What's happening in your shed?

Yes, I'm very pleased with the clear I'm using now. It's a polyurethane made in Australia. Catalyzed so it cures hard overnight and can level sand and flow coat the next day. Found it's best to let cure a further 3-4 days to then sand and buff.

It's taken a good 4 weeks off my building time instead of waiting for Nitro to dry.
 
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One of a pair of renaissance mandores I've been commissioned to build...
 
Got two finished today. A bandsawn bowl back with a quite nice (for me) rosette and a cookie tin uke which I could not resist adding cookie monster googly eyes to.20181021_220142.jpg20181021_215700.jpg20181021_215610.jpg20181021_215631.jpg20181021_215627.jpg
Apologies for the sidewaysness of the pics
 
Right now it has a John Deere and several tools that need to be put up. I know, we are talking about building ukes. Actually I would like to try, would a kit be a good place to start?
 
I'm cleaning up the shop and came across piles of spruce scraps. I'm not sure why I keep them, but I do. I hate throwing good wood away. Anyway, I had fun using some for kindling. The torrified stuff burns like you wouldn't believe. Lesson: There is a lot of residual sap in the Sitka spruce we use as soundboards.

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I built a better bending Iron. Has temp PID contoller. Heats in about 4 or 5 minutes and stays within a few degrees of set temp. Cost me about $40 to build. I had the metal and wood laying around. I use this unit on a timer as I do wood burners, soldering Irons, Hot glue guns etc. My buddy had an employee leave a hot glue gun on, it burned down his entire business one night. I won't ansewer questions about wiring. If you have to ask you should not attempt to build one. There is a reason the commercial units tend to be under powered, the more power you have the easier it is to burn your shop down if you leave them on unattended.

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Here's the body 6 course of a renaissance lute I'm currently building:
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and here's the rose I carved for it:
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home built bender

Michael, not wiring questions but what did you use for heat,what sort of probe for the pid and where did you place it? I'm using a shop built bender with a 150 w light bulb for heat and no temp control. It works but I'd like to build a better one.
Thanks
Bill
 
Bill I used

p.jpg
High-density 9.5X80mm AC110V 300W Cartridge Mold Heating element heater Tube

Got them on Ebay. They were cheap. I got 3 for less than $12. I drilled a hole pretty much in the center of my solid aluminum block. My hole was a little big so I shimmed with aluminum foll. It's important you get a snug fit.


Michael, not wiring questions but what did you use for heat,what sort of probe for the pid and where did you place it? I'm using a shop built bender with a 150 w light bulb for heat and no temp control. It works but I'd like to build a better one.
Thanks
Bill
 
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