Recent content by Matt Clara

I remember getting private messages from Rick when I would ask him questions about his instruments. He always had a moment for you, it seemed. When I heard the news on his Facebook feed this morning, my first thought was it's a huge loss, but my second thought was, we were super lucky to have...

In my experience, too much accelerator is what makes it cloudy. It crystalizes and cures too quickly and isn't strong when that happens. Just a little to freeze everything in place is my way of thinking. Generally when I'm using accelerator it's because I don't want the CA I've applied to end...

Lol, very nice, but I love the rich orange/yellow and don't want it to age! Recognized it as soon as I saw it, I have one that's osage orange back and sides I'm working on and I haven't determined what I'll make the fingerboard out of yet. I have some desert iron wood that I might use.

I've built three instruments from locally sourced cherry, two of them with cherry sound boards, and they are some of the best sounding instruments I've built yet. Similar to mahogany with a solid middle and not a lot of highs and lows, but decent enough range for all that--little brighter than...

I finally bought a fox bender; if I was starting over I'd be tempted by those Alibaba ones someone listed above. Making your own is a bit of a trial and error pain in the neck.

It matters because a halogen is smaller. Want to make tight bends in the waist or a cutaway? Good luck doing that around a pipe that will hold a 100 watt incandescent bulb.

Nonetheless, the halogens get hotter than the incandescent. "There's one more difference that affects the use of some halogens. This is because halogen bulbs burn very hot. Even hotter than traditional incandescents. So in the case of mini halogens and projection bulbs, you don't want to touch...

A 75 watt halogen will fit a smaller pipe and generate more heat per watt than a 100 watt incandescent. Don't be tempted by a 150 watt halogen. That's too much.

The things I liked about it are it's a bit faster than a traditional sharpening method, and it claims it can help get the most out of an inexpensive chisel or plane, which is all of my chisels and planes! And to Brad, you're welcome--it's the first I've heard of it. I've been meaning to get a...

Haven't tried it yet, but I'm going to. https://www.popularwoodworking.com/techniques/the-unicorn-sharpening-meathod/

Remind the young folks to wear their hearing protection. I've had tinnitus since 2011. Saw a ton of concerts as a young man.

Had to look it up: only available from Tough Saws in the UK "Supertuff Fastcut" blades. About the closest thing the US has got that I'm aware of is the woodslicer by Highland Woodworking.

I did something similar the other day, but worse, forgot to lift a toggle clamp out of the way and ran it into a new table saw blade. Worse because it wasn't hidden there in the wood, it was right in front of me on the sled! Blade is still cutting alright, but need a new toggle clamp holds down.

(Better clean the spray booth!)

Did you ever turn an old mahogany table into ukes? I remember you talking about it and I thought it was a done deal. Looks like Mrs. Timbuck has proved the old adage once again, behind a great man stands a much more sensible woman.