Si600

I dragged myself back into the cellar to make a start on the chop. It's middle is going to be 5 lengths of 18 x 60 x X mm. I've been putting it off because it's hand cutting and I'm lazy. It's a case of cut a strip, true up the edge of the big board and cut the next. I managed to remember that the middle mortice thing needs to be done before gluing so here it is marked out ready to be done. It's the weekly family Skype call now, so you'll have to wait a bit for any more progress.

Not for long if you were crucified upside down.

I've just seen I've got 8 followers! Are you all mad, or desperate for something to read? @Richard R is correct about the name being wrong, and has fortunately saved me from having to explain how it works. 😉 I didn't know about the different ways of crucifying saints either. Name wise, it seems to have come from a book called The Amateur Carpenter and Builder from c1900 which has a diagram in it labeled. "Fig. 243. Croix de St. Pierre" and it's been run with ever since. I'll call it a scissor mechanism from now on 😉

Oh, and to steal a quote from the doyen of Build Diaries, this is how I'm doing it. It doesn't necessarily follow that this is a) the right way, b) the only way, or c) it'll ultimately even work.

Making a set of legs: A critique. Today I R put the legs on the bench. Points in no particular order. 1) It's solid AF. I can't make it rack front to back, side to side is a bit sloppier. 2) It's as near square as dammit lengthwise. Vertically from the bench top not so much unfortunately. 3) The individual sets of two laminations are four square, which I'm very happy with. As full units they're not great, the back leg in particular is very out on the cut dimension. 4) It's a little short as @samhay points out above. I had always planned to make it the same size as the bench top excluding the edging, but why, I don't know. There's no reason to have done that, except, and this is in hindsight rather that being planned, it can have a removable fixed jaw plate which can be swapped if it gets tatty. Saves having to repair the leg proper, but I've only just thought of it. In general, I'm happy with what I've made. Yes, more care could have been taken, more thought should certainly have gone into it but I've learnt a lot and I've enjoyed doing it. The next step is cutting the chop, no idea why it's called that, and making the cross. Again, as pointed out above, Benchcrafted crosses, although nice, are shockingly expensive. I have seen a guy who uses a sliding thing at the bottom, like a peg board but with a length of bicycle chain as a mechanism. http://ancorayachtservice.com/?page_id=196 Here is my St. Peter's Cross...... It's a length of 20mm square mild that my brother in law had in stock behind his workshop.

I heard that he made them out of the bones of pixies and glued them together with rendered fairy wings.

It's got legs, it knows how to use them... Well sort of. The nut has been fitted, I don't think that the face is actually square, but I'm not sure I can get it out now either. All cut to length, not cut brilliantly unfortunately, but hooray for planes. Being blockboard the end grain is all over the place so it's a bit of a pig. Screw fitted for test and a trial fit to make sure that the bolt holes in the top plate actually line up. From the end. The astute amongst you will notice that the front leg doesn't actually touch the floor. This is deliberate. The floor isn't level, I considered making the legs to fit, but then decided that if I end up moving it, which once we change our heating system and the big brown 5000 litre oil tank goes, I may very well do, having legs that only fit one spot of floor is a bit restrictive! It's currently upside down on the bench being varnished.

Want.

So plays just as well but you don't mind gigging it 😉 My dad's got a Mitutoyo one, it must be 20 years old by now.

Interesting that the price difference between the gold standard and a near as dammit identical performer is £100. When was that published?

I was thinking that I might dowel them anyway once I'm done just to really over engineer it against it racking. I'll dowel the other half and see how that goes.

More has happened. Will the horror never end I hear you cry. First up, a little tidying up on the front leg, chamfering the edges, squaring off the foot and so on. The foot is going to have a filler before it's finished. Today I've added the first half of the back leg. I don't glue both sides on at once simply because they move so much. The little clamps doing nothing are end stops so I know that the legs are parallel. The only way I could think to do it was running a tape measure alongside a square to ensure that the outside dimension was the same top and bottom. Then it's just a case of getting glue on it and squeezing it up. Of course, the thing moved despite the stops, any tips on how to avoid that happening? Less glue, screw it together?

I had to cut the silk off of the b string on the flats I've just fitted, it wouldn't go through either the hole in the bridge or the hole in the body. All the others were fine.

Just a couple of pictures to demonstrate how far I've got. If anyone cares my entire tool kit for doing this is generic DIY shed hardpoint handsaw, 350mm tenon saw and 20mm chisel. A Record no. 5 and Stanley no. 60 planes and my luxury, (sounds like desert island discs) a Starrett combination square. The supervisor came down to check up on progress. Obviously now I've posted the pictures even I can see a set square, steel rule, marking knife and big rubber mallet which are also in my tool set!

LEDs as face dots as well? *runs away and hides*

First up, some horror show shots for @Geek99 to demonstrate that Build Diaries isn't only populated by the likes of skilled genii. There are those who are embarking on their first serious woodworking projects 😉 The notch for the vice screw nut and housing dado the screw goes through. This hole is for the pin that holds the top of the St Peter's cross. Infill between the stretchers before the other part of the leg goes on. The other side of the leg. The drill bit is to align the holes, as that is a critical point in the operation of the vice. Hopefully my witterings about laminations and four fifths of a leg now make more sense to @SpondonBassed.

@Bill Wy,Aye,Man Is there a bit of a wobble at 8th/9th fret on the treble side?

Have you read my bench diary, warts and all? It's more wart than anything else.

Technical query. The nut that goes on the back of the screw is lining up with the retaining screw holes nearly bang on the glue lines. I can twist the nut so that they go into solid wood, or I can have it square. They're only retaining screws, AFAIK anyway, so will they be OK in the glue line?

Why didn't you square the battery recess like you did the pickups?

Fück. I've just realised I've made a mistake. The big stretcher has to come off. Maybe. I've not left enough space vertically for the nut on the screw. I can cut a triangle out of it to fit, or I can move it. Vote Now! *Edit* That's not coming off, at least not without making more of a mess. Small notch out of the stretcher then.

Both "halves" of the front leg are finished. A long not quite a mortice for the St. Peter's cross and two housing dados. One housing dado I'm happy with, and one I'm very happy with. Bearing in mind I've only made about ten in my entire life! Checking the screw fits the dados before gluing. You can see the full width of five pieces in this test. And glue stops play for the day. I'm not going to glue all the bits in at once, getting the stretchers (?) square was hard enough as they slid around under clamping pressure.

How do I know if the truss rod needs adjusting?

Now I've broken the B string

That didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped, the ball end winding on the B string is too big for the hole in the bridge, either top loaded or through strung. I had to cut it off. They do sound nice though. It's settling at the moment, retune and more play later.