Posted by d13design on Friday, April 20, 2012
This pretty much describes last night's progress. I set out with the best intentions, and some fairly high aspirations, but was once again let down my my skill. But, in time honored tradition, I'll choose to blame my tools rather than myself.
It's become clear quite quickly how invaluable a good saw is in the build process. I've been muddling through with a fairly decent handheld electric jigsaw but the control and visibility it gives me just isn't enough for some of the more detailed work I'm hoping to do.
So....
The Good.
I spent a fair bit of time shaping up the face of the neck - adding the taper and the notch for the 5th string. This seemed to go really well with some nice jigs for the angles and some planing to straighten everything out.
I'm pretty pleased with this, although on reflection I should have added the fingerboard first :-( but with a little more finishing I think it'll be ok. It is just a warm-up for banjo #2 anyway.
The Bad.
My goodness, I'm not sure the shaping of the peghead could have gone any worse! I had planned on a nice, simple shield shape with a scalloped end but from the first cut I knew things weren't going to go my way.
The sides were fine, and I'm fairly happy with them bit the curves at the top were a disaster, so much so that i couldn't fix them and have resorted to a flat edge at the top.
And The Ugly.
Well, the peghead in general. I'm disappointed with the shape of this but I'll keep reminding myself that this is my first attempt at building a banjo (and really my first word work in 15 years!) so I'll try not to dwell on these things and move on to the next task.
Who knows, with a good finish and maybe a little inlay, along with the Gibson guitar style tuners I've ordered, it might end up looking quite sweet.
1 comment on “The Good, The Bad & The Ugly”
tgaryc Says:
Friday, April 20, 2012 @12:38:12 PM
You really need a bandsaw,a drill press,and a table saw,and a bunch of different files. I have a small palm sander which really speeds up the final shaping. best of luck Gary C
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