Amateur and amateurish musical instruments in Brunswick, Victoria.

[curious.jp]

G'day, forum.

My name's Bryn, and I do a little bit of experimental instrument building (and the occasional needed furnishing) out of my apartment in Melbourne. My old man was a very skilled woodworker, but unfortunately I never paid much attention as a kid and tended to take more after my grandfather, who was famous in the family for his habit of driving screws with a hammer. I'm trying to close the gap a bit now.

I'm really hoping that this forum will be able to help me with not only technique questions, but also information about sourcing materials and tools. Just by way of example, lately I have been trying to find a chunk of what I believe is called purpleheart for a project. None of the timber suppliers I have been able to get in contact with in my area seem to be able to help - it seems that in urban Melbourne, you can have anything you like, as long as it's pine. So if anyone has suggestions for this kind of thing, I'd love to hear from you, as well as anyone else who likes to build things that make noise (or anyone else in general!)

- B.

[Christos]

Welcome to the forum.

As I am not in Melbourne I am not really able to help. But you are right Purpleheart is a name of a type of timber. Not used this myself but do recall that a few years ago in the Sydney Working With Wood show there were quite a few projects on display made from this.

What I might suggest is to post this question in the General sub forum.

WOODWORK - GENERAL - Woodwork Forums

Or in the timber sub forum.

TIMBER - Woodwork Forums

Might get someones memory ignited and give you a few timber places that might have this.

[mattocks]

hi Bryn,
you could try going to the upcoming timber and working with wood show. I bought some purple heart there last year and there seemed to be a bit around.
There is even a discount entry pass elsewhere on this forum for members.
From memory when I was young I knew a guy who did the same thing as your grandfather to drive in screws, he used to call his hammer his american screwdriver.
cheers
frank

[tea lady]

Might be able to get a bit of purple heart from "Pop's shed". Or "the Wood Smith" maybe. Sometimes Carbatech has bits of timber too, but a bit expensive. Waiting for the wood work show could be your best bet.

[curious.jp]

Thank you, everyone. Both suggestions (scouting out the forums a bit and hitting the wood show) sound excellent - I think I'll definitely end up at the wood show as it's only a month or so away. But I had better make up a shopping list first or I'll no doubt end up coming home with armfuls of great stuff and no clear purpose in mind for them!

Tea lady: Pop's Shed does indeed have purple heart blanks, and at a reasonable price too - the project I'm working on is quite small, and one of the 180x180x50 blanks would be capable of yielding up several soundboxes. Thank you for the tip-off!

- Bryn

edit: My typing is terrible today.

[tea lady]

Tea lady: Pop's Shed does indeed have purple heart blanks, and at a reasonable price too - the project I'm working on is quite small, and one of the 180x180x50 blanks would be capable of yielding up several soundboxes. Thank you for the tip-off!

- Bryn

Fantastic. Hope to see what you are making very soon!