Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Banjo neck

I had another idea; we have a lot of oak, some white and some red. If I could age/dry some of that, I could save about $30 for wood. I'm not sure if I will actually be able to do that, as that usually involves a kiln, and the closest thing that we have is an oven that we aren't using, but I'm not sure that one, I would be allowed to use it for that, and two, that a 3 foot piece of wood would fit in it.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Banjos

Well, as I mentioned earlier I am building banjos. I am making one at a time, and if it works that's all I need it to do. I will then improve upon that in my second, which should be much nicer. I am somewhat undecided what wood to use for the neck. I am using red oak for the body, and I want it not to clash with that. So far I am considering using: Bubinga, Osage Orange (Argentine), or Padauk. Just for fun, here are their
corresponding Latin names:
Guibourtia demeusei (Bubinga)
Maclura tinctoria (Osage Orange Argentine)
Pterocarpus soyauxii (Padauk)

I am considering getting one of each, but they are about $20 each currently, plus shipping. That actually seems to be a reasonable price, but it's still a lot, unless I sell some things soon. I am planning on using East Indian Rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia) for the fretboard. I might also do some fretboard inlay work, probably the diamonds.

More some other time,

73, DE KJ4BXT K

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Audio

I am just now hooking up our Bose speakers as subwoofers in the lab. My Polk speakers are fed through my push-pull tube amp which is fed from the rec out of a JVC amp which is powering the Bose, with the EQ as: 63 +10, 160 +8, 400 +6, 1K -10, 2.5K -10, 6.3K -10, 16K -10. It is rather interesting, it does add more bass, but it's drawn out, sort of sustained; it sounds like it needs a higher damping amp. Or, maybe it's just a sloppy driver.

Audio

I am just now hooking up our Bose speakers as subwoofers in the lab. My Polk speakers are fed through my push-pull tube amp which is fed from the rec out of a JVC amp which is powering the Bose, with the EQ as: 63 +10, 160 +8, 400 +6, 1K -10, 2.5K -10, 6.3K -10, 16K -10. It is rather interesting, it does add more bass, but it's drawn out, sort of sustained; it sounds like it needs a higher damping amp. Or, maybe it's just a sloppy driver.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Update

This didn't work too well. I sort of forgot about this website, and haven't done anything with it for a long time. Right now my main project in woodworking is building two banjos. (That may have been the secret project mentioned earlier, but I've forgotten!) We are doing the bible bee right now, and that takes up a lot of time. I never knew was so bad at memorizing. It seems like my brothers and sisters can just read a card once or twice and have memorized it. Right now the lab is also very cluttered; I just got about 50 years worth of the Proceedings of the IRE (now IEEE), plus about the same number of years of Radio magazine, and am trying to find places for all of them. I just got back from a swim meet. I swam 50m backstroke and butterfly. I only have to drop .08 seconds in my fly to break 30, which is one of my swimming goals for this summer. (I placed second, the the winning time was 30.00s) I have been doing winter swim, and am currently swimming with coaches Bill and Bob at Camelot, (SCM) and Audry Moore, (LCM). 
 I am also busy with some of the new equipment we got down in Florida. The lab has been expanded to the entire sunroom, with a woodworking space.

More later