This Week in Wood » Questions

Motivated or Frustrated

glennth — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:47:39 +0000

I haven’t been to my shop in a few weeks. To me (and probably most of us woodworkers), that’s just sad.

The problem, though, may be self inflicted.

Those of you who have read this blog on a regular basis know that I’m working on building 3 acoustic guitars. If you really remember a while back though, I just started building just a single guitar. I had some issues that I thought I couldn’t fix so I started 2 more believing that I learned a lot about building guitars.

I’m currently working on the binding and purfling and have once again had issues. These issues are smaller than that first issue but they are still frustrating and it has caused me to not want to go into my shop. Yes, there have been other factors for not going into my shop from normal life (yard work, helping kids, volunteering, …) but over the course of 2 weeks I can always find time to get to my shop.

I guess some of my frustration comes from jealousy or lack of self confidence. I’m the sort of woodworker that makes lots of mistakes in my learning process. I have been known to jump into something before it is fully thought out so the mistakes can sometimes be large. I do learn and my resulting projects have gotten better and better over the years. Of course, the internet has made other woodworker’s resulting projects and stories in the forefront. It’s hard to not get a little frustrated when i see new hobby luthiers build their second or third guitar and have it turn out like a long time professional luthier.

Two days ago, I forced myself to go out to my shop but I avoided my project to clean and re-organize a few spaces in my small shop.

I need to just get to it and finish the guitars. They will be what they will be. In truth, they will probably sound great. They may have some “quirky” appearance issues (yes, I’m being politically correct so i don’t hurt my own feelings) but that should be ok.

What do you do to work around motivational issues?

In the past, i have started over; given up; found a fix; stayed away and then got back to it; and sometimes combinations of all of these. Starting over and given up are harder to swallow with all the money and time I’ve put into this current project so i don’t think I’ll be going down this path.

OK, this week I’m going to do some work, even if it is small, on my guitars. If I can get the binding and purfling done, it will be on to the neck and fretboard.

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Motivated or Frustrated

Issue: What to do?

glennth — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 17:15:10 +0000

Having been a woodworker for some time, I have learned one important lesson. Wood moves and I am not perfect (don’t tell my Mom because I know she’ll be disappointed). The results of both of these facts is that in any given project, bad things happen. A dovetail cut may be too wide and leave a gap. A tenon cheek may not be square. A mortise wall may break away. A finish on a surface may not be ideal. These and many other things can and have happened in my projects. I’ve determined from dealing with these is that a talented woodworker may have innate skill and can produce tight joints and straight lines and true angles but a MASTER woodworker can take loose joints and less than straight lines and untrue angles and still produce a great piece.

With my current project, making a maple bodied guitar with a spruce top and bloodwood and ebony accents, I’ve suddenly found the same universal truth to exist. Wood moves and I am not perfect. So what happened?

In glueing up the sides to the back, the sides racked a little when glueing and clamping it up. The result has the interior neck block off by a skosh and not square to the center line. In thinking about it, I realized my mistakes. Yes, several. First, for whatever reason, I thought it would be brilliant to take the sides out of the guitar mold which has been holding it’s shape firmly. Yes, some glue would have gotten onto the mold but at least the shape would have stayed true. Second, I didn’t check true and squareness during the glue up. This was probably due to the fact that this is still an unfamiliar project to me and I don’t know all the in’s and out’s yet. By the time I get to 20 or more guitars, maybe then I’ll have it all down. Lastly, not totally related to the resulting error, I am not cleaning up the glue squeeze out as well as I’d like and it’s taking more cleanup work with chisels, scrapers, and sandpaper.

All that being said, I’m still pleased with the tonal quality of the back on the sides. It’s pleasing and if I can determine a way to attache the neck so that it can remain in line with the center line of the body, I should be good.

My current thoughts are that I will need to have the cheeks of the tenon be shaped to the body at the location of neck attachment and I will also have to have the mortise be in line with the center line of the body making it skewed from the sides where the neck attaches ( this should have been perfectly flat and square to the body center line meaning the neck should have also been square to the center line). These will be challenges but not insurmountable.

For the next guitar, I will have to keep all of these details in mind to make this a truly learned lesson.

If there are any luthiers reading this, I’d love to hear any ideas on how to attack this problem.

Transportation for hand tools

glennth — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:30:39 +0000

As I mentioned in my post titled “Woodworking Class – Building a chest“, I’m going to a woodworking class for a week down in Portland, OR. The classes haven’t required us to take all our tools but they do recommend some so my question is how do I carry chisels, handplanes, and handsaws?

I’ve found this chisel roll that looks like the best way for chisels. I found it at Woodcraft.

Leather Chisel Roll from Woodcraft

I haven’t found anything to carry handplanes or handsaws yet. All my handplanes are non-wood so they are heavy and I don’t want them clanking around in a tool back. If anyone has any ideas before Sunday, when I leave – I’d love to hear it.

I found a tool bag which might work also at Woodcraft.

Tool bag from Woodcraft

If there are any better suggestions, let me know.

UPDATE: In a duh moment, I found a way to carry hand planes. I found on Veritas’ site, plane bags. On Lie-Nielsen’s site, I found plane socks. Guess what, they looked the same and from that, I determined extra large tube socks from target work too.

Block Plane vs Rabbit Block Plane

glennth — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:12:43 +0000

I’m sure that everyone (but perhaps my wife) who reads this blog has a block plane. This is the one plane that almost all woodworkers have even if they aren’t into hand tools and instead prefer the feel of power. The reason is that it’s versatile in it’s use. You can use it to fine tune a tenon, shave some length off an end of a board that would be risky to cut again because it’s a small amount, or take off some glue.

I’ve got 2 block planes and 2 smaller apron block planes myself. I find them very useful but…

I just came across a Rabbit Block Plane over a Lei-Nielsen Toolworks and have some thoughts. Here is a picture:

Now, I think that this must be an even more useful plane and unless someone can point out the limitations of this plane, I would think that it would be the better universal plane around. With the blade going from edge to edge, you have the option to shave shoulders and get up to the edge of rabbits when necessary plus it can do all the same things the traditional block plane can do.

What do you think?

UPDATE: I decided to get one so I’ll let you know what I think after I get this.