a long journey through wood...

Here I go, using my mitre-guide to make a square cut, again.  I have yet to use it for mitres -- though that is coming up, once this trimming operation is finally done.  I have to make my not-very-flat 2x4s into truly flat, vertical faces, so that I can glue the outer boards directly to them.  I thought about using some kind of glue+sawdust filler compound, and attaching the boards to the non-flattened raw 2x4s, adjusting for the poor fit by filling in the cracks with compound.  But I realized, it would still be highly complicated to clamp the outer boards into the proper vertical-plane orientations, without the underlying 2x4s as a reference.  Chances of the final result looking better than crap, not so good.  Basically, my original design assumption, that I could count on the from-the-factory faces of the lumber to be straight enough without further work, has proven to be totally wrong.  This in turn causes my whole "maximum tone quality for minimum cost and effort" concept to basically fly out the window (at least the effort part).  But at least I'm still on track to end up with something that I can play, and which looks halfway decent.

The mitre-guide is clamped to a horizontal 2x4, which causes the cut to be square relative to the overall flatness of the soundboard.  As I saw my way along, cm by cm, I guide the front end of the mitre-guide with the pressure of my hand, using the edge of the flat lumber I have put on top of the soundboard, as a reference.  So the straightness of the line is "by-eye", and it may be wavy at longer distance scales, but I hope the outer lumber can be clamped to conform; and at the least, the vertical walls of the cut should be just that, vertical -- at least to within a degree or so, I'd hope.

The set of wheels is just there to weigh down the other end of the guide, to make it balance better.  Actually, I will eventually build a little folding hand-truck thingie, incorporating those wheels, to help me transport this pandalon, and also for transporting my electronic pipe-organ gear (not all at the same time).

Here I've moved my reference lumber forward, having reached the end of its first position.  It will probably take me a total of four or five days to complete this long spine side cut.  Then, I'll have to do the other sides (everything except the front edge), which all add up to significantly more perimeter than the 8-foot spine side itself.  So, I'm a good bit less than half way done...

After a while, the sawing motion becomes very Zen-like, trance-inducing.  Still, I'd use a power tool and get my Zen trances some other way, given the choice!