catsittingstill

So recently it started warming up and I got back to work on the guitar case.

I'm not claiming this is a cause and effect scenario--but I can't help but notice that having the workshop be slightly warmer has coincided with my being willing to spend more time out there.  And once I started standing around looking thoughtfully at the guitar case, it occurred to me that there might be an easier way to get the jig out.

Last time, I built the entire bottom of the octave mandolin case around the jig I used to hold the side strips in place while I glued them together.  Removing the jig was quite difficult because while whacking the jig into the case broke the hot glue bonds, the jig became wedged in place.  This time I attempted to make jig removal easier by only hotgluing every other strip to the jig and relying on friction to hold the strips between them in place while the glue dried.  This worked fairly well in the gluing stage, and I figured breaking half as many hot glue bonds would be about half as hard.

But it occurred to me--maybe I could sand the sides smooth on the outside -- and then fiberglass the sides before I glued the bottom on.  So I pulled the screws out (the ones that ran into the columns so I could support the jig on the soup cans while I whacked the top off, remember?) drilled the holes out with a forstner bit, patched them, did the epoxy seal coat, and fiberglassed the sides.

Then I carefully sanded away any fiberglass sticking out from the sides, laid the whole thing flat, and whacked all around the jig with a mallet (and a short piece of 2x2 to direct the mallet's force exactly where I wanted it--think mallet and really blunt chisel).  Once the hot glue bonds were broken I simply pushed the whole thing out the open side.

Last time removing the jig took me two hours.  This time?  Six minutes. As a bonus I can re-use this jig if I want; I did not have to saw large chunks out of it.  As a second bonus I went around what will become the bottom half of the sides and removed the blobs of hot glue through the open space where the bottom will go.  Much quicker than trying to remove them once the bottom is in place.

I was worried I would tear the fiberglass, but it looks fine.  I was worried the sides would be too floppy to glue to the bottom in their proper configuration without the jig.  They were definitely a bit floppy.  I stabilized them somewhat by laying the lid, open side up, on the workbench, laying a layer of wax paper over the lid (I did NOT want to end up gluing the sides to the lid with a stray drop of epoxy or dookie shmutz (epoxy plus sawdust)) and then fitting the sides into the lid.  In one place I used a short stick to brace the sides out where they were trying to squeeze in more narrow than the lid.

That seemed to stabilize the sides properly so I went ahead and glued the bottom on, and spent my work time today sanding the bottom back to match the sides exactly.  With a bit of luck I should be done with the outside fiberglassing by the end of next week.

Boy, have I been making progress!

I put in the ring-posts to allow me to snap straps on the case and carry it like a backpack. This meant varnishing would have to happen around the ring posts, which was not ideal, but once the kit-box was in, access to the inside would be pretty restricted, and I figured it would be easier to install the ringposts first.

I fitted the two uprights to make the under-neck kit box. That took me like two weeks, and I was feeling like I wouldn't be able to finish in time for OVFF but once I got them glued in things went much faster. Fitting the lid was a pain because the sides of the box aren't straight at that point, and I knew one of the handle attachment points was going to have to go in there also. I ended up making the hinges of the box and its pull tab out of leather, which matches what I used to pad the edges of the neck supports, (which fit Pearl's neck quite closely, and thus had to be softened so they wouldn't leave marks which meant more time fitting because I needed extra space to account for the leather.) The leather hinges let the box lid shift around a little more than metal hinges would, which I think makes the tolerances for opening a bit less stringent. I'm very pleased with the lid--it fits tightly enough to stay closed on its own, but opens with a tug on the pull tab. Having fit everything, I cut the lid loose again temporarily.

I bought a different handle for the case, which didn't require a shim to install (saving me a week, easily,) and which looks very nice. It was 25$ instead of 8, but I think it was worth it. I spend a lot of time with Pearl wedged in temporarily with padding and all the kit I expected to carry in the under-neck box put in, to find the center of gravity of the whole thing as closely as I could. The handle needed to be mounted perpendicular to the line extending from the center of the handle through the center of gravity of the case, so that the case would hang evenly. The major reason I wanted a new case is that the old case doesn't hang right when full and the hinges of the handle chew on my fingers.

That did, as expected, put the attachment points of one end of the handle at the same level as the lid of the box. I carefully cut out two notches in the lid of the box to accommodate the attachment points. It looks a little odd, but it is functional, and as neat as I can make it, fitting closely enough that even small stuff shouldn't be able to fall out of the kit box shouldn't be able to fall out.

The instrument case has four coats of varnish (though only 2 in some places, because in an effort to get its surfaces more level and less ripply I sanded all the way through those first two coats in some places--which is easier than you would think, even wet sanding with 400 grit sandpaper, because in my desire to avoid drips and runs I try to put on a brushful and then pull it out as thin as I can and cover as much surface as possible with it before it dries, which makes for a thin coat.)

The last coats of varnish are very matte--I bought semi-gloss varnish but failed to read the directions until I was halfway through. Thus I was using it without stirring and wondering why it was so glossy. I think the stuff that makes it semigloss is some kind of particulate suspension that sinks to the bottom of the can over time, so when I started stirring it I got a full can's dose in a half can's volume of varnish. This is okay, though; lesson learned, and in the meantime the very matte surface disguises the unevennesses fairly well, and the lack of a gleam makes the whole surface seem to have a soft glow.

The case and all its shims varnished, I drilled holes to install the feet. The plan was to have three on the bottom, to protect the varnished bottom from damage if it was set on a gritty floor or something and two on the hinge side to match the hinges plus hinge shims so the case wouldn't topple over if I set it down for a minute to open a door or something. The two on the hinge side required wood shims so shim-plus-foot matched shim-plus-hinge.

Now the place I ordered the feet send me the wrong size backing pins. (I asked for 4 of length X and 2 of length Y and got 2 of length X and 4 of length Y.) I thought at the time it didn't matter because the instructions for installation specified a minimum length the pin must protrude from the mounting surface, but not a maximum length, so I thought an extra 1/16th wouldn't matter; I'd just pound it down a bit more. I'm here to tell you that Buckleguy backing pin 1414 has an iron shaft, even if you can order them in brass, and you can pound on them *quite a bit* without mashing them down any farther. I discovered this while setting the length Y pins in the shims for the hinge-side feet, so it wasn't a tragedy because I had to drill out the underside of the shim anyway because Y wasn't long enough to go all the way through the shim, so the dookie schmutz should have packed into that cavity to glue the foot sufficiently in place so it can't "extend" and "retract" anymore.

But this was going to be more of a problem for the one foot on the bottom side that got a too-long pin. So I called up Buckleguy. Now I'd already had to call them about that particular order because I got hardware for straps to carry the instrument case like a backpack and one of the trigger snaps hadn't worked properly, and they sent me a new one, so I was pretty apologetic about not having straightened out the pin issue at the same time, which would have been easier for them. But their returns guy understood and said it was their job to get the order right in the first place, and furthermore he sent the stuff out second-day express to get it to me in time to mount the third foot before I go to the con. I should receive it today and I trusted them enough that I have already installed the other two bottom feet. If worst comes to worst and it doesn't arrive in time, the case will be a little tilted at OVFF, but still useable.

So I've got to say, if you need brass hardware, Buckleguy has quality stuff, and very nice customer service if you have any problems.

And the hinge side feet are on, and two of the bottom side feet are on, and all the hardware and its assorted shims have been re-bolted on. Someday I will glue the shims but that day was not yesterday because it's useable this way and I would really like to bring it to OVFF and I might not have time if I try gluing the shims.

I have also sewn some brown corduroy over the padding for the body--so the major thing I need to do today is finish sewing down the edges of that and figure out how to handle the padding on the inside of the lid that will keep Pearl from dropping on her bridge if the case is, for example, dropped lid-down. I have the foam all cut to size but I have to cover it with corduroy and secure it to the lid, and the padding-gluing glue I bought turns out to have acetone in it and I'm afraid it will damage the expoxy that is a major part of the lid's strength. I may run down to Walmart and buy some sticky-sided and some sew-on velcro as a stopgap.

But really, it's already better than the old case in terms of protectiveness, and I have carried it around by the handle, and the handle is in the right place, and comfortable.

It's almost done; it's almost done! But I spent so much time working on it that I need to spend extra time on my Dutch translation this morning to be ready to skype with Dad this afternoon.

Must run!

I didn't notice that I was typing this morning's post at LiveJournal rather than Dreamwidth. So I will put it in here also, with crossposting off, so it doesn't get re-posted there.

I keep thinking I'm going to make a longer post about the short story I mentioned last time--and I am, but this is not that post.

I want to talk about my instrument case for a few minutes. I have got all the latch shims finished and attached the latches and made sure they all close properly. I gave up on cutting down the 1 inch thick open celled foam (foam dulls a cutting edge fairly quickly, by the way) and discovered that, if it is possible to find local open celled foam in sheets using google, my google-fu isn't up to it. I stepped down the tech to a five year old yellow pages, and found a company that sells upholstery supplies, and made a special trip into town for 1/2 inch foam and 1/4 inch foam. They sell it by the running foot, but the roll is five or six feet wide, so now I have quite a bit more foam than I need but the total was $4.50 so I can't complain--anybody need some foam?

I wanted uprights to cradle the neck in two places, which I would then put a lid between to make a little box under the neck to hold things like a capo and a tuner and picks and such. And also eventually straps, because I want detachable straps so I can carry the case like a backpack when that is convenient.

So I made cardboard fakes of the uprights, and fitted them, while the belly of the case, padded out at the sides with 3/4 inch of foam, held the instrument in the proper position. I constructed small blanks of fitted white pine strips (some with a boxwood or cedar stripe) epoxied and fiberglassed on both sides. I used the cardboard fakes to cut the uprights and discovered I had let myself in for a lot of fitting and trimming and fitting but eventually got them fitted to the case. Then I discovered that they also had to be fitted to the neck at the two places they were going to hold the neck, so there was a certain amount of filing to do. Then I decided that I had better pad them, and cut up a retired SCA belt pouch to provide a little leather. I figure this will provide enough padding to prevent the cradles from scarring the neck, but still be firm enough to keep the instrument from rattling around in the box. So now I need enough clearance for the leather, and that was more filing.

Also, I mentioned that I want to be able to carry the case like a backpack. I don't want straps permanently installed; they would flop around and be annoying. I want something installed on the case that I can clip straps to when I want them. So far the best thing I've found that I could actually track down and order was a ring post from Hardware Elf. So I got five of those--the extra so I could install it in one of the blanks (in a part that was going to be cut off to make the cradle) and test it to see if it would be strong enough to do the job.

I clamped the blank to my bench, put a rope through the ring, and started hanging weight off it. Three full 2 liter bottles, no problem. But that filled up my hanging space so I took them out, and started hanging Kip's hand weights off it. I got up to 35 pounds, both perpendicular to the blank and parallel to it. (I clamped it two different ways for two different tests.) The ring post showed no visible strain, and neither did the blank. Since case plus instrument weighs 10 pounds at this point, I decided that was probably going to be good enough.

So ring posts it is, but they come in two parts, one placed on the outside and one forced through a hole from the inside. Alas they don't screw together; they have to be pounded, so I don't want to install the uprights until I have the ring posts installed, so that I will have a little more room to work on the inside of the case.

But, when I did the fiberglassing, I was running out of epoxy. So I didn't fill the weave of the fiberglass, because that doesn't add much to the strength anyway, and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to finish the fiberglassing on the inside if I filled the weave on the outside. I bought more epoxy, but had been putting off filling the weave--but now was the time, so I removed all the hardware and shims (need to epoxy the shims on, but I may not be able to do it without permanently installing the hardware, so that may be a late step) sanded the outside with 80 grit, and put the second, weave-filling, layer of epoxy on last night.

So now I have a bunch of interlocking jobs to do. Still hoping to get this done by OVFF but it may be closer than I thought.

I have successfully installed the hinges for the instrument case. This is not a permanent installation as I'm planning to epoxy the wood shims into place to provide a strong attachment point for the hinges. But I have the hinges all shaped, and the holes for the hardware drilled and the hinges bolted on and the bolts cut to the proper length. I still need to enlarge the notches in the case body that allow enough space for the lid hardware to move freely--I have notches; they're just not *quite* wide enough. But at that point I had been working for eight hours today and I decided to wait until tomorrow.

( more details, for those who are interested )

This will not be done in time for Contata. But OVFF is a real possibility.