measuring, knowing its wrong...or right. Some other options are 1. you could do black mastic 2. make your own custom thin purfling 3. if the cuts are unmolested and universally good, you could leave it and it would be the rather rare "incise" purfling, which is to leave it in the state that it is in, then the varnish fills lots of the channel back in, and in time the channels turn black from the trace iron from blade drag from the knife reacting with the tannin and bound water , unless your blade is stainless steel. Good to see you again Iburkard, been a long time,I thought you might have got hit by a bus or something

I'm guessing some rapid yet short lived environmental change happened that overwhelmed the elasticity threshold and imo there's not much that could be done without damage {see Don's post} and that there's not much that you should do about it as long as it's stable and not flaking off.

If you don't mind maybe losing a finger if your not careful I suggest "King Arthur" chain saw rotary heads on a grinder, I think I saw David race some guy using one in a video he posted long ago, I still think he beat the guy with his massive gouge, pumped up guns and strapping thighs, it was a real john Henry moment as I recall They are surprisingly accurate but do take quite a bit of skill to learn how to use, and do have the potential to do damage to you and your work if you do not train yourself to use it well. The best safety tip I can give is to have a piece of scrap wood to act as a stopper you can grind the blade into to stop it and never take your hands off the grinder until the blade has completely stopped. they apparently have this now, which looks pretty cool https://www.woodworkingshop.com/product/KX50000/?dfw_tracker=111965-4392&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIn9_c3PfS_QIVvxCtBh2sgQfsEAQYAiABEgIckvD_BwE

I assume you have eliminated it being her technique or something she is doing by having her play other violins and that when she plays other violins she does not have the radical pitch bends ? if so, and it is for sure the violin I would suggest as others have eluded, to change the strings. If after putting something better on does not improve the situation {including a bow swap to see if that's doing anything} I would suggest an upgrade if she wants to pursue playing further as it would cost more to try to track down and fix vs buying a suitable cheapo

Looks like a playable fiddle, but your off by like, oh say, 10 million or so

Ear plugs, get them, use them

Let this be a lesson to all you hacks out there, your work might not look that good, or even pretty bad and everyone might call you a hack and make fun of your "work", but as long as you can get 3/4 of the gluing surface aligned, the power of hide glue at least allows it to "work" because as we see the instrument seems to be strung up, under tension and holding, so there is that. And there is the possibility that it looked better at one time but has gone through some environmental changes that has stressed and warped the repair. Part of invisible repairs staying that way is good environmental stewardship, even very well done work can "unravel at the seems" if an instrument is neglected

Oh ya, well, how much you bench

No reason to molest the f hole, besides this kind of thing is good practice, as mentioned pre stick the post in the proper place then just pop it in the lower hole and the get ready for a fun frustrating 4 or 5 hours...think of it like playing that game at the fair with the little crane arm that no one wins, but at least you don't have to keep pumping quarters into the machine...This is the same skill that you would need to develop if a post knocks over for what ever reason or if you get it in the wrong place on a bad attempt, you would need to knock it over inside the violin to try again anyway, so you need to learn this "sub skill" within the skill of post setting. If you really want to "stick a fork in it" once you get it in there, knock it out and do it 10 more times, over a day or two. If you can find some ultra low tack delicate surface 3m tape, after testing it in a inconspicuous area, you can always protect the ff area if your concerned about your "operation game" skills and if you do molest the f hole, there is a good chance the violin police might show up, so I'd listen to Jacob,remain chaste, use a steady hand instead

I'd agree with others that there is not a lot of monetary value in the instrument, but the case is "funny" to me, it does not look like a traditional China cheapo nylon case, but that doesn't mean much, I would say that child size violins are now easily obtainable on Amazon, but are still quite rare to find in general "Music stores" out side of rentals, and that the real value is what Bill stated in that it could "mean a lot" to some kid who really wanted to learn violin, {I assume they still exist somewhere} but doesn't have a lot of money, so you might make someones day by giving it away to the right home, for the price of a pack of strings and a "music store" cut bridge and post they'd have something that would work.

Heavens to Murgatroyd, from a self proclaimed bandit is there no honor amongst thieves anymore I keid, I keid, um I don't think that you have much to offer but a description so I'd agree with Doug, they may have a flat rate for "stolen instrument" and well frankly if it was a nice instrument it shouldn't be kept in a storage facility unless it was geared for instruments. "Fine" instruments are very susceptible to damage from environmental weather {hot/cold moist/dry} conditions and so I would think that if you try to claim anything beyond what they may offer that they would refuse your claim based on the above

Well Mattilda I think for a 6 to 8 year old child that you built an amazing violin .... it looks pretty good, welcome

I guess I would ask what the combined weight of the fingerboard and neck is. To me the weight of those components starts to dramatically effect things when the plates get thinner and lighter.