Don Noon Posted December 14, 2020 Report Posted December 14, 2020 Yes, I HAVE tried an Alberti sander, and they are very nice... except for the lack of a motor . Since I had this gearmotor sitting in my stockpile, and didn't want to spend $900 on a motorless sander, I made this one. You haven't tried MY sander either, and it has features the Alberti does not. Besides all that... just making instruments all the time is a bit boring for me, and I like thinking up and making other stuff. If I needed to make a living off of this, the priorities would be different. Perhaps if I had made the diamond disc sander first, I wouldn't have bothered making the soundpost machine... but I made the green machine much later.
Mark Norfleet Posted December 14, 2020 Report Posted December 14, 2020 On 12/12/2020 at 10:28 AM, David Burgess said: How did you do that? Where did the vacuum cup go and where was the glue applied (and how)? As the person to whom you gave "Bad Lessons" about 38 years ago said, "Tell your mentor to figure it out". For others who may be interested, the vacuum cup went on the varnished side of the wood and I applied the glue with a modified eye dropper similar to the one pictured in David's Strad article on glue and its application linked above. I also used the vacuum to remove the excess glue from inside the instrument once I had as much glue in the joint as I thought I could. Both of the times I remember doing this were on large violas with fairly flat broadly arched backs that I could flex pretty well. It's not a technique I think would work particularly well in most situations with a back still attached to the ribs, nor one I would recommend most people try.
Mat Roop Posted December 14, 2020 Report Posted December 14, 2020 On 12/12/2020 at 3:45 PM, David Burgess said: February 2005. I think it's been long enough that I can post a PDF version of it, although the photos in the PDF version aren't of very high quality. http://www.burgessviolins.com/Strad glue article.pdf Thanks David... More than useful! ... Cheers, Mat
David Burgess Posted December 14, 2020 Report Posted December 14, 2020 6 hours ago, Mark Norfleet said: As the person to whom you gave "Bad Lessons" about 38 years ago said, "Tell your mentor to figure it out". Well, I guess it worked. Did you end up bad-as**d or what?
Woodland Posted December 19, 2020 Report Posted December 19, 2020 A spruce frame saw for book matching. Hard to believe one can actually find quarter-sawn spruce in the sh*t pile of 2 x 2s at Menards if you dig long enough. The blade was only around $10 from Highland Woodworking and the rest of the materials were less than $10. Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can find any nice(er) spruce pieces in the 2 x 6 pile at Home Depot for cello blocks and the main beam of a skeleton cello mold.
Woodland Posted December 19, 2020 Report Posted December 19, 2020 38 minutes ago, violguy said: Are you in Michigan? I wish! I live/work in the Chicago suburbs but my wife has family property in the north woods. In fact, my avatar is a snapshot of the property in Manistee, a conifer swamp down the hill from the home site.
duane88 Posted December 19, 2020 Report Posted December 19, 2020 Simple, but useful. A friend made this and I stole it from him. What are apprentices for, after all... He was having difficulty with sound post fitting. Don's jig with the sander I saw, a similar set-up, in Greg Alf's shop on a visit, so I suggested something like that. What my friend did is take a piece of multi-ply plywood and go to the drill press, using a digital guide for the angles, stating with 89 degrees and going down to 83 degrees. Split it with a saw, put a cam in one end, and then you insert the post, trim it flat with a sharp chisel, then do the other end. I have to say that it works well on new instruments, but you still need to know how to do it with a knife for old fiddles that are deformed and distorted, and highly arched fiddles. After some practice, you can get very close or correct on the first try with new instruments:
catnip Posted December 20, 2020 Report Posted December 20, 2020 Interesting device. Can you show a side view showing the angles. I can see that 89 , 88 and 87 degrees are not used very much. I find that I commonly use 6, 7, 8 degrees are 9 degrees for high arching tops
Mat Roop Posted December 20, 2020 Report Posted December 20, 2020 Here is my KISS principle post trimmer... works like a charm. The sandpaper lays in the slot to hold the post from spinning. as I trim the ends I record the angles Cheers, Mat
Mark Norfleet Posted December 20, 2020 Report Posted December 20, 2020 2 hours ago, duane88 said: Simple, but useful. A friend made this and I stole it from him. What are apprentices for, after all... He was having difficulty with sound post fitting. Don's jig with the sander I saw, a similar set-up, in Greg Alf's shop on a visit, so I suggested something like that. What my friend did is take a piece of multi-ply plywood and go to the drill press, using a digital guide for the angles, stating with 89 degrees and going down to 83 degrees. Split it with a saw, put a cam in one end, and then you insert the post, trim it flat with a sharp chisel, then do the other end. I have to say that it works well on new instruments, but you still need to know how to do it with a knife for old fiddles that are deformed and distorted, and highly arched fiddles. After some practice, you can get very close or correct on the first try with new instruments: I was in Kurt Brycta’s shop many years ago who had a similar device that a friend had made him out of hardened steel. It didn’t clamp onto the post, but was just a series of holes at increasingly steep angles. It was fixed to his bench somehow and he would simple insert the post from the bottom of the hole he thought would give the correct angle and then rotate as needed before slicing off the end with a sharp chisel.
Andreas Preuss Posted January 28, 2021 Author Report Posted January 28, 2021 Here is another one. The bridge height marking device. One shot and it is perfect, uhm, almost perfect. I use it for my quick bridges where I am not fussy about 1/10mm.
Bodacious Cowboy Posted January 28, 2021 Report Posted January 28, 2021 1 hour ago, Andreas Preuss said: Here is another one. The bridge height marking device. One shot and it is perfect, uhm, almost perfect. I use it for my quick bridges where I am not fussy about 1/10mm. I just use a pencil
catnip Posted January 28, 2021 Report Posted January 28, 2021 I use a half-pencil. I cut a pencil in half using a bandsaw. Then sand the cut smooth and seal it with shellac so that it leaves no pencil marks on the fingerboard
Bodacious Cowboy Posted January 28, 2021 Report Posted January 28, 2021 25 minutes ago, catnip said: I use a half-pencil. Not sure I see the need for this. If you know the diameter of your unmodified full pencil, you're going to get a line d/2 above the fingerboard edge projected at the bridge, and you just work from that line to get the initial string heights you want....
Andreas Preuss Posted January 28, 2021 Author Report Posted January 28, 2021 5 hours ago, Bodacious Cowboy said: to get the initial string heights you want.... That's exactly what I tried to skip. The device was meant to have the perfect bridge height 'dead on' with no further corrections. However, it's not perfect.
nathan slobodkin Posted May 7, 2021 Report Posted May 7, 2021 On 11/16/2020 at 9:06 PM, Andreas Preuss said: And one more I forgot to post at the beginning. It is a device to plane a soundpost from short pieces of split wood. That is very clever!
Bill Yacey Posted May 8, 2021 Report Posted May 8, 2021 On 10/1/2020 at 1:12 AM, Andreas Preuss said: I was just cleaning my shop putting back tools in places where they are supposed to be and realized that quite a few are self made and still in useful service. Enjoy! If there are any questions, feel free to ask. Would be my delight if other MN could post their self made useful tools. Great minds think alike; look at you purfling pick on the right, and compare it to mine; the handles are almost identical:
Andreas Preuss Posted May 8, 2021 Author Report Posted May 8, 2021 20 hours ago, nathan slobodkin said: That is very clever! Thanks! It needs a bit trial and error to set the needle fixture to the rail. But once it works, it works. At the beginning you need to get the right feel to hold the wood piece and maybe you mess up one or two. The most surprising compliment I got for it was 'C'est pas bete'. (Guess you know who said it)
Andreas Preuss Posted May 8, 2021 Author Report Posted May 8, 2021 13 hours ago, Bill Yacey said: Great minds think alike; look at you purfling pick on the right, and compare it to mine; the handles are almost identical: I have to confess that the chisel there wasn't made by me, though it is entirely hand forged. The credit goes to Stefan Valcuha who took in Renes shop a big concrete nail, a forged it with the help of a burner to what it is now, saying something like 'You need a purfling picker? Here we go!'
Andreas Preuss Posted May 8, 2021 Author Report Posted May 8, 2021 10 hours ago, chiaroscuro_violins said: I posted this to a different thread a little while ago before I knew this one existed. Most of you here are probably familiar with this type of bridge fitting tool. I don't use it with sandpaper, just with carbon paper and a sharp knife, but you can definitely use sandpaper if that's your thing. I confess I was quite the LEGO fanatic when I was a kid. I put together my own version of this tool with some LEGO pieces and some spare bolts. Since I already had all the parts, it cost me nothing. It'd still be easily under $5 if you were to buy all the parts new (bridge not included). My LEGO version is pretty equal to the ones you can buy, and I actually prefer the rubber tires to the hard plastic wheel on the 'proper' version. Tomorrow I have to steal some LEGO parts from my kids! That's great!
... Posted July 9, 2021 Report Posted July 9, 2021 Currently making my own set of tools. Graduation punch, gage blocks, clamps ect. I have never attempted a build yet. I found besides heavy tools, saws, chisels, and such there wasn't much you couldn't make at home. I'm an aircraft mechanic by trade picking up the hobby as a new medium. Any advice on must have tools that I can make at home?
Andreas Preuss Posted July 10, 2021 Author Report Posted July 10, 2021 14 hours ago, RobertL said: Currently making my own set of tools. Graduation punch, gage blocks, clamps ect. I have never attempted a build yet. I found besides heavy tools, saws, chisels, and such there wasn't much you couldn't make at home. I'm an aircraft mechanic by trade picking up the hobby as a new medium. Any advice on must have tools that I can make at home? Welcome to violin making! i sometimes wonder what is the minimum tool set you need to make a violin you need chisels, (can be made from old files because their don’t need to be hollow. A rounded cutting edge is enough) finger planes (a bit more work but can be made from dense hardwood like grenadille or horn. scrapers (modern flexible scrapers can’t be handmade you need the special steel, but Stradivari type scrapers from knife blades work as well) knifes of different sizes (can be made from old files) purfling cutter (worth the effort to copy the Strad cutter. It’s a wonderful tool.) Rib bending mould (bending irons are not only expensive but not really necessary in violin making. If the ribs are planed thin enough you can bend them on a mould after having them soaked in water for 24h) peg hole reamer (no way around buying one) Rat tail file for string notches (must be bought) a device to measure the neck projection at the bridge closing clamps could be replaced by binding the plate to the ribs with a thread. But a set of closing clamps can be made by hand. block counterparts for clamping. glue brush glue and glue pot joiners plane (could be made from wood but is not worth the effort) a saw to cut the outline hand drill divider straight ruler mould to build the ribs (this might have been all you would find in the workshop of I del Gesu) Good luck!
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