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 May 12, 2003
It's been a slow week in the shop - Cali had some dental problems which required emergency visits to a dentist and then to an endodontist for a root canal procedure. This has been a little distracting. Nevertheless, we pushed on...
Music featured in the shop this week: "mostly ape!" from Drums and Tuba, on Ani DiFranco's Righteous Babe Records (thanks to Selena for that, or we never would have heard of it); the Dixie Chicks' "Fly", which we would never have bought without the President's influence, and which I find myself liking in spite of it being country-influenced (which shouldn't really surprise me, since I like the Dead and Emmylou Harris); and an oldie, Boiled in Lead's "From the Ladle to the Grave".
LB5: laying out the internal head block
LB5: It's a nice day outside, and Justin takes advantage of it to apply the angle grinder to forming the facets of the head block
LB5: the form with the head and tail blocks in place, and the doubled central rib glued to them
Colson: Euclid didn't let us down, but Microsoft Excel did: a small error in the spreadsheet caused us to drill the hole in the wrong place the first time. A few choice words were spoken, but luckily I think that the mistake was discovered before the band was trimmed too far.
VG38: in spite of tooth pain, Cali made a foray into the shop to work on the binding
VG36: it was on the list, best of intentions, ran out of time ;-(
VG40: ready to glue
Esprit prototype: adjusting the fit of the parts in the new mold
Esprit prototype: the cutaway shape makes for some interesting clamping
Esprit prototype: gluing in the back braces
Esprit prototype: gluing on the back
VG32: some more circuit board design work, nothing too exciting to look at...
JK's Pajot: removing the pegs, tangents and keys so the body can be cleaned
JK's Pajot: the bridges and ears are off too, and all the screws are gone - and we're removing the incredible buildup of scum from the keybox end block. See that dark thing at the end of the keybox? When it left Jenzat, it was the same color as the rest of the keybox.
Guitar-lute: gluing the ribs back together
Justin's: almost done with the finish
Katie and Joanne came for a visit, to work on their psalteries. Here the frames are laid out so the bottom strips can be measured and their rabbets milled.
...And here, under a forest of clamps, the glued-up frames are being glued to the backs.
Back in the vegetable garden, we're still preparing for putting in the beds. Here we are before...
...and after the application of several cubic yards of wood chips.
Cali's hanging lettuces are enjoying the weather, and the slugs are stymied by the hanging baskets.
One of two flower boxes we put in in front of the shop windows a few weeks ago.
The white rhododendron in the front garden is blooming - I lost track of the days since my last walk in the garden, and so was quite surprised to see it suddenly in flower yesterday.
Similarly, I've been anticipating the blooming of this little azalea by the front porch, and suddenly, voila!
OK, R.T., I've tortured you with enough flower pictures...
RTDWHG: Some ants seem to have made their way onto my bench...
...but they didn't distract me. Here's the beginning of the shaping, boring and tapping process on the left drone nut. This is probably the most complex piece of design and machining I've ever done, hence all the computer-generated views and color-coding.
See other weeks for more pictures.
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Alden and Cali Hackmann
Olympic Musical Instruments
Beati illi qui in circulum circumeunt, fient enim magnae rotae.
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