1.21 Gigawatts

Ireland doesn't just export Guinness, Whiskey and Aran Jumpers. The De Lorean DMC-12 is an export of Northern Ireland made famous by Robert Zemeckis in the Back to the Future movies. The De Lorean factory was located in Dunmurry, just outside Belfast and only produced cars for four years (1978-1982). Of the 9000 cars manufactured about 6500 survive today. The stainless steel body means that they don't show their age. This one seems to be owned by someone who works at the Guitar Center here in New Haven. The rear spoiler is not original.

Guitar Build - Day 5

Today I embarked on the edge shaping of the guitar body. This took a while to run through the band saw because it is over an inch thick and has some tight radius corners. I used a belt sander and a spindle sander to smooth the finish and bring the work to within a 1/4" of the final guitar shape. I will do the same with the maple top and the final edge shaping will be done when the two pieces are joined together.
This photo illustrates a problem that I need to resolve for the neck. The heel on a standard Les Paul is not this far back towards the body. To accommodate the heel in this position I plan to remove some of the upper shoulder, resulting in a double cutaway. However, I will try to avoid making it look like the Les Paul Junior. I spent a little time today thinking about how I plan to wire the electronics and where to locate the various controls. Due to the Jimmy Page wiring, there will be a couple of extra controls on this guitar. It will require more thought before I can start cutting the recesses in the body. It has been 4 months since I originally cut and glued the maple top. I noticed that over that time it had warped slightly and would need a lot of sanding to flatten it again. I decided that it would be quickest to cut it apart, run it through the thickness planer, re-cut on the table saw and glue it back together. I left it over night and it was perfectly flat again.(Previous Guitar Build Post)

Sad Day

It is with great sadness that I must report that our little friend Tattie the hedgehog died this morning. He was just 2 years old.
He has been ill for the last couple of weeks and, after a visit to the vet last week, has been on antibiotics. His condition didn't improve as he traveled with us this weekend to Boston. On Sunday we managed to sneak him in to the hotel room, as we went to the wedding. That night before bed his condition was noticeably worse, as we gave him his medication. During the night he had been up at his food bowl and then back into his bed. In the morning we found that he had passed away peacefully in his sleep. He will be missed greatly.

We buried Tattie in the front garden and planted a carefully selected Pieris plant

Happy Day

Erin & Andy's wedding was yesterday at The Barn at Gibbet Hill. The weather was perfect, the venue was fabulous and everything went swimmingly. We all had a great time.
(click photos for larger version)

New Monkey

All the way from Peru, imported by a fair trade organization, this is a knitted monkey.

Guitar Build - Day 4

Today's task was to attach the mahogany wings to the guitar neck. Firstly I had to plane all the surfaces to ensure a strong glued joint. This took some time to get everything square and straight. I also decided to add dowel pegs for a stronger bond. Generous amounts of glue were used and 10 bar clamps held everything together overnight.
(Previous Guitar Build Post)

30 years and still kickin'

It was my birthday last week and as you can see Jen brought out all the teddy bears for the party. The ice cream cake was delicious.

AMF Bowling

After our trip to the orchards (see below) we gathered up a couple of friends and went bowling. It's a great sport if you like having sore fingers the next day. We got about four games in. This shot below was a strike!
Jen showing us how it's doneGood technique from Chris. You've got the slide into the finish, but look out for the foul line

Lyman Orchards

We had had great sunny weather for the Monday holiday here so we took a trip up to Lyman Orchards. They grow all sorts of fruit there. We went to pick peaches and apples although they also had pears. The orchards stretch for acres and acres over the hillsides. Here are some of the heavy laden peach trees. They were very good peaches and we still have some left. We picked 4 pounds and i think it cost us 4 dollars.
Here are the apples. Specifically McIntosh apples. These were also very good and we picked 4 pounds of these too.
We found the quintessential apple with small leaf attached even. This represents what a perfect apple should look like.Visit the Lyman Orchard website here and learn what other fruit and events they have.

Our Apartment

For those of you that haven't seen our apartment, I thought that I would post some photos. It's very open plan but interesting because we are on the third floor and therefore all our walls are slanted in different directions. This is our kitchen and there is a dining table to the left behind where you see the fish tank. We can step out of the kitchen window onto a wooden deck.
(remember to click for bigger photos)
The bedroom is a separate room through the doorway to the left of the photo wall below. It also has sloped walls. No photos of it I'm afraid. The guitar got a new set of strings today.
This is the living area. If you take a right just after the fish tank in the photo above this is where you would be. There is Tattie, against the blue wall. Fouton for visitors, Poang chair from Ikea, Bodhran hanging on the wall and the TV credenza that I built.