You may want to hold off on learning from me for a bit. Fitting for an instrument called Thistle, I got properly Bobbie Burns'd today.*
After getting the routing jig all set up, I made my first pass, barely breaking the surface. On the second a little deeper (a little too deeper), I saw one side looking jagged and one end didn't quite seem right. Still not sure if it was operator error or a wandering bit. Continuing down in small increments it seemed to run truer, but after getting to depth, I knew it wasn't right. The top part was ugly and one end was off.
Sigh.
Instrument making is a series of problems needing a solution, and this one was a doozy. Through hard won experience I've learned the best thing to do is to get away from it and do something else. All the while, of course, thinking about how to fix it. Should I try to build up ebony dust and fill the wavy gaps? Should I sister a thin piece and rerout?
Eventually the best solution came to me. Use a wider saddle.
Of course, I didn't have any saddle blanks thicker than 1/8", which is what I'd intended to rout for. But I DID have a nut blank I could use.
The first task was getting a wider, truer, slot for it to fill, and for that I turned to something I could depend on. Chisel, file, and a sanding board. Then I mounted the
nut saddle blank in a carrier to send through the drum sander to get it down to thickness. Then cut to length and fine tune the fit.
It's snug, I can lift the bridge up by the saddle safely, but it comes out without forcing.
Whew!
And, for a happy bonus, there's even more roome to intonate.
*"The best-laid schemes of mice and men, Gang aft a-gley."