Keyboard Woodworking — Part 6— Back to The Case
Now that the table is built, it’s time to get back to the case buildking. I’ve tried different ways to cut to depth, mostly with different kind of planes like convex plane and router plane. *Had to admin that I got the router plane partially because it looks cool and in theory can do precise depth cut.
But in this case, router plane couldn’t handle the wild wood grain too well and the hole is too wide to do an even cut. Or it’s very possible that’s it’s user error.
I start to dig into western hand tools which is much more available in the States. Lots of vintage stuffs from Stanley and many new stuff from Veritas and Lie Nielson is expensive. Given the price, I was going for vintage tools.
But after seeing Ebay prices for those vintage tools and having experience with flea market, I know a live used tool market would have better price. But where to find such market? A video from Wood By Wrights mentioned there is regular meetup for tools collectors and the one he showed in Mid-West was huge. Turns out, there is a group call “Past Tool Collector” here in Northern California that hosts such meetup regularly too.
I signed up and went to its meet up. And it was such wonderful place to meet many makers. It was $25 annual fee and you get to attend the meetup that serves breakfast and lunch! And you get to meet other folks who’s into woodworking as well. I think many of the sellers are also buyers and they are just there having a good time. As I heard on the side, “My wife would question me: I thought you went to meetup to sell your tools but you end up bringing home more!”
And luckily as expected, price at the meetup is much better than eBay, and I picked a few things including rosewood marking gauge and a cool looking Stanley No 45 plane.
Unfortunately tho, No 45 can only cut the upper groove of the case and it takes too many adjustments to change cuts. I guess it’s more suitable for one off job where the setting is kept and use for a while until it needs to change for next step.n. But the plane looks SO cool!
Luckily, while having lunch at meetup, I was sharing with the group about the table project and the difficulties with making the depth cut. One gentleman suggested why not just chisel it all the way out. And it made me ponder about it.
In the beginning I didn’t want to use chisel because it wouldn’t be precise. But now it’s not even a matter or precision, I couldn’t even get a rough cut. Once there is a rough cut, then we can improve precision. And it should be doable now that I can work on a stable workbench.
As it turned out, it’s easier than I thought. Having sharp chisels hitting with right grain direction made it pretty simple. Couple hours later, I can fit the keyboard into the case.
When the keyboard eventually got embed into the wooden case and a hole from top was drilled to allow USB cable to connect to the keyboard, it marked the first milestone for this project.
The back with those bow ties.
And with some tuning of fit, the case is pretty much done after eight months or so. Funny thing is, there isn’t a sense of accomplishment by this time. Maybe because progress was made on a slower pace and once correct tools and methods to process the wood was determined, I know the project can be done and will be done eventually.
And looking back with the knowledge and abilities I now have, I might be able to make the case without building a whole table. The fun of this project truely is in the journey rather than seeing the final product.
