Archive for the ‘Woodworking’ Category

One of the benefits of getting physically active through Power 90 is that I seem to have more energy for everything, more stamina, more desire to do something other than sit at my desk.

A couple weeks ago or so, I finally got back into my shop and started finishing my current project which had mostly sat around as pieces of wood waiting for me to make something out of them. I attacked them with vigor (something I couldn’t have said before), and the result is the workbench you can see at the bottom of this post. It cost me less than $100 in materials and is pretty dang heavy. Now, it’s time to clean up the mess you see behind it.

What really excites me about it is that I can spend hours out there shifting wood around now, and I don’t feel tired or worn out or sore at the end of the day.

So I gave up on LD48 #13, and instead, turned a nice combo amplifier (amp with speakers attached) into a head (amp with no speakers attached). Here’s the original.

Here’s the result.

Wow, I got really caught up with work, shipping Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile (check it out on a cellular phone near you), and got NOTHING done on any of my other projects. I’m excited to get back to having some time to do anything other than coding.

First up, I’ve decided it’s time to give up on my Presonus Firestudio ever working correctly. The drivers while better, still have issues that annoy me greatly, and it’s no fun being annoyed while trying to make music. I’ve done quite a bit of searching, and I think the replacement that fits the bill is the Echo Layla 3G. It’s PCI, and not firewire, and is about $500. It’ll cost me some extra cash to buy a glorified volume knob to sit on my desk, but it’s really the cheapest option out there that fits my requirements.

The next thing on the agenda is the purchase of an SSL Duende PCIe card. It should be here tomorrow or the next day. If you don’t know what it is, it’s a card that plugs into your computer and has a processor on it that runs plugins for your audio software, saving your computer CPU from other tasks. This one only runs SSL plugins designed for the card, and they’re supposed to be top quality plugins.

I’m hoping I can get back into the shop soon, too, though with it being the holiday season, I expect I may not get quality time there until January. I need to finish the workbench so I can get on with the guitar building.

Anyone have some free time they can share?

What the hell am I talking about? Of course, I’m talking about the long delay between posts. The current mobile project has been taking a huge amount of time, more than it really should. It doesn’t matter why, really, but I won’t accept this kind of project again. It’s been a nightmare.

Anyway, I did get the jointer and the planer, and I’ve set up the jointer as well as I can without a good straightedge. I really need to get one. I just keep forgetting to order one. I haven’t even started the planer up, yet. It’s driving me nuts, but I just never seem to find the time to get out there and get it working.

On the computer front, I’m trying to move away from PC’s. I won’t be able to do it completely, but I’m going to try to move as much of my work as possible to a new Macbook Pro that I ordered. I’m really worn out with the Windows interface. It’s just too easy to get totally cluttered, and also makes me think of “work” whenever I sit in front of one. I don’t get that feeling in front of the Mac.

Hell, my Mac Mini is the least powerful computer I own, in many ways, yet I’m spending most of my time using it instead of my much more powerful PC’s. I can’t wait for the Macbook Pro to arrive at my door.

So, the electrical is pretty much done. There’s one last thing to do, which the parts supplier didn’t have the part for, but it’s only for future considerations at the moment.

The best thing, however, is that I can get to work. I’m going to spend the next couple of days getting the band saw set up and running right, though I suspect I’ll have to get a new blade.

Then, hopefully, I’ll pick up the planer and jointer on Friday and get them set up, which will let me get to work on the workbench (cheapo!). Once the workbench is done, it’ll be full steam ahead on the guitar.

I think I’ve finally got a shape I like, too. Only a half dozen “sketches” in SketchUp, and a bunch of work on some poster board. I’m wavering over one last minor detail, and once I get that figured out, I can move it to an MDF template and do a mockup.

Oh, I suppose I need to settle on the headstock shape before I can do the mockup.

The electrician came out today, and got most of the work done. He couldn’t get some parts he needed to do drops from the celing, so no 220 yet (which is OK for the moment). He was told they will be in Monday, so I’m crossing my fingers. Time to go get some lights.