Making some tools for cello building
Sure, there are tools available for any task – for sale. But some tools can be improvised or made by yourself.
- „Strad-spike“ – a device for marking the plate thickness (graduation process). The frame is approx. 90 cm wide. I placed the marking punch to the right side at about 2/3 position. The spike – Ø 8mm – can be adjusted in height by the drive-in nut and fixed with the nut on top (better would be a wing nut). A piece of leather is glued to the counterpart to protect the workpiece.
- Simple thickness caliper for measuring the plate thickness in the graduation process. This device measures between 0 and 12,5 mm.
- Purfling marker. This tool is moved around the edge of a violin plate, it marks closely spaced parallel lines a few millimeters inside the perimeter to guide the subsequent cutting and chiselling-out of the narrow channel into which the purfling is laid.
- Bending iron. This is my first attempt to make a bending iron. It’s made from a stainless steel container pushed in an ovate form. It’s heated with a tungsten lightbulb. This construction wasn’t high enough, that’s why I ended up using a pipe heated with a heat gun.
- Burnishing steel to sharpen scrapers. It forms a fine burr on the scraper’s edge which allows to take off fine wood shavings.
- Reamer for the endpin hole. There is a small hacksaw blade put in the incision. The back of the blade which is sticking out is sharpened.
