Well, ok, now were rolling. The first banjo we did together and it took a while to figure out and build ... Most of a summer of spare time, actually. Number 2, Will did on his own and that one also took a while, but not as long as the first one. Number 3, on the other hand is rolling right along. The first picture in this series is from 11/17... Less than a month of spare time .. Pretty good. Its a Christmas present from a grandmother to a grandson and it looks like it will be on time ... Click the photos to enlarge them ....
The photo at the top shows the traditional neck to body dowel stick joint. This required a drill press set up with the table on the 4.5 degrees and skewed out of vertical ... an anxiety ridden set up for sure ... He hit it right though ... good to go ..
He started, as usual, by turning the pot, which he bricklaid in cherry and walnut...
This banjo is being referred to as a mini ...and at 8", the head
is pretty small.
Next the head and hardware arrived ... Its brass and now its antiqued, which is a pretty classy look. The plywood is left on the pot until its drilled for the hardware ...
Since the head is small, the scale is shorter so he had to cut a new indexing jig on the cnc ... That fits into this jig that guides the saw to cut the slots for the frets.
The one on the right is a steel one for a standard scale banjo.
Next is the neck and the truss rod. The pot to neck angle is 4.5 degrees and its set off from the perpendicular a little to align the cent of the neck with the g string ..
Good fit ... no, perfect fit ...
Heres the finished fretboard and the peg head with the swann inlay ... thats his last name ....
All for now .... Next step .... string it up and add the finish ...
We dont dont often take on work like this, but we just did a refinish on this 19th century desk for a friend ... The story was intriguing ... It was supposedly made by the owner or son of the owner of the Estey Organ Company of Brattleboro, Vermont ... An amazing 100 plus year old Veront company that made over 520,000 !! reed organs and over 3200 full size pipe organs before it went out of business in 1960. The desk appears to be from about the right mid to late 19th century time frame judging from the look of it. It had a severely distressed, insulted and alligatory shellac finish that was beyond saving which Jim removed with a little (lot) of alcohol and a white Scotchbrite pad ... After some serious sanding, we put a couple coats of dye stain and our typical gloss/gelstain/satin finish ... It now looks like its ready for another hundred years ... Out the door Friday morning ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
This is in the sanding stage, ready for the first coat of stain ...
The completed desk with the fall front open ...
Trevor made a quick replacement arch top ... the second from the left ... It had a neat detail. The shapes are cut from 1/4 thick lumber, but the back side of the profile is relieved to 1/8" thick which gives the appearance that the wood is half as thick as it is ... clever ....
