Beautiful Sitka Spruce

[Dean May]

Terry

You always run the risk of being labeled when you put out there what you do
for everyone's inspection. Now you've destroyed my illusion that you crank
out perfect soundboard panels. I mean, you actually tolerate 1/4 mm
variations during glue up??!    :-)

Hey, I'm coming your way. I'll be touching down in Ft Myers at 11:49 AM for
a few days stay on Gasparilla. Keep the sun out for me, will you? 



Dean- a white boy who can't jump, looking to become a little tanner

Dean May             cell 812.239.3359 

PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272 

Terre Haute IN  47802

 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Farrell
Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 1:54 AM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: Re: Beautiful Sitka Spruce

At the risk of being labeled as building soundboard panels that are not 
quite perfectly uniform thickness, I'll share what I do. I plane subpanels 
down to final thickness. Then glue up subpanels (usually three or four 
subpanels) to make complete panel while paying close attention to edge joint

alignment. I find that I can make most joints within 0.010" misalignment. I 
find alignment pretty easy with the panel clamps I am using. I then simply 
use a smoothing plane with a slightly rounded blade to remove any trace of 
subpanel misalignment. Just a couple fast sweeps of the plane gets anything 
that's there.

I spend about ten minutes straightening things up on a panel after glue-up. 
Usually, I then give the panel a quick sanding with 240 grit paper.

I mean, isn't that the sort of thing that, in part, gives each hand-crafted 
piano its own personality?

Terry Farrell