My first project completed in March was another walnut octave mandolin. It is shown on the Mandolins page. Now that I have one walnut and one cherry in stock I won’t be planning to make any more till one of these is sold.

Next I got an inquiry for a cherry fiddle with a scroll instead of a chicken head. I built it at the same time as another walnut chicken head to replace the one that was bought early in the month. I made a second fiddle mold in the winter and it’s nice to be able to do two at once. Fiddle #32 is on the Fiddles page, and these pictures are #31. I have decided that from now on I will charge an extra $100 for a fiddle with a scroll because they take hours more work, sanding and carving, than a chicken head.

Next I got to work on a batch of 4 stock banjos and a custom banjo. The stock banjos are #334-337 and are shown on the Banjos page. The custom one was #333, an 11″ curly maple C scale 5+1 slot head with a tunneled 5th string. It was a combination of design elements that I had not tried before. It has a Rickard Banjos tension hoop, which was very nicely made, as all their hardware is. The customer ordered the inlay and I installed it at his direction.

I was a bit distracted during the latter part of March by some more band saw drama. I bought a 1970 Rockwell/Delta 28-350 from a National Guard base in Colchester VT in an online auction. It is the kind of machine I have wanted for years, and I have bid on several but they always went higher than I wanted to bid. This one went for less than half the max bid I put on it, and my mother rode with me over to Vermont to pick it up. We crossed Lake Champlain on two different ferries, and the trip took all day but mostly went well. Then I had to get it into the shop, which took an hour or so since it weighs 400-450 pounds with the table and motor removed. I made a small photo album of the moving process, which involved some off-label uses of a floor jack and some wooden ramps and rollers.

Band saw moving album link

I have put all new bearings and tires in the saw, and a new blade, and made a mobile base for it. The VFD enclosure and the plug are still delayed in the mail, but I hope to have the saw running and cutting by the end of this week. Then my goal is to get the shaft repaired properly in my current bandsaw and sell it, as two large bandsaws are too much for my workshop in the long term.

Now I am working on a batch of four more stock banjos to replace ones that were sold in March, and then I have a custom banjo neck/guitar body instrument on the agenda. There may also be a custom banjo neck to be built, pending delivery of materials. Before the end of the month I intend to start work on an upright bass, also a custom order, that will be picked up in July. I want to give myself enough time so that if I run into a problem I can still get it done before the owner comes to get it. Tomorrow is the eclipse, and we are right in the middle of the path of totality, so we will be at the Wild Center in the morning to help for four hours and then I’ll spend the rest of the day at the fire station, as the county wants them manned in case of emergency, with so many people expected to come through the area.