Lonnie Ezell

So, I had a few minutes during my lunch break to work on the next step of my tunable bodhran.

I gotta admit, it’s coming out sturdier than I was afraid of yesterday. Very happy about that. There’s still the slightest amount of give, but I’m hoping that won’t last past adding the next piece or two.

First – a prelude: Look at that picture. That is one of the coolest things about making something from scratch. That first time when you can really start to see the shape of the finished product. Such a very cool feeling. And a slightly addicting one, the art of creation. Hmm. Maybe that’s what this blog should be about…. the Art of Creation.

End prelude. Back to the normally scheduled topic.

After pulling the frame with it’s 2 layers solidly glued together out of the mold, I did a quick sanding of the tops and bottoms with the orbital sander to make sure it was all smooth and actually felt like a single piece.

The next step was the veneer. I’ve got some Maple veneer from and old project that was the right size, so I trimmed to fit and tested it by placing it inside. Good to go. Then the thought struck me… “How the heck am I going to put enough pressure on the veneer to keep it steady while it’s glued?” I knew how to do the outside, but the inside?

Looked around the room a bit. There’s a bunch of stuff in here, since it’s just the unfinished part of the basement with lots of miscellany being stored. Nothing that would work, though. Then my eyes passed over the scrap wood that hasn’t been used for anything, yet.

Bingo!

I had a 4″-5″ strip of scrap ply available. A quick job of cutting it to size, checking fit, sanding the end, checking fit, rinsing and repeating and I had the perfect thing to hold it in place, apply pressure equally to all ends. And since I was going to have to use this wood to cut (2) 1-1/2″ strips from later, anyway, it seemed like the perfect solution.

That’s all of the time I had for this today, and nothing will happen over the weekend since I’ll be away floating and camping and what not. Enjoy your weekend.

Oh – and go create!