Archive for the ‘DIY’ Category

Wood Chips

Monday, November 30th, 2020
Lathe Project

Used to be a candle holder piece of worm-eaten log good enough to practice some wood turning.

Digging in

This might turn out to be a little wooden cup. I was trying to get in deep with just a spindle gouge and a scraper.

Outside shape cut

The trick was to get a wall thickness of about 2mm. I felt along the inside of the cup to get an idea of just how far I might be able to cut without going through the wall.

Separation time

The shape is complete and maybe a little sanding before the base is released from the the “holy log”

Finished Product?

Oh, sure there are the worm holes in the thing, but it has character! As someone once said: “Seen from up close, many aspects of nature, humans and evolution are in fact chaotic, superfluous and often “adjusted” by strokes of luck. But this, paradoxically, is great news. We tend to think that the imperfections that fill the biological world are only a side effect, a cost to be borne in order to achieve a higher goal. On the other hand, they have a positive value and contain masses of creativity, which is the driver of evolution itself.”

The Plague Months, Day 19

Thursday, March 19th, 2020

Made a thing I call a Bazou :

As a member of the Home Made Musical Instrument Facebook group, I made this video of a Bazou.

Today’s toll: 168 over 11500, Index = 1.62.

March Projects

Thursday, March 12th, 2020
Hurdy Gurdy construction
Maybe a Greek Bouzouki
Bouzouki side view
Bouzouki Inside view
And ribs of possible Gurdy

The latest music projects this month involve using the curved wood resonators that I made a while ago. The Bouzouki is sounding good but the Gurdy is going to go through some design changes as I am building the thing on a ‘hunch’ as tRump would say. Good luck with that!

This blog is 12 years old!

Monday, March 2nd, 2020
The Creator Hub is alive and well
We’re sneaking in a one day class
Kids make cigar box guitars!
Great day to make music!

I forgot about this blog’s actual birthday– I think it was February 12, 2008. Here at the Creator Hub we had some students come it to build cigar box guitars. They all got to take their creations home. Looks like we will have another class this summer!

MAKERFX Orlando

Saturday, February 1st, 2020
3-D Printers
Robot Competitions
Ocean Again?
Embroidery Machines

One the last day on the way to the airport we made a stop at an Orlando maker space called the Maker FX. They just happened to be open and gave us a tour of the place.

Hurdy Project, part one; the rounded back

Sunday, May 5th, 2019

It all started with an Oud:

Strange little Oud

I made this instrument some 40 years ago just to see what it would be like to put together strips of wood to form a rounded shell resonator like that in an instrument of the Oud type. I generally only saw an Oud in pictures and didn’t have much to go on as the internet was not all that helpful at the time. As I recall, the method used to make this instrument was not very efficient and the instrument itself became a wall hanging decoration and not something I would  normally play.

A plan, A shape, a piece of wire?

So, it looks like I’m going to bend strips of wood. What shape should it be and how much wood do I need? I dreamed up a shape that seemed consistent with Oud style backs and shaped a wire along the edge to get the minimum length required for the wood strips.

The master form!

The shape was cut out from a piece of stiff poster board. This would be the form used throughout the project and would be kept in a secure place so I wouldn’t lose it. It’s labeled 22” OUD in case I decide to make other sizes and shapes. The 22” refers to the minimum wood strip length required.

Shape press form

This is the method I use to instill a uniform shape to the wood strips or perhaps they are called “staves” at this point. Just some 2×4 wood glued together at this point.

Paper Form and solid 3D form

Using the paper master form, the location of the stave cut is determined on the Shape Press Form. Some care should be taken to make sure the master form properly fits into the Shape Press Form.

Oud pattern drawn onto the Shape Press Form

The lines are drawn from the pattern with an additional line about 3mm inside the original pattern to allow for the stave width. This pattern  is then cut on a band saw.

Pressed wood plus a few raw staves

The wood is pressed in the form for about 12 hours or more. The raw staves on the left need to be checked against the 22” OUD pattern to make sure the shape is close to the original design.

Final bending process

The bending jig is used to make corrections to the stave shapes. It can also be used in pre-bending of the wood before placing it into the Shape Press Form. The bending jig is made from a stainless steel drinking cup that is heated from the inside by a 100 watt incandescent light bulb. The wood is first sprayed with water before bending on the jig. The heat from the light bulb in enough to create steam heat at the surface of the wood.

The Staves are prepared for cutting

I saw on some oud making videos online that the staves are first cut into the proper (flat) shape and then bent into the final shape. My experience from 40 years ago told me to first make the curves and then cut the final shape on a band saw. I had a band saw 40 years ago, so that’s probably why it did it this way. In order to establish a proper cut in this manner, each raw stave would have to be attached to a rectangular piece of stiff material so it could back up against the band saw gate the same way each time.  I found that a good stiff material scrap for this purpose is left over political yard signs. Yes, that’s correct! I have used political yard sign wire here for my bass banjo, but now I have found a way to recycle USED POLITICAL YARD SIGNS!

Inside the finished shells

Somewhere I have pictures of the staves being cut. I can’t seem to find them right now. Anyhow, after the staves are cut, the pieces are matched and glued together.

Outside the finished shells

OK, maybe not entirely finished. The smaller one was a ‘test subject’ that might still be used for something. Note the larger one at the top used an alternating wood pattern that looks pretty cool.

Spike Fiddle

Monday, April 29th, 2019

Made a case for the Spike Fiddle:

Looks like a child’s casket

The fancy decorations on the edge were made using vinyl cut scrolls and the cross was cut out of scrap lumber using a laser cutter. All of the wood used in the project came from the scrap bin at the Creator Hub.

No dead child here

Inside the top is the spike and bow. This picture does not show the extra padding around the fiddle that was made from an old bed spread that I bought for one dollar at the local GoodWill store.

Rice

Saturday, March 2nd, 2019

As in Rice Elementary

Kids make the straw oboes in the classroom

As part of the “Physics of Music” at the annual “Science Night” at Rice Elementary. The school was named after an Edgar Rice (Not Burroughs) who was a local educator. The making of these simple musical instruments were the highlight of the night, and the children get to take the little noise-makers home to further annoy their parents.

11 YEARS AGO TODAY

Tuesday, February 12th, 2019

This blog was started 11 years ago today. But it was not my first blog entry. There was a blog of sorts that I started in 1994 using text edited HTML code. It was about making drums and it used a rented domain with the letters MCS. That domain is long gone and so I made a crummy copy to be posted in the eegraphics domain and you can still find it HERE. It’s a fairly simple web page, but at the time it won a Magellan and Golden Crane award probably because at that time there were not very many web sites out there.

Still Around

Bloco is almost 10 years old and Cam the Ram is quite a bit older. The picture above has nothing to do with the 11th anniversary of this blog but it reminds me to tell you that FESTA BRASIL is April 20th this year and BLOCO will be there with Marcus Santos!

A Quick Stop at the Denver Maker Faire

Sunday, October 14th, 2018

The Denver Maker Faire this year was big, but there was snow so many outside activities were cut short.

Robot music of Troy Rogers

The website HERE might explain what’s going on. Maybe not. Anyhow, Troy saw some of the stuff I was doing and we talked robot stuff for a while, musically of course.

Cardboard cut-out playing the rebab

I had limited time this weekend, and there was snow of course, so it was much fun driving into Denver with the usual stuff in the snow. I didn’t have much time to see the rest of the show as I was busy at the Fort Collins Creator Hub booth.