Busy Soundboard Weekend

[Fenton Murray]

You're inspiring. I've been my own boss since I was 18, that's 35 years. There's no way I could do anything else, but sometimes, I'm just worn out and I look at people that actually have a life after the 5 o'clock whistle. Anyway, as long as I can get in the ocean once a week and play some music I'll be able to keep my sanity.
Fenton
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Farrell 
  To: Pianotech List 
  Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 8:48 AM
  Subject: Re: Busy Soundboard Weekend


  Well, it is - much of the time. 

  Except like yesterday and today. Crate building. I went down to the local lumber yard and bought $402 worth of plywood and 2x4s to make about 10 soundboard shipping crates. I didn't realize these darn crates cost so much. Spent most of the morning sawing and grinding locks off my trailer (lost the $%&# keys) so I could get the wood home. Couple hours to get the wood. Couple hours to make a crate - go to put the soundboard in the crate - and suddenly that famous phrase "measure twice, cut once" came to mind. I know soundboards are supposed to have some crown in them, but I'd have to make that panel a half-sphere to fit it into that too-small crate.

  Gosh darn it. Fortunately that crate was for an S&S B panel. I've got a couple S&S M panel going elsewhere and should be able to use the smaller crate for those.

  So build another crate. Finish up this morning - it's almost noon and I just finished screwing the crate together. Now I gotta load it up on the trailer (now where did I put those keys.....) and drive it down to the freight shipper. If I'm lucky, I'll get out of there in less than two hours (they're not real quick).

  And in the meantime I can nurse the deep slicing puncture I put in my thumb last week while cleaning the polishing haze off a just-razor-sharpened plane blade and my middle finger that caught a full stroke of one of those nice coarse Japanese saws that Bill Spurlock sells (big sharp teeth). Ouch!

  So, I guess there can be a downside also. But IMHO only relatively speaking. I would rather build crates and nurse cuts all day any day than have multiple layers of bosses breathing down my neck in my little cubicle barking about 'billable hours, billable hours - you're not meeting your target billable hours.....". Been there, done that. Never again as long as I can help it.

  No, I love this work. I feel very fortunate.

  Terrry Farrell
    ----- Original Message ----- 

    Terry,
    You actually make it sound like fun.
    Fenton
      ----- Original Message ----- 

      Just thought I would share my joyous weekend with y'all. I've set a personal record for soundboard production volume (actually, just panels in this case). Five custom panels in production at once. I just finished a soundboard panel yesterday for a S&S B (completed panel in picture) and have four other custom panel orders in production. All the individual flitches for the other four panels are in the foreground awaiting planing and jointing (S&S D on left, a 7' John Brinsmead next, and then two S&S Ms to the right).

      Terry Farrell
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