May was not my most productive month in the shop, but I got a few things done. Early in the month I called my friendly local excavator operator to see if he would have time later in the summer to tear out the failed concrete porches at either end of the house here in Piercefield and put in precast piers for the new ones, and he was available right away but busy later, so the plan changed, as plans do. Coincidentally that same week I discovered an old septic tank overflow pit that was about 8 feet by 7 feet, and 5 feet tall inside, buried 2 feet under the garden. It was roofed with railroad ties, so I knew it would collapse someday, even if not for decades. I had enough rocks piled by the house to half fill the hole, and that also got them out of the way so the excavator could drive to the north end of the house, so everything came together well but it all made a lot more non-shop work than I was expecting in May. My sister was visiting and kindly helped with moving the rocks, and later with bringing in more rocks and dirt to finish filling the pit. I still need to reassemble the trim where the siding meets the new roof, before painting the house in June or July.
Old porches:
New porches:
In actual shop news I made two banjos this month. #287 was a stock combination that I didn’t happen to have on hand at present, made of cherry with an 11″ rim with 1/4″ round brass tone hoop. #288 was a left handed 12″ cherry banjo with walnut trim.
My last instrument for the month was acoustic guitar #15. It was a curly maple parlor size guitar, based on Martin I-17 plans, of a type I have built before. The customer requested the most interesting looking wood I had, so I found some of the curly maple from the lot I bought in Tupper Lake last year and some lightly spalted hop-hornbeam that I cut from a dead tree at the farm years ago. I filled in the bug holes in the fretboard, but left one on the side where it meets the soundboard.
One other thing I did in May, and one that was new to me though not a new idea in the banjo world, was modifying an electric guitar neck to be played like a banjo. The customer ordered the neck unfinished from a supplier, and I removed the portion on the bass side between the 5th fret and the nut and plugged two of the holes in the peghead, and put on a finish. It was a quick but fun job to try something new like that.
I’ve been working for the past few days on another curly maple parlor guitar which will be a bit more conventional in appearance, and which will be going to the annual local artists show at Tupper Arts in Tupper Lake later this month along with a banjo and a fiddle. Assuming it is not sold there, which is very probable, I will list it for sale online in early July. I’m also planning to restock 3 or 4 11″ banjos , since I am currently out of those, and perhaps make another cello banjo if the one that is now out for approval is kept by the buyer. I don’t have any custom work lined up for this month except a small hammered dulcimer made to a design I haven’t built from in about 10 years, and perhaps completing an order for a neck and rim to be finished by the customer, if he gets his mind made up about the neck in time. It’ll be good to have some time to catch up with stock work this month.