Hi,

Thanks Emily; I've got some work ahead of me to catch up with you. Yes I've been browsing lots of Fiddlerman's excellent videos and they are brilliant giving me lots of inspiration and encouragement; he makes violin playing look so easy. I've not yet tried playing a tune just concentrating on handling the bow and violin which both are so strange to it being an entirely new hobby light years away from the usual things I do.

I enjoyed an hour's practice this morning and today I've not got any job hanging over me so just for a bit of interest and as it's my introduction I'll add a bit of background as to what I get up to for fun. I'm not in any way smart or clever otherwise I wouldn't make the many mistakes I make but I'm stubborn in the extreme and when I start something I won't let go. Here are just a few of my projects;

I made and installed our solid hardwood kitchen including hardwood doors; my wife enjoys card making so I was happy to surprise her with an hand made chest of 16 drawers in solid oak as seen; she was delighted and soon filled the drawers with card making materials. We fully support each other in our respective hobbies.

Here is a 1957 Ekco TV/Radio I bought as a restoration project; a skip (dumpster) would have rejected this it was so bad; it was riddled with woodworm and the veneers were badly delaminating also the front safety screen glass was missing; a very dangerous project given the high voltages involved and the LOPT (line output transformer) was missing but a lovely challenge for me; please see picture lower down showing the cabinet after lots of TLC; I also restored the chassis and it still works through an Aurora standards converter.

I wanted a new computer desk so made this which I'm seated at; along the top at the back I installed seven single 13A sockets allowing things like printers to be plugged in whilst not having lots of untidy cables to tangle my feet in.

We used to visit stately homes and always admired their coffered ceilings so why not have a coffered ceiling of our own; I installed this to our master bedroom; it took a while for the blood to return into my arms and hands.

One of the power supplies I designed and made to power up my battery portable vintage radios I was restoring; batteries obviously no longer available it's shown here hooked up to a vintage Bush portable valve radio; I wound the two transformers giving both high and low voltages for the valves in both positive and negative DC voltages. The design and build of this power supply was spread over two years because I had so much to learn whilst avoiding electrocuting myself.

Just over a year ago I fully restored a vintage petrol mower and found the petrol tank to be leaking; I've been arc welding steel for almost 60 years but never attempted to weld aluminium so my wife very generously bought me an expensive Tig welder as a Christmas present; Tig welding aluminium is incredibly difficult to do but as seen the tanks to the left are the new tanks I made.

Another very interesting project started when I bought a pair of vintage coach lamps to restore with the intention of mounting these on the wall each side of our front door. The reflectors were very poor indeed so another very difficult skill I learned was metal spinning and the new reflectors can be seen in the picture; I spun these on a Graduate woodturning lathe I'd fully restored and heavily modified; I managed to break a rib whilst spinning these due to the leverage needed on the hand spinning tools; it was shallow breathing for a couple of weeks until I recovered but it didn't stop me.

Here's the finished TV cabinet from the Ekco seen in the previous picture; I completely reveneered and french polished it having learned how to veneer using hot hide glue and how to french polish with shellac; this was a very long and complicated restoration done in front of the world in real time on a vintage radio forum during the worst winter on record; the workshop windows were so badly iced up on the inside I did the veneering in our kitchen on the work surface. I upgraded the veneer because the original veneer was bland.

As I said earlier I'm not smart and I'm not an expert in anything in fact I'm aware of just how little I know in the scheme of things; I make every mistake possible to make up front but I never quit however difficult a project becomes; I learn so much from my mistakes.

I've got thousands of images of the many projects I've completed but I think I've added enough as a sample to show how alien playing a musical instrument is for me but now I've started with violin's; violin's are becoming an obsession not only in learning to play a violin but I think I'll manage to make a violin from scratch.

I'm delighted to be a member of this very informative and highly interesting forum; I'm already learning so much only having just started as a raw novice; I'm still finding my way around the forum and can only aspire to wonderful violin playing I see; Fiddlerman's videos are enthralling; I've already watched lots but now I'm fully introduced and shared a bit of my history it's time for me to get serious with violins; a friend suggests I need to decide whether I want to learn to play a violin or to make violins; why not attempt both I like a difficult challenge to tackle.

I hope I'm not boring anyone; I'll do lots of forum browsing rather than play around asking basic questions which I'm sure will have been answered many times; I've got my double hide glue pot out and 1kg of hide glue pearls arrived this morning; I've ordered "E" strings to experiment with; I've got an electronic tuner and metronone also books including a book on making violins; I need a large mirror to practice in front of but already I'm making rapid progress; I'd like to learn to read music too so I'm not short of ambition; with winter rapidly approaching I'll have plenty of time to spend in the studio.

Kind regards, Colin.

Hi,

Thank you Fiddlerman it's kind of you. I'm looking forward to my venture into violin making; it's highly likely other forum members have already posted their violin making so I'll spend time browsing; I could pick up tips saving me lots of time. I'm gathering everything I can think of to get me started; this Saturday it's Rufforth Auto Jumble near York (UK) the location is an old WW2 airfield with both indoor and outdoor stalls selling all manner of big boys toys; in the middle of the large hanger a guy usually occupies three stalls selling top quality tooling including aerospace quality engineers files and twist bits; I'm attending on Saturday specially to buy assorted new files which I can use on violin making; I've already got lots of these files but have used them on metal so with brand new files I know they will be sharp. A good way to test file sharpness and to compare files is to place a 2p coin on the teeth and see how steeply the file can be raised before the coin slides?

Thanks iFIDDLE; when I'm ready to start making the violin I'll add a new thread because it's not going to be an overnight job; I'll take my time and already I find on YouTube a guy has beaten me to an idea I had. I had been thinking of how to thickness the plates and having a big drill press thought using a round nosed milling cutter against a peg with the correct gap and the depth stop set it would quickly establish the basic thickness but I came across a video showing this already being done using a drill bit so credit to the guy on the video.

Working to the loose tolerances involved with violin making I should be easily at home with; part of my apprenticeship training was to file flat to a thou of an inch (not draw filing) and having achieved this feeling pleased with myself the instructor then handed me a set of three enginers scrapers which dulled my pride a bit; in my home workshop I can turn on the metal lathe to one ten thousandth of an inch and even this in engineering terms is quite thick; to get it even more accurate then "Lapping" is resorted to; as I say I'm not smart I was just trained by top engineers so can thank them for what I can now do.

I've just enjoyed another short practice session in bow control and I'm definitely improving; I think it's now time to try playing a tune so I'll browse your excellent tutorials Fiddlerman.

I must be learning a bit because I can already hear the difference between my Hidersine and Rainbow violins; both are fitted with Hidersine strings but don't sound the same.

I have a very cheap electronic tuner and woder how accurate these actually are it nly cost about £5 through eBay? Funds aren't a problem.

Another day has quietly disappeared.

Kind regards, Colin.