Brandon_Williams

Medical bills :/

**Prices Reduced** **I really need to move this stuff to pay off some medical bills. Please see new prices below** I have a whole tool kit for sale. I would like to sell it all as a lot, but have listed it in smaller lots that I would be willing to sell. This would be a great starter set of tools for someone just getting into instrument making. Email zbmw252012@gmail.com or text 423-367-1434. Shipping will be calculated at the time of purchase and will be in addition to listed prices. Buy the whole lot for $900 (this is well over $1500 worth of stuff) plus shipping. Most tools were purcha

Pierre, I just opened the Swiss Made gouges... Thank you so much, I really appreciate the good price and that you packaged them so carefully! Thanks again!!!

Hello Pierre, I am interested in a couple of things, could you email me at zbmw252012@gmail.com Thank you!

Just spoke with Joe Robson, First of all, it just goes to show how cool a forum like this is that someone with such limited experience as I could be muddling along and get one to one advice from a professional... that's awesome. Secondly, Joe is very nice and offered me some great advice, which after I try and if he doesn't mind I will share here. Thanks to Joe, and to all of the others here on MN who are willing to spend their time to give good advice to folks who are trying to learn!

Haha... it just so happens I am in here right now, probably about to make a mess with some varnish experiments, which will annoy me (both for the mess and because I'm fooling with varnish lol). I should have confessed earlier, I suppose, that my shop is also my "man cave" of sorts. I'm just a hobbyist woodworker/maker... if I were trying to make instruments to sell I may relax a little on the neatness point. As it is now, I usually get an hour or two a day in here (more this week because I'm on vacation )... that being said, sometimes that hour or two is spent working on an ins

I am not sure... It is the stuff marketed by IVC in the US listed as "JOHA Oil Varnish"

Hi Nick, I got a small bottle of Amber, Golden Brown, Brown, and Red Brown. To me all of them seem to be too light straight out of the bottle. I also ordered some of the color extract in Amber, Golden Brown, and Red Brown. So far I have only tried a few combos of mixing the varnish with additional extract, but my favorite final color has been to add about 1cc of Red Brown extract to a small amount of varnish (didn't measure, just enough to do a single coat). The color looks quite nice, and if it would remain pliable for maybe 10 or 15 minutes longer I think it woul

Thanks MANFIO, I am quite fond of it myself! I, though, am envious of the quality of work you and other Maestronet contributors are turning out! I hope to get there one day, but it is a slow process without any formal training and only a couple hours here and there to tinker with it.

Here are a few pics of my shop. The boxes in the corner are a ductless mini split heat pump that I've since installed... it drove me nuts to have it sitting there taking up space as long as it did. Some of my friends make fun of me for being OCD/anal retentive about being neat, but it's just my personality. I like to keep things tidy, it helps me concentrate on whatever I'm working on. If there are too many shavings on the floor I start to get anxious about the mess and stop concentrating on what I'm doing... which reminds me, I saw some shavings and sawdust under the edge of on

So I got a few different colors of the JOHA oil varnish from IVC... I am quite pleased with it save for two points: 1 - it isn't dark enough. I've remedied this by adding color extract, so this is no big deal. 2 - it dries too fast... that may sound like an oxymoron, but I assure you it isn't. I did a little digging and found an old thread from 2008 that raised the same concern. I just tried one of the suggestions which was to thin the varnish with turpentine. That helped some; but it still dries too fast to be able to move it around to the point I am s

First, thanks to everyone for all of the input and advice! Nick, I ordered mine on eBay, I think it was about $20 for 100g. I followed Michael's recipe and made a small batch of the varnish using 60g of mastic and about 2fl oz of artist linseed oil. I'd say all told I've got $25 in about a pint of the varnish.

I need some help. I've completed #1 and have been stalled at the varnish stage for some time. I'm finally ready to start that varnish process... I'm using the cold mastic method described by Michael Darnton, but I'm a little concerned about adding color to the varnish. I'm using artist oil paints, mainly for the convenience of being able to get them without ordering and waiting for shipping and further processing. My question is, can anyone tell me what proportion of color (raw oil paints mixed to a desirable color) to add to a quantity of the prepared cold mastic varnish? I know

I would be willing to chip in on a group investment for this sort of thing. I would love to have a precise build kit and not have to go through the trouble of making it. Sometimes making tools and such can be fun, but then again sometimes it gets to be quite irritating!

I recently purchased the "cremonese" model of this kit from IVC... I actually ordered the messiah model, but they were out and I settled for the one I got. I am an absolute beginner, and decided to order this kit for my second violin as a means of eliminating some of my own errors. With that being said, and with my amateur ability and understanding in mind, I am not really impressed with the kit especially considering the price. My main complaints to date (I'm at the point that I've bent and secured ribs and linings to the mold, and traced and cut front and back plates) are as fo