Just when I was getting used to winter, along came summer! It was pretty hard to go to sleep last night ’cause I’m was used to the weight of all the down comforters kinda putting me to sleep and last night I had about two comforters on me.
Monthly Archive for April, 2006
Page 4 of 7
I was hoping to stick the wood on the Sao (the piece of wood that goes into the body) today but I thought I should probably spiffy up the Dou a bit more before fiddling with the wood on the Sao. I did it fairly quickly and got it sooo slick and shiny. It was really neat to look at. Even though it looked pretty shiny ‘n all, it was still very bumpy (looked like a turtle shell) and I wanted to get it smooth. Pa said I should use a heavy file. That really worked well to get it smooth. I’d been using a pretty light file (who’s pores was filled up with sawdust) and that didn’t take off too much and this big file did the trick. I also got a stiff brush which took the sawdust out of the abrasive file slits. I got it pretty well smoothed out and even dampened the accidental holes a little which made ‘em less prominent. Of course, it was a tiny bit dissapointing to file away the pretty shiny sheen but at least it’s round now.
After that, I sandpaper-ed the dou pieces with 80-220-400-1500 sandpaper. That was tiring on the arms (since I did it to all of ‘em first before filing it away). After getting it even shinier than before, I noticed I still hadn’t taken away the filing marks. That meant I had to sandpaper it again with a high grit. I wanted to fully take it away so I wouldn’t have to do the whole process over again. Since I knew that it’d be a long process of just sanding and I my arms were burning, I needed something to kinda take my attention away so I turned on the radio. This show called Money Talk was interesting. It talked about investing with a fixed income. 2 hours later, the show ended and this lawyer show came on where people call in and ask this lawyer questions. It was a fun show.
Boy, I finally finished! My wrists felt like they had carpel tunnel! Fortunately, I finished it all, it was shiny, perfectly round and shiny as well. Tomorrow I might get some pumice to rub on the wood to get it shinier.
Yeow! We have another very generous donation by a loyal and dedicated reader! With a uber (as the hip kids say) donation of $50, Bob name goes up (once again) in the Kyle Abbott’s Web Pit Stop Hall Of Fame! I gotta update it sometime. It’s a little backed-up. Thanks Bob! We couldn’t keep this blog up without you and Dan. (I mean we could try, but it wouldn’t last long)
Do you want to made of the same stuff as these generous donators? (spelled something like that) Well, all you need to do to help out the cause and deduct a little something from your taxes (this is a non-informal charity. All revenue goes to the Self-Help Foundation) is just make any donation of any size! Start feeling good here!
I spiffied up the Sao a bit more. I rounded the neck with the plane. I took off quite a bit and it came off slowly (I had it set shallow ’cause I didn’t want to accidentally go too far) but I got it nice ‘n round. It was so smooth from the planing, it almost didn’t even need to be smoothed with sandpaper. We did have some 1500 grade sandpaper which I used just to get it super-smooth. It’s turning out good. The fretboard is perfectly flat. Not a bump.
Afterwards, I cut out the flareout and round-off at the butt of the sao.
Today, I was smoothing out the sao on the roof. I was being very careful with the chisel. Just then, All of the sudden, before I realized it, my attention lapsed (you never know it until it’s too late) and I cut my finger. Fortunately, I quickly compressed the cut with my other hand for about five minutes and then the wound stopped up.
That’s the first cut from chisels/saws I got in this proccess. I’ve gotten two smaller cut-ish things from the wood! The wood is really hard and the edge of the fretboard ain’t rounded and I kinda slipped.