GET INLAID

So one of my goals this weekend was to work on a design for Practice Project #3, using that leftover maple chunk I had.  I had decided I wanted it to be a vine design, so I decided to do a simple vine drawing myself.  (Like I can do any other kind of drawing???)  I used fine line markers to outline my pencil sketch, and hopefully I will avoid that spacing problem this time.  The idea is that the kerf of the saw is exactly as wide as the outline, so that pieces fit together perfectly.  We’ll see if that happens.  Tomorrow I’ll make the copies I need, and then I can get gluing, and then on to sawing! 

Okay, well, this is overdue, but I’m finally getting down to it. When I last left off, I was about to sand. Here’s the 80-grit sanding, which takes off the patterns.

I use a variety of foam sanding blocks. They are made to use with self-stick sandpaper, but I also use them with no-stick sandpaper and just hold it onto the block. I realized, though, that the curved one I use with the 80 grit may be doing me a disservice because of the curve go it. I found that parts of the design and wood ended up higher than others, and I think it might be from that unevenness. I may switch to the flatter yellow one, which I use with the 120 grit, for all sanding steps.

I worked through the several levels of sandpaper, and found that the swarf filled in some of the gaps, so I thought maybe they’d be fine once oiled. I would have to wait and see. I also found that my new magnifying lamp, through which this picture was taken, helped me see a lot of little scratches I might’ve missed otherwise. I found that superglue seeps in deeper than I would’ve expected, which adds to the sanding time and effort. Perhaps I’ll try to more discriminating as I apply it, and save myself some work in the long run.

This piece was inlaid into a piece of maple that was overlong, so I had to cut off the excess. (I decided to use the remainder for practice project #3, which is going to be a hand-drawn vine motif dealio, as if on a fingerboard.) I think a real circular saw is in my future. My little one sucks—it doesn’t have much depth. I may have to start using the suggestion Phaedrous made about using the sacrifice wood. As you can see here, there’s a lot of splintering.

So I sanded the rough edges, and all the other ones, too, to give them the slightest bevel, and here is the piece, ready for finishing.

I used Formby’s Tung Oil Finish, which is a mixture of Tung oil and mineral oils, I think; it’s not pure Tung oil. Oil finishes are simple, if not particularly rugged finishes, but seeing as this piece will live a relatively unrugged life as a paperweight, it’s enough for me right now. I’ve read my finishing book, and it could get a lot more complicated. I don’t need more complicated at this stage of the game. Ultimately, when I reach my goal of doing instruments, I will have to learn how to refinish the area I worked on identical to the original finish. I’m not sure how fingerboards are finished anyway. I bet my luthiery book will tell me.

I rubbed in 2 coats, letting it dry overnight in each case. When I brought it into work, I noticed some swirl marks that looked like smears, so I brought it home, scuffed it a little with 0000 steel wool, and put one more layer on it. I haven’t examined it yet to see if that solved the problem which was, admittedly minor.

I took pictures that night, but the light in the garage wasn’t great, and a flash makes it wash out, so I took more out on the driveway before work Friday morning, in natural light. Are you ready?

Et voila!

I’m pretty pleased with it. Some of the routing is nice and tight, which means I can do it if I focus. The oil did, in fact, get into the dust in the gaps and darkened it, so I’m not too excited about that. It calls attention to the errors, but I suppose there’s no avoiding that other than to avoid the errors in the first place. I love the Tung oil finish; it makes the maple so warm, and it has depth when you turn it. There’s a term for that—chatoyance, from the French, meaning “having a changeable luster or color with an undulating narrow band of white light.” Love that. (Did I mention I’m a geek?)

So project #2 comes to an end, and I learned a lot—from my mistakes, as usual. But I have both projects sitting on my desk at work, and it makes me happy just to see them. Now I need to get cracking on a design for project #3. It will have to take into account the sizes and shapes of the materials I have, and because of the design, I will likely be routing several cavities instead of one big one that I put all the pieces into. Good times, good times.

I’b sick, wid a stuffed node and a head code. It’s raining and code out. Naturally, I thought it was a good idea to go out in the garage Sunday and work on my project. I was tired of sitting and reading, as I’d been doing most of the day. Once I’d put on another shirt and a jacket, I was fine, but I found that my safety goggles fogged up from my breathing. But I can’t go goggle-less; a one-eyed girl cannot take additional chances.

When we last left this gripping saga, I’d glued my design to a piece of maple and left them alone to dry. So I scribed around them, this time with an Exacto knife, and that went pretty well. I’d read of a technique wherein you fill the scribed line with chalk, but that didn’t work so well on the light wood. So I followed up with plain pencil lead. You can see the chalk (barely) in the upper left of the design, the pencil on the right.

I thought it might be easier on me if I colored in all the space to be routed so I could see it better. I also found my light wasn’t adequate when my big mitts were blocking it. I’ve ordered a swing-arm magnifying lamp for out there that should be in Monday, and that should help.

Here’s the original soft wood piece I was going to do, and I decided to take the router to it just for practice. Larry was right; real wood is easier to rout accurately.

Before I started routing, I remembered that there was another benefit to the aquarium pump I’d bought. The router base had a tube to attach the pump to blow lightly and keep your field of vision clear. It’s not enough to blow all the routed crud out of the way, but at least you can see. I’d stop from time to time to vacuum it all out of the way. But it was slick.

I decided to outline the design first on the practice piece using the smaller bit. It went pretty well, and then I debated whether to finish it, which would involve swapping out bits and adjusting the router depth 3 more times, or to go ahead and move on to the maple with the bit I had and save myself 2 changes. I decided that was the way to go.

I outlined it on the maple, first, and it was different on the harder wood yet, but again, nice because it wasn’t so sloppy. The wood that is; I’m still not the world’s greatest router.

Here you can see it mostly routed. A nice clean cavity—none of that 2 level stuff I had trouble with last time, despite a bit change and router depth adjustment after I’d outlined it with the smaller bit. I used the green abalone to gauge it, since it’s the thinner of the 2 shell types. The sanding will take care of the difference.

And now we have the parade of screw-ups. I knew as I did it I’d fucked it up because I didn’t stop moving the router when I stopped seeing where it was going. Note to self: Using The Force is NOT going to cut it.

This one the router just got away from me. Something about that corner, I guess, as both screw-ups are across from each other. I’ll have to figure out how to patch those, maybe the same way I did it the last time. We’ll see. Better to not make the mistakes than to try to fix them; no fix will be as good as not screwing up in the first place.

I got it all routed and went to dry-fit the pieces. Another note to self: Don’t force the pieces in. I broke this one.

Piece 3 was sticking up, so I pulled it out and did some more routing. I’m not sure why that’s the case, when I traced around these pieces to begin with. I’m not sure where the breakdown in accuracy is. Of course, it could be multiple places.

Here it is, all dry-fit. It’s always a bummer to get them into place and then have to yank them out, but that’s the way it works.

So I put superglue in the cavity, and started to put the pieces in. I noticed by the time I started futzing with the 2nd piece, the maple had soaked up the superglue. Oops. So I put more in the cavity.

I’m not quite sure how I did it the first time, but the first few pieces required some finessing, which meant I ended up with more superglue on me than I would’ve liked. This one stuck to my finger and took a considerable amount of effort and superglue remover to get off. Care to guess which piece this is? That’s right, #2. At least it’s consistent. “Bonds skin instantly, motherfucker! Weren’t you paying attention???” thought I.

Here it is, glued and ready to cure overnight. I hope it’s not too cold. It’s currently 33 degrees, 2 degrees above our expected low. I really thought moving to the desert, I’d have seen the last of freezing temperatures. My outdoor aloe plants, bent and broken, are a sad denial of that thought.

First aid for the inlayer’s workbench.

Next will be sanding, and, this time, finishing. Stay tuned!

I learned a new word last night: "swarf" It’s the wood dust you get from sanding. It’s the sanding equivalent of sawdust. I dig that. Probably too much. Antiguo was always pleased that I cared about his work; I found it fascinating. And the more I learn about it, the more fascinated I become. So many conversations he and I had make so much more sense now.

Swarf.  Cool.