Yonkle
Jun-01-2009, 10:40pm
Hi folks: Yonkle here. As many of you know 10 months ago a wildfire destroyed 20 homes on my block, 10 of which were 100% totaled, (as mine was). I also lost my shop, all tools ect. The fire was so hot I couldn't even find the electric motors from bandsaws, grinders, drillpress ect. nothing, like it turned to vapor, just black wood and ash. No more yard, or trees, or bushes, or fence, 100% gone!
Anyway, it's been a interesting 10 months for lack of a better word to use, you actully keep quite buzy, with paperwork, builders, lawyers, then shopping, re-furnishing ect. Anyway, we got back in our new house around Feb. and had alot of work to do. They finished the shop around March, then I had to re-tool it. Thats not as easy as it sounds, any builder can tell you he has alot of tools he made himself, little jigs and other unknown devise's anything we can figure out to get whatever task done, quicker and better, and one tends to have alot of those little homemade contraptions after awhile. When I finnally thought I had everything I needed and got wood and parts and was ready to start anew, you really don't know which tools or jigs you missed until you need them, so needless to say, I had alot of intermittant stops to re-order odds and ends.
Then springtime hit and I once had 20 years of growth in my yard and now it is just lawn, so it looked awfully naked, so I had to stop building a lot and start planting. Anyway, it took me awhile and I still need more tools, but have enough to get the job done, now I just need to fine tune the shop.
I finally got my first mandolin finished out of my new shop about 1 week ago. It's a F5 as you can see,it is my 12th mandolin now and it came out real well, I am very happy with the results. Has alot of volume and great low end punch for being only played about 2 hours now. The upper end is very clear and bell like, and the set action feels smooth and easy. I like it!
Anyway here are a few photos of it.
Lastly, once again I want to give a very big THANK YOU to all the people on the Mandolin Cafe who were very supportive and helpful to me after the fire. I got money, case's, tools, patterns, books, a nice Stanley Plane and other stuff from people I have never met. I can't tell you how much that means to me, lots of good people on this site. you helped make the loss a little bit more easy to take and I thank you all. Sincerely John (yonkle)
Anyway, it's been a interesting 10 months for lack of a better word to use, you actully keep quite buzy, with paperwork, builders, lawyers, then shopping, re-furnishing ect. Anyway, we got back in our new house around Feb. and had alot of work to do. They finished the shop around March, then I had to re-tool it. Thats not as easy as it sounds, any builder can tell you he has alot of tools he made himself, little jigs and other unknown devise's anything we can figure out to get whatever task done, quicker and better, and one tends to have alot of those little homemade contraptions after awhile. When I finnally thought I had everything I needed and got wood and parts and was ready to start anew, you really don't know which tools or jigs you missed until you need them, so needless to say, I had alot of intermittant stops to re-order odds and ends.
Then springtime hit and I once had 20 years of growth in my yard and now it is just lawn, so it looked awfully naked, so I had to stop building a lot and start planting. Anyway, it took me awhile and I still need more tools, but have enough to get the job done, now I just need to fine tune the shop.
I finally got my first mandolin finished out of my new shop about 1 week ago. It's a F5 as you can see,it is my 12th mandolin now and it came out real well, I am very happy with the results. Has alot of volume and great low end punch for being only played about 2 hours now. The upper end is very clear and bell like, and the set action feels smooth and easy. I like it!
Anyway here are a few photos of it.
Lastly, once again I want to give a very big THANK YOU to all the people on the Mandolin Cafe who were very supportive and helpful to me after the fire. I got money, case's, tools, patterns, books, a nice Stanley Plane and other stuff from people I have never met. I can't tell you how much that means to me, lots of good people on this site. you helped make the loss a little bit more easy to take and I thank you all. Sincerely John (yonkle)