Official Luthiers Forum!

I was over at my former boss's place this past Fri & Sat for one of those ever-more-frequent Medicare Birthday parties (mine is decades-distant... OK...maybe closer than that), and in between the usual festivities, ducked down to the shop. Mr. Stock conveys his best wishes and noted a few other current/former OLF'ers with Medicare Part A sign-ups due this year (if memory serves, Mr. Breakstone?).

Apparently no January-early April break this year, with an atypical number of resets, restorations, and general finish work coming in. Any other repair shops seeing workloads up? I don't think I've ever seen the big board so full. Make hay, I suppose ... the R-Word is being bandied about.

Also got a chance to make my contribution to Mr. Stock's airplane project (routed a wing rib - I think it was for the surface that moves out on the wing tip) and did a little welding practice on some scrap tubing (so thin!!! I thought the tubing for bike frames was flimsy! also melts really, really fast!!!). So odd to see the growing collection of sheet metal tools in a luthiery shop, but the plan is to move the metalworking to the currently finished garage until it's time to find a hanger.

Mr. Verhoeven did not attend, given he is now on a few dozen acres in the Texas Hill Country northwest of San Antonio, enjoying the freedoms of the Republic with his new bride. I hope to get down to see them once his shop is finished (separate 1600 sf on main floor of closed out pole building) and he comes up for air from the move/shop construction and building the rifle range (long, pie-shaped lot with a natural back-stop at the property boundary out about 800 meters and seasonal creek providing side-berms...nice). Mr. Verhoeven volunteered that - if I was considering a move to the Lone Star State - August was a lovely time to visit. Something about ripping off the bandage...? In any case, I was in Shreveport for a few years, so the drier heat west of I-35 seems preferable to the muggy weather in the Mid-Atlantic region or Louisiana.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

AKA the aileron.
Post some pix - some of us here used to build airplanes.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I live in central Texas.
You will melt in August!

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

I did not get any shots...was trying to avoid wasting that expensive aircraft aluminum! Grabby stuff! Will have to ask if some are available from the other folks that were there. I did get to operate the 20 ton hydraulic press and form one of the little ribs for the control surfaces, then use a hand tool to finish the 90 degree bends of the little fingers that provide surfaces for riveting. I really had fun, but I have done enough metal work to know I prefer wood! That said, I will likely come back down when all the ribs and the spars are built up and the assembly of the wing starts in earnest... not sure if 'bucking some rivets' will be fun, but it is nice to think about having contributed to building something I might eventually fly in.

I think that was the intent of the 'rip off the bandage' comment, Mr. Smith - if you can survive August in the central part of Texas, the rest of the year is a breeze. Mr. Verhoeven's bride hails from Nepal, so apparently the weather in San Antonio is a nice dry heat for her!

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower