Michael_Molnar

I have zoom, but tonight I’m retiring soon.

Throw it out.

As for your arsenal of scroll gouges, don’t forget to add some palm gouges. I have good luck with Flexcut and Japanese Power Grip. The latter are very inexpensive and sharpen nicely.

Nice sauce.

Great thread.

I’m trying my best to be positive about this debacle. I posted some photos of my “coronaviolin” on the bench thread. I am also mulling pigments anticipating the completion of this latest project. As for more news, my lab tech sister near Freehold NJ told me that the Fusco family that lost 4 people had 9 in her hospital where 3 died. A friend of our family discovered that she gave a car ride to church with one of them. Now, she waits to see what develops. My sister may have had the Coronavirus along with several hospital coworkers. They cannot confirm it, but their symptoms were massive chest phlegm and fever. She tested themselves for flu which came out negative. When a test comes out for testing Coronavirus antibodies she will do it for them. BTW, she attributes her survival to drinking lots of water and orange juice to break up the phlegm. She still has little appetite. Her hospital is converting every room into ER space. She must wear a face mask at all times. The crunch is expected to start in a week. Thanks for the kind PM’s. Stay tuned and healthy.

Life goes on here. At the bench I glued a top, garland, and back together Next I pulled from the shelf a neck/scroll done on my CNC a long time ago. I also inserted some stiff graphite rods as an experiment as you can see. Now, I scrape and gouge away this roughed out scroll. I will refer to this latest work in progress as my coronaviolin.

Here is a highly informative link with a fantastic global map of the pandemic’s extent. You can check on your county or district. https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6 Americans should note how the Coronavirus now extends into rather remote and low population regions of our country. Still think this is a hoax? Please take this threat seriously and be safe. “Looks like we’re no longer In Kansas, Toto.” - Dorothy in Wizard of Oz.

OK, Gang. Let’s cool our jets before Jeffrey gets upset. I was sad to learn that Joe Robson’s varnish workshop was shutdown. I then realized that Joe Thrift’s and Oberlin workshops will also likely be canceled. Now, I wonder about the. VMAAI and even the VSA. And there are other workshops throughout the US and elsewhere, I imagine, that could suffer. Hopefully, we will have Maestronet to pull us through this.

Overreaction? My fellow scientists are predicting hundreds of thousands of dead Americans barring a miracle. Who will be buying violins then?

And some will die.

This happened just now. My wife asked if I had any dust masks to give to our friend who is an anesthesiologist at Columbia Presbyterian in NYC. I checked and found that I had 5 NIOSH 95 respirators from ULINE. The physician cried when my wife dropped them off at his house. Check if you have any NIOSH quality face masks. Donate them immediately to a hospital or physician office. They need these urgently.

I am a little optimistic about my future, but hell is all around me. Maybe you heard about the Fusco’s in NJ losing 4 family members. My sister is a lab technician at that hospital. Small world. A friend in Italy married to an orthopedist said her husband was retrained quickly to work in the ER. Bummer. The same is going on here in NJ. All hands on deck. Our son in San Francisco may have contracted a mild case. He wasn’t allowed to have the test, but says that his aching lungs limit his bike workouts. So, he presumes he had Coronavirus. And we have friends stuck in Spain and Argentina. I remain working at the bench. I just glued a garland onto a back. Tomorrow will be the top plate glued to this. Life goes on - more or less. Thanks for the good wishes!

I was diagnosed a few weeks ago with cancer left behind by my prostatectomy of two years ago. Before I could have radiation treatments, Memorial Sloan Kettering said I need a colonoscopy. Oh great. This is elective surgery that is being canceled to make way for emergency Coronavirus patients. Well, I lucked out. A doctor squeezed me in for the colonoscopy and it went well. However, MSK called to say my radiation treatment is postponed for 8 to 10 weeks. We were supposed to go on a tour of Morocco with friends, but that got quashed. I just read that the FAA is closing down NY and Philadelphia area airports due to insufficient staffing. As for finding a trillion dollars, the Feds will issue more debt which is equivalent to printing more money. Hyperinflation could be coming. I feel as though this is the end of days with 666 sitting in the Oval Office orchestrating our demise.

Makers need to have in place a stockpile of tonewood. Some pieces ready for working and others accumulated over the years - all dated - slowly drying. This means that I will have a huge investment sitting on my shelves. I make only a couple of violins a year, and here is a photo of my reserve. Just recently I added some more maple to the reserve. Most of this is ready and will dry even more by time I get to it. And, yes, I need to re-arrange these billets for even drying, but I have too many distractions at the moment. So, I do not mess with rapid drying. However, most of the spruce is torrified. .