Continued from
Seven Helpful Ways to Ensure a Successful Build by Brian Forbes
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your mind to clear, and you will come back to your project with fresh eyes, and a cooler head.
Forging on through negative feelings leads to mistakes, rushing, skipping steps, and in general sabotaging your own build. When you feel the urge to do anything less than the right thing, stop and take a break. It hurts at first, but your build will thank you.
Your Homework
Now that you have seven new ways to help your builds go more smoothly, it's time to take action. The difference between those who finish and those who never start is simply taking action on what you want to accomplish.
For the absolute beginner, start with books and videos. Order some books and while they are being delivered start immediately watching videos of your instrument being made. Become a sponge, and soak up as much academic learning about the process as you possibly can.
For those of you who have built already, get out into that shop and make some jigs that will make your process easier and more uniform. There are always ways to improve your process, so put them to work for you. On your next build, you will be happy you made them.
Last but not least, for those of you that have been building a long time, share your experience with those who are behind you on the journey. Who knows, you might be the reason someone falls in love with instrument making. Happy building.
A Couple of Quick Tips...
Sometimes I find I want to use the fence on my router table, but I can't position the fence far enough away - it seems that my router table was designed assuming I always want to use the bit close to the edge of my work. Since I (Peter O'Connor) really don't have a background in woodworking there might be an obvious way to do what I want to do, but in case you're like me and don't know that better way, here's what I did: I used two mitre gauges, as can be seen in the image. For greater stability than I needed, you could add fences to the gauges. Check that both gauges are at 90 degrees and push your work into the bit.
I like my fingers. Like many of us, I play an instrument, so if it's at all possible I would prefer to keep my fingers attached to my hands. For this reason I don't really like hand holding anything, especially small items, anywhere near a spinning router bit.
The solution that has made me very happy is to purchase this jig from Lee Valley. Described as a "Small Parts Mitre Jig" and, at the time of writing, selling for only $29.90, it is great for holding items up to 10" wide. The Lee Valley catalogue describes the jig as being "Great for avoiding impromptu manicures", and I couldn't agree more... how much are your fingers worth to you?
SOLG Newsletter - Issue 2 - September 2020
Page 5