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Wednesday 19 December 2012

The end is nigh...

As the title says, the end is nigh. In two ways. We're closing in on december 21st when the world is supposed to end and the Mar-Kel70T journey is coming to an end.

Today me and my dad went to Olskogen Trävittra, far out in the forest. The woodshop is old, very old. On the way they my dad told me that the big wooden glass cabinet we have downstairs has been made there by the father, who is now retired since long ago and the son has taken over. I think they started the business by make furniture, but nowadays everybody buys their furniture at IKEA so now they have specialized in making skis for hunting and such. He's also doing custom jobs every now and then, like making guitars for local bands, cutting speakers for me and so on. This is their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Olskogen-Tr%C3%A4vittra/180957802019149?ref=ts&fref=ts

Now, back to my speakers. When we got there "Loj", as he is called, was a bit busy glueing some skis so me and dad waited for him to finish. It was very interesting seeing such a skilled craftsman doing his work. When he was done I told him how the cut was supposed to be. He said it would be difficult, since he would have to do it a bit free-hand since the sawblade of the BIG table saw machine could only be tilted one way. But he said he could always give it a try. He did a test cut to see if the wood would splinter or not, and it didn't. The cut was as clean as it could possibly be, probably  because of the very high rpm of the saw and I guess he has a really expensive blade as well. He finished the cuts in a few minutes and they all came out very clean. I will have to do some sanding though, because the guide he used was old and a bit loose so the cut wasn't 100% straight (but almost).

"Loj" himself at the tablesaw
When we were done he continued to glue another pair of skis while we were talking about audio stuff. It turned out he was an old audio-geek as well, having built some exponential horns and such in his youth. He said it was very nice to see young people like me being interested in good sound and that most kids nowadays don't even know what good sound is. Very true, and sad indeed. When he had finished glueing another pair of skis and put them in the pressure mould he went on to show us a pair of guitars he was building. I don't know who he was building them for, but I know he's been building guitars for local bands recently. Very interesting indeed! There is something special watching and hearing an expert doing his job, to see the refined skills and art.
The guitars, in an early stage. The wood is from trees grown in the area.

Tomorrow is the last day at school for this year, and it's only a half day so I will try to sand both speakers tomorrow and get them up and running.


One speaker finished, see how clean the cuts are. There's no way I could've done it as good myself.


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