Olympic Musical Instruments




	The progress reports Each week we update this page with new photos of instruments in progress. The updates will usually be sometime on Monday, which is the end of our work week. We hope that you enjoy seeing the progress on your instrument and those of others who have them on order.
	Week ending February 24, 2003 It was a busy week, and there are a lot of pictures - it's too late for me to turn it into 2 pages, so just be patient while it downloads. ;-) It seems that this is our year for digging holes and trenches: the pump on our our septic field malfunctioned, and we had to dig to uncover the septic tank and the pump tank. The diagram filed with the Health Department is not really specific about where these items were buried, so there were a few false starts. At least the tanks were shown on the correct side of the house. ;-) LB4: the braces are fitted (one of those jobs that always takes way longer than it looks as if it should) LB4: making one of the tapered soundposts VG36: the unique shape of the body required making a new jig to hold it upright for masking VG36: drilling for the screws that hold in the printed circuit board for the tuner. This is a somewhat daunting operation, as it needs to be drilled to just barely miss going through - there's less than 2 mm of wood left. One wrong move and the keybox would need to be made again. VG36: fitting the circuit boards to the keybox side VG36: bandsawing the blanks for the tailpiece VG36: milling the tailpiece blanks with a big shell mill VG36: the blanks mounted on the lathe fixture for turning. Only one blank will be used, but the fixture needs to be balanced. VG36: turning the wider head end to a taper VG36: another new jig, this one to align the keybox with the tailpiece for masking and gluing VG36: one of the tailpiece blanks after shaping - if this one is cut too short, the second blank will be used on the instrument VG37: the finished crank and handle assembly VG37: the key stock ready for drilling VG37: milling the keyfront stock for the Bleton-style keys VG37: the chanters are on and the wheel is being scraped VG39: the first coat of shellac is put on VG39: hand-finishing the keybox top and wheel cover VG39: with more coats of finish, the color and depth of figure intensify VG39: the masking is removed VG39: finishing the completed handle with a friction polish VG39: the keybox is glued on, and the tailpiece, and the bridges, and the strap buttons are in Joan (right) and Pat (left) came by to pick up Joan's instrument. Justin's VG: Justin is applying a filler coat before finishing the body Justin's VG: laser cutting and etching the holes for the electronics controls The Pajot: mounting the wheel on the faceplate The Pajot: the wheel insert is epoxied in and is drying The Colson: countersinking the handle for the new handle shaft Part of a shipment of cranks arrives from the foundry RTDWHG: Justin is making something odd from some plans I drew. A small bookshelf perhaps? RTDWHG: gluing the end pieces RTDWHG: OK, so it's not a bookshelf. A corral for very small horses? RTDWHG: it's either a donut-shaped stegosaurus or a pregnant guitar... RTDWHG: guess we can eliminate the stegosaurus RTDWHG: now it's starting to look like a porch swing... See other weeks for more pictures. Please contact us if you have comments or questions about this page or other pages on this site. Alden and Cali Hackmann Olympic Musical Instruments Beati illi qui in circulum circumeunt, fient enim magnae rotae. © Copyright 2000, 2005, Olympic Musical Instruments. Please ask for permission to use material from this site. Thank you.