Improvising a bridge clamp

I continue to rush the small guitar towards a level resemblant to completion. Rush is, of course, hardly the word that would come to anyone's mind. But between other obligations and projects (you can see our wood fired pizza oven to the left of Li's head!), I do my best. 

Today the bridge went on. But I had no clamp with a deep enough reach. So I made a c-shaped piece of plywood, three wedges and another straight piece. 

In the first pic you see them around the guitar, in the second you see the whole assembly. It's not perfect but the concept could be worth developing. 

Simple depth stop

Sometimes a drill press is nearly indispensable. Or at least a sturdy stand for your regular hand held drill. For example when you want straight holes of a certain depth, particularly when you need stepped holes for tuners. 

But I really prefer my cordless drill, it's so easy and I like to think I have a good enough eye to drill straight and perpendicular to a surface. The awkward bit is then the depth stop. It's possibe to buy depth stops for smaller diameter drill bits, but these holes were already 8 mm right through the headstock and needed counterboring from the back to 10 mm halfway through. And when enlarging a hole a drill bit grabs and goes down fast and forcefully. 

So I made an instant depth stop from a round piece of scrap. I set the drill bit to 9 mm proud of the end and it worked perfectly. 

(The hole wasn't centered at the exit end though, I would have done better using the drill press. Wait a minute...)

Replenished supplies

Look at this, I got 12 sets of koa wood for sopranos! Most of them with one piece tops and backs. The eminent Pete Howlett was kind enough to sell me these.

And he is the best shipper, these sets were packed better than anything I've seen.

Now all I need is the time to build 12 sopranos.