It's been a while.

So, Sorry to keep you all hanging. Here's some stuff I have been working on. Let's start with one of my more recent projects. A tenon replacement. If you recall, the normanblet had a severely cracked middle tenon. In order to fix this the tenon had to be removed and replaced. So lets begin. Step one. Cut off the old tenon.

Ouch right? Just wait. It gets better. The next step was to removed material inside the body of the instrument to create a socket for the new tenon. This was done on the lathe with a cutting tool specificity made for this process.

Now for the new tenon. Supply companies sell tenon blanks in both ABS plastic and grenadilla wood. Some shops use delrin plastic as well. Each material has its flaws, however, ABS plastic is in most all ways, the superior  ABS is a stable, cheep, easy to machine and compatible material. Delrin is a little more resistant to damage, however, it does not hold glue very well and could potentially loosen and fall out after time. Grenadilla wood is what the body is made out off. It arguable has better tonal characteristics  It is very accepting of glues. However, as we know, it is likely to crack or be damaged. Also it is very spendy. 

Okay, sorry about the rant. Now I faced the new tenon to length.

I then turned it close to diameter. I finished turning it to size after it was installed.

 Rather than facing all of that extra material on the end being glued into the body, I just chopped some of it off with a hack saw.

I then faced it to the perfect length, roughed it up with emery cloth to accept glue better and drilled it out with a bit one size under the bore diameter of the clarinet.

Now its ready to be glued in

Holy cow. It has a new tenon, almost. I'll finish up the project in another post. There are still some things to address, like that c#/g# tone hole that is now a sealed key.