frustrated and out of ideas

[Matthew Tucker]

Oh and by the way ... if your violin has any real value, maybe don't use it to practise on, as you may destroy what ever value it had. Practise on another bit of wood, make a dummy neck and a dummy mortise out of some scrap pine and set THAT first. Don't be in too much of a hurry. (I have an old violin to repair and restore and I am taking it VERRRRY slowly as I don't want to mess it up ... I already mended one belly crack but I'm not happy with it as there is about .2mm ridge at the edge of the crack, so I will steam it apart, clean it out, start again.)

[jimmyduded]

the violin is junk(you would have to pay me to buy it), my good one im waiting for mr.riccardi to check out and see if theres anything i dont see wrong with it, i think ill experiment making a new block out of some pine, im making some spool clamps tonight out of carriage bolts, wing nuts, and a huge oak dowel, should be fun, i also got a steal on a bunch of mini hand clamps for 30 cents each(their metal and have rubber grips as well as a rubber tip) i think ill use for my linings when i start my violin, now to another large problem entirely, varnish, is there an easy way to make touch up varnish(i inlaid a piece of spruce where it was broken out), and is there a method of blending? easy way meaning not taking two weeks

[Matthew Tucker]

Hint - make spool clamps square, its easier to find the wood. face them with cork, they work as well if not better than round ones, but make sure the blocks are tall enough so the thread doesn't wiggle too much. Also most people use 1/4" threaded rod. Way cheaper than bolts and you can screw one end into the bottom block of each clamp if you use a slightly smaller hole. No glue needed.

[jimmyduded]

well the carriage bolts were 7 cents each, so i dont think itll put me in the red too much haha

[Matthew Tucker]

Ah you are making clamps for violin, not bass. Doh.