uncle duke

Two days until the break of spring here ........ hurry up.

I use the point system starting at 100 and subtract 1 for each mistake and try to stay as close to 100 as possible. Is an average of 75 acceptable?

Coming from one who still thinks the world is flat..........

Seems the tree needs 2000 mm of rain per year to grow - that is close to double what S. Florida/Keys get per year.

Thinking about it some - a few individuals could come up with some sort of morse code using the valves to pass messages during a performance.

The only thing I can offer is that during performances I found myself looking farther ahead than I would during normal practice sessions. Don't know why other than making sure no mistakes would happen or at least be ready for them .

So.................. off topic slightly. Here are measurements for a block of wood to make a homemade shaper. 5 1/2" L x 2" W x 1 3/8" H 1. Lay flat, from the right side measure left 1 3/8". 2. Measure up from the bottom 1 ". 3. Drill a hole all the way through to the backside starting where you use 1 and 2 to make a starting point. 4. After drilled hole is big enough to start a 130 reamer carefully ream through to other side, I think, this may be able to wait for a bit. At the least start some of it. 5. Make the bed for the 2" #4 or #5 plane iron to lie flat on. From the left side to where the hole is make that side 1 5/32" high and the backside of the block 1 1/8" high. These two last measurements here may be 1/64" off - be careful. 6. Blade bed must be flat, no bumps, which is why I used pine - less work scraping. 7. From above the hole cut down to expose the area where you can see the reamer. So I guess ream the proper size hole before cutting down to expose just half the circumference of the hole. 8. So..........got interrupted again. ask question, if needed. later. Note - you will need a known good peg to help with when to stop making the hole bigger. Other things - I am going to assume only amatuer makers will try this way so some other things I thought of are when you do finally align the blade with the known good peg don't turn it counterclockwise - it will cut thus messing up the good peg. Something else is to lightly score your unturned peg right up next to the collar. That will let you know when to stop. I noticed I added a 1 mm chamfer to the entrance of the hole - that enbles me to see where to stop turning up along the collar. Do have a real sharp plane blade and sort of perfectly square with itself. I just clamp the blade down on top but you can add a piece of wood between blade and clamp for better holding power. You could align the blade with the reamer but a good peg will work.

I use forstner bits hand powered after plate is thinned completely. Start on the outside carefully and finish thru from underneath. Then knife work, fret saw, a stout piece of coping saw blade with tape around one end for finger grip holding power if I don't feel like knifing the entire run, rattail file for the holes along with sandpaper to smooth out the file work. Probably forgot something but oh well.

I made one out of soft pine thinking it wouldn't work well and ended up doing 14/15 violins worth of pegs. It's pretty much wore out now so I'll make another. Can a homemade endpin making block work to make endpins?

Well, that is less than a hour. Seems like a good wintertime project.

If I had to choose between locust and osage orange for working/splitting I would choose locust - slightly easier. I do notice locust has those open pored grain lines similar to oak.

Motley Crue may of never been the same without him.

Can that single piece be made in less than a hours time?

I just remembered something - I believe I use a small frame fret saw with 43 teeth per inch to do those flat areas so I guess you can say I cheat but it does give a good straight cut, sorry for the previous.

Looking at the last free plate done a few years ago it appears to me that I left the cut proud and finished the flatness with a small flat sanding something, probably a file with sandpaper. Being an amatuer I find just cutting out the holes undersize and finish out the rounding with a rat tail file wrapped with sandpaper gives the shaping I need.