This has been fun thread to follow.
I've seen Judy's use of tools and she follows the same path as many of us in small shops who still work alone. She builds a beautiful guitar, but, like myself, still has a white-knucled grip on some of the old school tools and techniques that have been shunned by some who are pursuing higher numbers in production.
I have two beautifully built and set up Fox style bending machines that were used to bend a single set of sides back in 1995. I appreciated the fact that I was able to multitask and get other work done while the sides were cooking away across the shop on the benders, but realized that I really enjoy interacting with the wood as it yields to the effects of the water and heat of my bending iron and relaxes to allow me to bend it. So, once those sides came out of the balankets and steel sheets, the machines were neatly tucked onto a shelf where they've quietly resided since.
I still rmemeber which guitar that was that ended up with the machine bent sides and can tell you who owns it, what wood the sides were made from and the serial number that is inside of it. Strange, maybe, but true nonetheless.
I love the machines and their function, but just choose to bend all of my sides by hand and still love to carve all of my necks from billets even though I've set up and programmed at least twenty CNC machines to run necks at an alarming rate for different shops over the years. I appreciate the speed and accuracy of the CNC carvers, but have just chosen to stick with the time consuming and sometimes tedious task of removing all that material with a series of outdated tools and a few of my own design that make the work as painless and speedy as possible. Some of the shaves and tools that I use were used by and even made by my grandfather who had a huge shop that was half metal working machine shop and half cabinet shop hand making cabinets for most of the local spec home builders in his time.
Judy's use of a Drill press to act as a sort of vertical thickness sander years ago was ingenious even though it appeared to kick up clouds of dust, but she was...and obviously still is resourceful and innovative in her methods and ideas. I don't know if she still thickness her wood that way, but hope she has fitted some sort of dust collection to it since if she does.
I'll continue to "neander" around my shop using what I really love to use those old school methods and think of ways to get it done while still keeping it interesting for me and feeding my passion for the craft. I was a toolmaker/designer and CNC programmer/operator by trade for years and have loads of very useful and timesaving designs being used by several different makers that I don't even use myself right now. As intriguing and interesting as all of th virtual modeling and maching technology is, I've chosen to pass on it for now. I've had several opportunities to purchase CNC machines from different shops that I've done work for as they've upgraded and updated, some for rediculuosly low liquidation prices, but have passed by directing the sales to friends instead and then helped them to set them up and even programmed them for them.
Compliments come in strange forms sometimes. I'm sure Judy was flattered by the comment as she well should be.
"Vive le Neanderthals!"
Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars
|
