Sunday, November 25, 2012

The Results of Tryptophan

Amidst all the turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and lots of pies that came with this Thanksgiving weekend, much progress with Opus 1 are sprang up! First, I decided to re-design the sides of the bench. The first design i made was based off of a template. The second and current design I made so that I did not need a pattern but just standard tools to draw out and cut. I was pleased with the result.

My hand should give you an idea of it's actual size. (1.50 x 0.75)

I finished cutting, sealing, priming and painting both grills for the center pipes of the Oberwerk division. I also started cutting a few of the grills for the flat pipes. There are still a few that need to be cut, but below is a general idea.

See the center grills below


I now leave the rest of the progress in the good hands of our tour guide for this model, Professor Hubert James Farnsworth.

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! We have the bench!

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! We have the assembled keydesk with it's various stops!

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! The grills are attached to the center pipes!
BAD NEWS EVERYONE! His blasted thumb is in the picture!!

OH YES, this is a better picture of the center pipes.

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! That's the end of the tour!


Sunday, November 18, 2012

Back with a Vengeance!

After having a set back last week with my cold, I did a lot of catching up this weekend with some very good results. I focused on three areas: the overall keydesk assembly, gluing the pipes in the Oberwerk, and painting the bottom molding on the pedal boxes.

The next step for the manual assembly was to add the accidentals. I went ahead and painted a long 1/16in square stock and then cut a bunch of 1/4in pieces. Using a small amount of glue and tweezers, I went ahead and placed each one on their respective manuals.

1.5 Octaves - just enough to play the music of J.S. Bach!

Setting that sub-assembly aside, I went ahead and re-drilled the holes in the stop jam as the paint clogged most of them. Afterward, I was able to glue the jam to its respected side and add all the stops. 10 of the 24 stops are "activated" whereas the other 14 are "canceled." Both are evenly divided and symmetric between the two stop jams.

The "canceled" stops are show here glued in place

Following this, I was able to complete the assemble by gluing the stop jams to the manual assembly, along with the sheet music rest.

Seen without the music rest backing
 
Seen with the music rest backing along with the "granite" base plate that will hold this entire middle section

I also got around to cutting and painting the foundation of this middle section. This consists of a base, which was painted a "granite" color. There are then two sides, a back plate, and two front plates that will flank the key desk assembly. At this point, I'm ready to assemble these parts.



Second goal was to place all the pipes in the Oberwerk box. All but two of the "flat pipes" were able to be press fit in. This means there was no need for glue as I really had to press them into their respective box, which was a very tight fit.


The grill work would be the next step. The grill shapes / patterns, detailed in the last post, will go with the "flow" of the pipe mouth direction.

The last goal was painting the bottom molding on the pedal boxes. Though i didn't take a picture of the finished product, it is exactly that...finished! I can safely say that both pedal boxes are 100% COMPLETE! Maybe one more coat of paint on the molding...but...COMPLETE nevertheless.


As Thanksgiving approaches, I have so much to be thankful. One on the list is for all those viewers out in cyberspace that might stumble on to this blog and take a look at what it's all about. Likewise, for those viewers who are regular, or even semi-regular, who check back now and again to see the progress. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I always enjoy watching America's favorite beagle this time of year. Happy Thanksgiving to all and to all a good night!

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Road Block

Unfortunately, this weekend was 98% unproductive concerning the status of Opus 1. I took this weekend to relax and try and get over a nasty cough. The 2% productivity came with the design and plan for some of the grill work.

Top Center Oberwerk Grill Design - Dimensions: 3.25in x 1.75in

It took a few tries but I think I came up with some ideas. Above is the design for the top grill work for the center pipes in the Oberwerk facade. The bottom grill for those same center pipes will follow this same design but 1/2in of the bottom design has been removed. This is for the top grill to be a little longer than its corresponding bottom grill.


Small Flat Grill Pattern - Dimensions - 1in x 1in

The above pattern will be used for the 1 inch wide flat pipes. It will be angled accordingly to each box. For the wider flat pipes, I took this same design a stretched by 5/8 of an inch. For the split between the two boxes, two of these patterns will "but-up" against each other along the horizontal axis. All this may or may not make sense without a visual. Let's hope I can kick this cold 100% by next weekend and I'll be up and running to continue "The Great Organ Project!"


I feel like a great fugue. So I present Bach's Fugue in g-minor "the great" (BWV 542)

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Good News Everyone!

I cannot believe how things are just moving along! Since the Oberwerk box was all glued together, I went ahead and sanded the entire box down so everything was smooth and flush with each other. The next step was to start painting the inside chambers black.



While painting, I set my eyes on the key desk. Thinking about how I'm going to make the manuals, I decided not to simply paint a solid piece of wood while and call that a keyboard. Instead, I cut about 26 1/16in square pieces of wood to size for each manual and glued them together.


This adds a better effect for displaying the individual keys. All I need to do now is paint and cut more strips for the accidental keys. I went ahead and made most of the parts for the key desk assembly. That includes the stop jams, the sides and other parts. I also went ahead and painted all the stops which i turned on the lathe weeks ago.

Notice the stop placed in the stop jam.
Still need to do some more painting, add the accidental keys and glue in the stops

The pedal board was also put together. It's not much, but will do the job.


As promised last week, I not only cut all the small molding for the pedal boxes, I have glued them on to their respected boxes! All i need to do now is add some putty here and there, sand and paint it. Afterwards, I can say that the pedal division is 100% complete! Right not....about 98%.



During the week, I started to design the top grill word for the center pipes of the Oberwerk division. Still not completely done and there is a lot of various grills that will be placed throughout this division that still need to be designed and then cut out.


So there it is. Good News indeed! Moving right along and a very good pace.


Prof. Hubert James Farnsworth from the TV show Futurama. His catchphrase, "Good News Everyone!"