Last post, I mentioned drilling the holes for the tuners and for the audio jack. After that I lined up and glued the fingerboard to the neck of the violin. It was very worrisome because if it was misaligned I'd have a huge amount of work to fix it. Thankfully it went well.
The next steps were to level and align where the fingerboard and neck meet. This went pretty quickly and painlessly, I wasn't removing too much material. For the last bits of major body work, I dremeled out the tuning holes further to accept the top side piece of the tuners.
And I drilled and dremeled a hole for the endpin.
Once all of that was done I began sanding and sanding and sanding. First using 150 grit sandpaper, then up to 220 grit, then 600 grit, and finally I used 0000 steel wool. All went...... smoothly.
Next I measured and shaped the nut of the violin. When it was all ready I glued both the nut and the endpin into place.
Now, if I had wanted to I could have attached the rest of the pieces, done some wiring and stringed the violin but it still wasn't finished. I still had to seal the wood in some way. I've decided to use Tru-Oil, which is most often used to finish furniture and guns. While it sounds peculiar it is a very simple way compared to the industrial processes commercial instruments are finished with. It simply requires applying the finish by hand in multiple coats while letting each coat dry for about a day. I'm pretty sure I just put on the fourth coat this evening and I think I'll probably continue up to 6 coats. I may do a little more research to see what is a good number. Anyway it is looking stunning.
Oh what? Did you think I was done for this post? There's actually a little more! Long story short, I now have a banjo which was graciously given to me for free by a friend. The catch was that it was thoroughly busted. Here's the before(and slightly disassembled) picture: broken tuners, broken strings, generally dirty, and the removed backboard.
And here's the later(partly reassembled) picture: I replaced the tuners and strings, washed off the drum, and buffed the metal areas, fingerboard and neck. All back into working condition and staying in tune... except for the back board.
The backboard is a problem all on its own. It's made of plywood and sections began to separate. Also the finish was scratched and cracked. The separations were easily enough to correct with some wood glue and a hand full of clamps.
The finish on the other hand has been bothersome. I sanded it WAY down and have put a few layers back on. Here's where it's at so far, I still need to add a few more layers of finish, paint the edges black and smooth it out. But everything is coming along nicely and hopefully I'll have another post very shortly!
