Lapsteel

Milled and layed out. Still adjusting all the parts layout through, it's got very limited space for all the stuff I need to squeeze into it.

Johan

This project was made as a lesson and a christmas gift.. Here's Johan inspecting his own work.

Tinture cabinet.

A wall mounted cabinet for tinctures. Birch.

Djembe

Can you tell?

Sealed

Got the crack closed and the bearing edge cut. Next is more cleanup as and then a rubber foot.

The culprit.

The piece that causes me so much distress.. Some engineers short sighted solution to a problem. Notice the mushroomed shoulder on the groove. Metal on metal never makes for a good bushing.

My least favorite part of my job.

Machine maintenance. My planer stopped raising and lowering the other day right in the middle of a job. I just finished tearing apart the planer and now am waiting for the new parts to arrive in the mail.

Try number 2

Tried regular wood glue to get it closed, but the internal stress of the wood was too strong. It popped as son as I got the clamps off. This time I'm using System Three epoxy. This should hold...

Glued

Glued and clamped the crack back down.

Crack

Cleaned old glue away from the crack.

Crack

This is the crack. It's been fixed once, but now needs something more permanent.

Djembe Repair

Mamadou Kone's great grandfather made this drum. Mamadou has played on it since he was a boy, now it's in need of repair. I'll be trimming the edge, fixing a crack and cleaning it thoroughly. Then adding a rubber foot.

Planer problems

Just started planing the wood for the lap steel and my planer takes a dive on me. Now I have a rebuild to manage before I can continue building the guitar, or any other project for that matter...

Lap steel guitar

Here is the start of the new lap steel guitar. Locally grown walnut slab.

12

12 inch rack tom finally finished and mounted.

Pickgaurds

Put it all back together and it's now playable.

Nut

Brass nut finished and installed.

Before

Here's another rescue project. I'll be restoring this to a much nicer condition. This is the exact condition I've recieved it in. That's home sprayed yellow laquer all over it.

Nut

made a nice brass nut for the top of the neck, leveled the frets, re-crowned and polished them, then sealed the rosewood fingerboard.

Veneering

pick gaurds are veneered and getting finish.

Veneer

putting a nice walnut burl veneer on my pick gaurds.

Finishing

Table top with several coats of finish.

Texture

I'm adding a hand hewn surface to the table top using hand planes and scrapers.

Dry fit

One more trim on the top and the legs will get finish buffed and wait for the final assembly.

Table

Both ends ready for legs.

Top

End of table cut to receive leg structure.

Legs

Polished

Dry assembly

Test fit with piece all cut to final shape.

Legs

Joinery cut on leg tops.

Polish

Sample polish on legs. 6063 AL.

Metal

Aluminum for the legs of the dining table came today. Now to polish...

Trimmed Bowties

Glued an flushed the bowties. Now for metal Fab.

Inlaid

6 bowties carved and inlaid into the top.

Bowtie

The table top is made of California black walnut, and the bowties are Brazillian walnut.

Bowties

Surfaced the table top this morning, and then made bowties as decoratvie and functional inlay.

Shells

While waiting on other jobs... I through together two new shells for the bop kit, an 8" and a 12".

Table top

New table top made frrom 4 slabs of T inch thick walnut.

Dash

Glove box side removed. There were a lot more screws than you could see. After a lot of delicate elimination, I finally found the elusive last screw and it came sliding right out of the car.

Trio

Brand

Branding iron carve by hand from brass.

Dash

Looks like a walnut burl with some really flaky finish. This is what I'll be working on. New finish onto what looks like some nice walnut veneer, in good shape still.

Austin Healey

My latest project. 1966 Austin Healey.

Finishing

Finishing a butcher block top for a friend's project, with homemade food grade wood finish.

Butcher Blocks

Butcher Blocks made from the old shuffleboard out of the Morgan Hill Tavern.

Pickup

1/4 inch mono jack, and volume control.

Kalimbas

Kalimbas

Two new Kalimbas, tuned and ready for sale.

Cutting boards

becoming a popular item. Here are more cutting boards, i'm also selling food grade finish for seasoning you new board or butcherblock.

New Kalimbas

Two new kalimbas for the first friday show downtown.

Fingerboard

I've finished all the staining, Frank pinstriped, and now I'm glueing the fingerboard back down to the neck. A little more touch up to the finish around the neck, and it'll be ready for re-assembly.