The front prep is very similar to the back, so I’ll only go over the differences. The front is made of spruce and will be made of two pieces that are “book matched.” I first cut thick piece into two pieces. I then flattened and trued up the edges that will be glued together. Below the two… Read more »
Posts By: Brendan Dahl
Miller Falls Hand Drill No. 2 Restoration
This is a restoration I did quite a while ago, but just recently got around to writing about. I picked this Miller Falls Hand Drill No. 2 up on ebay for $16 in 2011. It ran okay from the start, but it was definitely not super smooth. For those who want to jump to the… Read more »
Preparing and Cutting Out the Back
The back of the violin is traditionally made of maple. More commonly the back is also made of a piece that is cut in half and then opened like a book and joined in the middle to create a “book matched” joint. However, my piece of maple is large enough to use as a single piece back. As seen… Read more »
Stanley 358 Mitre Box Restoration
Here’s my Stanley 358 Mitre box in the condition that I purchased it for a whopping $35. I’ve seen a number of these on ebay, but the shipping is usually more than the item sells for. So when I saw this at a local used tool store, I snatched it up. For those who don’t… Read more »
Taking Apart a Miller Falls 104 Chuck
Failed Attempts I recently purchased nice little Miller Falls 104 egg beater drill. I plan to do a full restoration eventually, but to use it in the mean time I wanted to get the sticking chuck working properly. I thought it would be easy to take a part but it proved rather difficult. The first… Read more »
Violin Linings
Preparing the Linings The linings are 2mm thick strips of wood that support the inside of the ribs and give the violin more structure. The linings I used were made from the same willow as the blocks, but prepared much differently. The wood was in the rough, so first I had to square it up… Read more »
Bending and Gluing the Upper and Lower Ribs
After all the blocks are shaped I bent the upper and lower ribs. My rib sections were long enough that I was able to use one piece for each section. They were bent in the same manner as the c-bout ribs. Here the ribs are clamped to test the fit. In final gluing and clamping… Read more »
Shaping the Remaining Blocks
Now that the middle ribs are glued I can shape the remaining portions of the four middle blocks. To do this if first trimmed them with a chisel and then took them back to the drum sander. The top and bottom blocks also need to be cleaned up. To get in close to the line… Read more »
Bending and Gluing the C-Bout Ribs
Bending To bend the ribs to match the mould I used another homemade contraption. All credit for the idea goes to Sam Harper. It is definitely not a beautiful machine but I already had a heat gun and the piping was around $15. First, I bend the c-bouts or middle ribs. Before bending I cut… Read more »
Sharpening a Scraper
This was my first time using a card scraper and it was very troublesome to sharpen. I spent a number of hours trying different techniques, but the way that worked for me was first I lapped the front and back on my Veritas Power Sharpener just like a chisel. I then polished the edge on… Read more »
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