Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Slow progress

I am working on a box for my daughters birthday.  It is already a week over due.  It is a simple box, at least in concept, but I am struggling to get anywhere with it.  Sometimes things just do not go the way you think.  Being consumed with trying things over and over, and not getting anywhere has been an exercise in patience, which I am running out of.  I have walked away more than once to ruminate on how I am going to do a procedure.

All this of course, has been taking away time from other things.  Like editing video, doing yard work, cleaning the winter grime off the car, and so on.  Yesterday though, I buckled down and did a marathon of editing.  I don't really have a schedule for putting up videos, but I like having them come out fairly regularly.  I used up some old footage from the winter and put this one together.  Not a complicated build but good to keep my editing skills improving.


While I was at it, I did a second video.

One of the local public schools has a bunch of inexpensive guitars for their music program.  I have done some work on them over time and since school budgets are pretty slim, I do it free.  It is my way of paying it forward in my own small way.  This one had the strings buzzing at the first fret.  It is one of the ones that was shown in my neck jig video.  This is how I went about shimming up the nut to make that buzzing disappear.  The guitars the school has are not expensive, and usually bought used or have been donated.  It would cost more than the guitar is worth to bring them to a "pro" shop to be fixed, and I think that having music in school is important.  May as well have the kids exercising both hemispheres of their brains.  




So, back to the shop trying to get some sort of progress on this box.  It seems like I am all thumbs working on things.  Nothing to do about it but experiment, fail, and try again.

Thanks for dropping by!

Sunday, April 10, 2016

A couple more videos

I have not been working too hard, but I have done a little here and there.  I have been taking footage of it and it has been piling up as I have been lagging on getting the editing done.  So here are 2 new ones that I have just finished up.

The first one is for your guitar.  If you work on guitars, or even if you just change strings, this is a handy neck cradle to make the job go better.


The second video is from my Doc's Little docs series.  It shows how to easily improve on the humble pipe clamp, making it more versatile by extending its capacity.



I hope to get some more editing, and some more work done soon.

Life is weird in some ways.  I had a couple of things I have been wanting to do.  Including a birthday present for my daughter.  I am part way through that, but the weather has turned nasty and I did not feel like being out in the shop.  It looks like spring may actually try to make an appearance by the end of the week.

I was wondering what to do about getting some footage gathered up to make new videos, then last week the music teacher from one of the local public schools got hold of me with a couple of guitars that need work.  I had not even finished them and all of a sudden there were 3 more guitars in my home that need work.  Looks like I am going to have a bit of a run on guitar repair and maintenance for a while.  I am not a professional luthier, it is just a hobby that I have had for many years.  So, if you like guitars, you will want to stay tuned.  If not, please bear with me and I will be on to other things in due coarse.

Thanks for dropping by!






Saturday, April 02, 2016

File storage

One of the things most folks who fix things have is a file, or two, or a bunch, depending on what you need them for.  They come in all shapes and sizes depending on their purpose.  Files are made from very hard steel.  One would think that they would be hard to damage, but they will dull.  Particularly if, like me, you store them all together in a drawer of a tool box.  You really want to protect them from banging into each other.  It does them no good at all.  I spend a couple of pennies and a few minutes to protect them from each other.  Here is another of my "Doc's Little docs" on how I do it.


An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Thanks for dropping by!