Another Day at the Shop
 

As a introverted semi-loner, I have always appreciated my chosen profession where many of my colleagues build by themselves. Working alone day after day building top notch guitars has a romance to it that I've always found very appealing. However, there are some days when I'm glad I'm part of a two man shop. Today is one of those days - a day when it's nice to just have someone to commiserate with and say "we can get through this...let's start working." To all the lone luthiers, I have a lot of respect when you can pick yourself up after challenging days.

This morning, this is what greeted us in our shop.

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/...psmevlrjis.jpg

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/...psqf1shuvt.jpg

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/...psblnipg4z.jpg


Once we thought that having some hot water in the shop would be a nice thing, but since our water heater decided to explode, we're thinking maybe not. Thankfully, none of our in-production work was bothered (except in some work delay) and cases did their job to protect finished instruments. We did recently rework some of our wood storage, and unfortunately, we had a fair amount of sets leaning against the wall in our office.

Sorry if this panorama makes the page too big.

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9gnfrt5h.jpg


More coming.

Dang! Hope the cleanup isn't too onerous!

Pat

Worst hit from our wood stash was some Bird's-Eyed Maple. It's slab-sawn which allows for much more deformation.

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/...psnzdounzm.jpg

Fortunately with some quick work with clamping and drying, most of our wood will not only be salvageable but without lasting damage. Now, we know it's a process, but we believe at this point our inventory's water damage is minimal.

Clamping and drying the same board.

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7j7whnj7.jpg


Another mercy, is the cool dry weather- rare in East Texas. (Later this week it is supposed to be 75 and humid). So first step in keeping humidity down is opening windows. This never happens in our climate controlled shop. Of course these warnings don't help at all. Who knew windows were so scary?

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/...pstb6ipyhc.jpg


My job this morning has been sucking water on my hands and knees with a wet/dry 2.5" hose. So far - still working- I've got about 15 gallons of water out of two rooms. We'll see what the total is at the end of the day.

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1hoebhcp.jpg

You can see the difference between the sopping dark carpet and the now damp lighter color. Hopefully we won't lose the carpet.

Anyway, back to more clean up. Just needed a little break.

Doesn't matter how many people you have in the shop nobody wants to see that! Sorry to see that happen. Good luck with your clean up

Mark

Oh no! That's a horrible thing to go to your shop and find!... I hope your cleanup goes well and that all your wood can be salvaged.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

These kind of things are real bummers. They happen to all of us. You'll be back up and running in no time! All things, considered, it doesn't look horrible - just painful.

Was it a roof leak?

Been there. Bummer.

When I had a pipe let go, I felt the humidity as soon as stepped in the (outside room of the) shop. I knew something was wrong. Fortunately I had a drain in the floor so it didn't get too deep. I did lose some MDF (fixtures,) boy that MDF stuff is like Gremlins when it gets wet.

Hope the clean-up goes well.

Thanks guys for your sympathies. Juston it was a hot water heater that blew its pressure valve. And your right, ultimately it is not a huge setback. We did some major cleanup today, and with all the fans running, humidity should level out before too long.

I threw a small fit once when the plumber wanted to drill a small hole in the exterior wall for the drain pipe. It only took a few months for me to figure out why he was a good plumber........ and I wasn't. :D I now have a pop-off drain that runs thru the wall to the back porch! Hope the cleanup goes well.

That's too bad. Do you know why the heater did what it did?

Wow, you were lucky it wasn't any more serious. There's always the unexpected to deal with in any venture.

Hey sorry about that guys, that is too bad. How old was the water heater, if it was when in the new shop, it was not that old!!!!

Sorry about the wood damage, glad to hear works in progress were safe, although I have not a worry in the world that all would have been made right, just glad none of us had to worry about that!

All the best for a dry shop tomorrow.

Tom

Water...
 

You folks have all of our sympathies! Murphy strikes again...

That birds eye maple is sure pretty! Hope everything cleans up and dries out fine!

Sending dry thoughts!

Cheers

Paul

BUMMER!!!

Hate to see that happen to anyone, particularly good guys like you!!

Well, that sucks...

Glad it wasn't worse for ya!