Synthesizer cabinet parts

My customer, Dave, located me in an internet search for synthesizer repair.  Dave is a component level trouble shooting technician himself having worked primarily on computers and entertainment electronics for 30 years or so.  He was not seeking my technical expertise but rather my woodworking skills, so this project merges two of my strongest subjects: vintage synthesizers and woodworking.

Dave is the proud owner of a Radio Shack MG-1 that he is restoring and customizing. The MG-1 was made for Radio Shack by Moog Music back in the 80's.  The case for the MG-1 (Moog Rogue also used the same case design) is a little different than most instrument cases in that the front panel and bottom plate are held together structurally by the molded plastic end panels.  These panels have slots in which the edges of the metal panels are inserted and attached with a bead of hot melt glue.  The unit Dave is restoring has the left end panel missing and he requested wooden end panels be fabricated to create a custom look for his Radio Shack synthesizer.

There is at least one company already specializing in making wooden synthesizer cabinet parts.  Synthwood has an extensive offering of custom parts and services but they do not list end panels for the MG-1 as an available product.  These Moog panels differ primarily from others in that they have a structural function and they are not simply cosmetic. The sheet metal parts connect directly to, and are supported by, the end panels.  Additionally, the panel includes a filler block which encloses a space between the ends of the keyboard assembly and the end panels.  This makes these parts significantly more complex to fabricate than a cosmetic panel that attaches to an existing chassis with a couple of screws.

Router jigs to accomplish the precise machining required were designed and constructed (see article on "Jigs").  Routing for each end panel is done in two operations - one operation for the front of the panel to receive the bottom plate, and another operation for the back and top to receive the front panel assembly.  The left and right panels are a mirror image requiring separate jigs, so: four steps requires four jig designs.  Then the filler blocks are fabricated and attached to the panel with glue and screws. Finally the bottom edge of the panel is scored 1/16" deep and half way across the thickness of the board to allow the bottom plate to recess flush with the outside bottom edge of the panel.

I've been looking for a reason to design and construct a router jig of some sort.  That skill set will be handy for upcoming plans I have for myself, so I agreed to give it a shot.  Building and fine tuning the jigs was certainly a learning experience.  The experience was enhanced by the fact that the sheet metal parts I had to work with appeared to be bent and torqued from original specs. 

Now that I have the jigs I can make these parts fairly efficiently, though it is a time consuming process.  When someone asks I think I'm going to say "$70 and I'll make a pair for you out of wood on hand (see Cherish Earth Project) or send the wood of your choice and the price is the same.  The Dimensions should be at least 5 1/2" X 28" (or 2 ea. X 14") and 3/4" thick finished or 4/4 rough.

Pictured here is a piece of black walnut salvaged from a dunnage pile somewhere In Tualatin, OR, that I selected to make the first finished prototypes from.  I wanted to see the sapwood edge left parallel to the sloped front leaving the bottom to be cut across the grain.  Another approach is to have the grain parallel to the bottom edge so the cross grain cut edge is visible from the top.  This cross grain cut produces some fascinating grain patterns and is a common technique sometimes used in making gun stocks. 

The hot melt glue connection used by Moog in this cabinet design has some significant characteristics.  It does an excellent job filling voids and is easy to apply contributing to an inexpensive manufacturing process.  On the down side, hot melt glue does not have particularly great adhesion to the plastic and metal surfaces being connected in this application. It remains somewhat pliable, especially in warmer temperatures.  I suspect that, if left in the direct sunlight for any length of time (never a good idea for any electronic device) the case warms enough to contribute significantly to the pliability of the glue connection.  Eventually these connections tend to come apart.  In the case of Dave's MG-1 the condition resulted in a lost end panel  Not a good design for an instrument destined to become a collection piece!

My suggestion to Dave is that he assemble his MG-1 using epoxy instead of hot melt glue.  Loctite makes a 5 minute epoxy kit that comes with a small scale auto mix nozzle that looks to be about the right size for flowing a bead into the routed out slot.  I bought some of this for about $5 at Home Depot, but I see that Amazon has it on line for $1.99!

Maybe we can get Dave to comment after the restoration is complete.  He is replacing pots, sliders, caps, etc. and I'm expecting a call when he is ready to calibrate the VCO and VCF.

Log Planter Box

Every so often the forces of nature hollow out a cedar log leaving the outer part of the wood intact and structurally sound. Western Red Cedar sapwood is not particularly resistant to rot, and the heartwood tends to rot from the center out when left exposed to those forces of nature. The remaining heartwood shell will tend to check and split somewhere around the radius. If the splits are limited to one side of the log then, the remaining section is ideal for this kind of project, especially when the sapwood has decayed leaving a highly textured, moss covered surface.

Here is one such log. It appears that the rest of this tree was harvested and the top section was left behind as slash. The limbs have long since rotted away and broken off along with most of the sapwood.

With a minor amount of chainsaw work, a piece of cedar like this is easily converted to a planter box. The process starts with an examination of the material in order to identify structural weakness (checking and splitting) and the most aesthetically interesting surfaces. Once this was determined, this log was put on the WoodMizer band saw, and one shallow cut was made to establish a flat bottom. A chain saw also makes short work of this step if you don't have a mill handy. Snap a chalk line and rotate the stock 90 degrees so you can stand over the log holding the saw bar angled down parallel to the plumb line. Accuarcy is not terribly important here.

Since the inside of this log was already mostly hollow, or at least extremely weakened by rot, it was very easy to cut a channel down the top, the length of the log, and then remove the rotted material down to solid heartwood.

Every 18" or so an indentation is chiseled out about 1 1/2" deep and a 1 1/2" hole is drilled in the center with a forstner bit for drainage. The chiseled indentation is filled with drain rock to hold back the soil and keep the drain holes open.

End caps for this planter are cut to match the shape of each end of the log. This is an excellent use for short scraps left over from other projects. In this case, some rough cut 1 1/8" cedar was pulled from the kindling pile, cut to shape, and attached with 30 penny galvanized spikes. A few handfuls of 3"- drain rock and some dirt and this project is finished. It will NEVER need sanding or refinishing and is best placed in a suitable location for shade plants as this will encourage the moss to continue growing and further enhance the appearance of this one-of-a-kind planter box.

Candle holders and bud vases

Display of candle holders, bud vases and shelving components


I started making candle holders when my father died in 2006. We had a bunch of them lit up at his memorial service and then family and friends were invited to take one home with them. The laser engraved version shown here has a cavity bored out under the candle mount to hold a small amount of his cremains.

Laser engraving is tedious, problematic and expensive but may be very cost effective given a suitable product and an appropriate target market. Custom engraving can turn a small, otherwise useless piece of wood into a marketable product, perhaps to be considered a treasure to an owner with a personal connection.

After exploring the process of laser engraving, silk screen printing seemed like a good option. Using a high gloss black ink, the resulting contrast and sharpness of detail results in a better look than laser engraving sometimes produces. This is especially true when branding the end grain of these candle holders and vases.

Silk screening requires very little overhead. Graphics files are sent to a shop in Vancouver, WA where a screen is made and shipped to site within just a few days. I made a press from scrap wood and a pair of special hinges than cost about $16. With squeegees, some ink and cleaning supplies I started printing in my garage.

These marks can be customized for 1: Species of wood they are made from, 2: Fund raising organizations 3: Memorial events, 4: Individual businesses as promotional or resale items. 5: provide additional information of interest

Log rails and accents

Many companies are marketing log railing systems, log stairways, log furniture and other log accents. These products typically have common features not found in any Mintlake Technology log style carpentry. Most of these product components are peeled, either on a lathe or by hand using a draw knife. This process tends to reduce the stock to consistent dimensions and surface textures resulting in material more closely resembling lumber rather than “tree parts”.  One company for example, Rocky Top Log Furniture and Railing, offers three finish textures: sanded smooth, coarse and hand hewn. (click on link to view)  These finish processes all involve cutting away the natural surface of the material completely removing the contour and textures that result from the growth of the tree and the forces of nature.

The alternative is to use a natural peel to remove the bark. The natural peel process can only be accomplished when the wood has been subjected to certain conditions.  When these conditions are successfully applied the natural peel process leaves all of the markings in place as clues to the full story the material has to tell. Subtle surface textures,  spalting and insect engraving are characteristics that can best be revealed with the natural peel process.


These characteristics result in a finished look distinguishably unique from most other commercially available log carpentry.

This peeling process works the best when the tree is cut, killed or dies in the spring or summer when the sap is saturating the cambium layer (between the surface of the sapwood and the bark). During dormancy, there is very little moisture in the cambium layer which causes the bark to remain firmly attached to the sapwood. If the tree is cut in the spring or early summer and left to age naturally for a season or two, micro-organisms and insects move in and attack the nutrient rich cambium layer. Eventually the bark will peel effortlessly and the exposed surface frequently has ornamentation imprinted by the forces of nature. This fascinating display of insect art and spalting is the inspiration of Mintlake Technology. It would be tragic to peel it off with a lathe or draw knife.

Another advantage of the natural peel process is that the contours of the log where limbs grew are preserved. This is especially significant as this makes the lower grade logs more interesting than the higher grade logs when processed in this fashion.

Rail assembly detail: Each natural peel cedar limb baluster is slightly tapered at the top to snug-fit in a hole bored into the underside of the top rail. This makes a weather resistant connection with no fastener. The bottom rail is scalloped on the face to fit the contour of each baluster. A single screw through the baluster and into the bottom rail holds the baluster in place. Rail ends are coped to fit the contour of the posts. The top rail is blind-fastened to the post with a large lag screw angling up through the first baluster hole and into the post. This also makes a very weather resistant connection and looks so much nicer than the “pencil sharpener” tenon joinery commonly used in many log railing systems.

Architectural - exterior

Siding for Mintlake Lodge was milled on-site mostly from wind damaged cedar trees. An accessory for the on-site WoodMizer band saw allows for cutting beveled lap siding and flat saw shakes seen on these bagle ends. The feathered edge (outside of the tree) was left in tact whenever possible. This effect is now being simulated by siding manufacturers as a high end product. The faux version of this siding was featured in a couple of the Hidden Lake Street of Dreams homes. Mintlake lodge is a few miles upstream from Hidden Lake overlooking Abernathy Creek Canyon - just Beyond the Street of Dreams.




Featured in this photo: 1: Catwalk treads made from oak pallet stickers 2: hand rail, guard rail and balusters from mahogany shipping crates 3: Rail assembly (lower right) Pacific Yew rails and posts, Douglass Fir knot balusters, 4: hand rail (left center) 80 year old Western Red Cedar limb supported by small Pacific Yew snags 5: bird perches from cedar tree tops 6: Entry columns from wind damaged Western Red Cedar cut as low on the stump as possible to preserve natural foot print shapes. 6: Western Red Cedar buffet table

Shipping Crate Flooring

A factory in Tualatin, OR makes rod gauges used by service stations to check the fill level of their underground tanks. These rods are made from Ramin trees, also used in making broom handles and some furniture. A mill in Indonesia cuts the blank rods from local Ramin trees and ships them to Oregon in crates containing 1000 pieces each, 12 or 16 feet long. They fabricate the crates from wood on hand at the mill where the Ramin grows. This flooring was fabricated from the planks used to build these crates. There is at least a dozen species, maybe more, though some of those species rotted completely away while this wood was ignored and neglected "out back" in the factory dunnage pile in Tualatin. The remaining boards have passed the rot resistance test with flying colors so much of it was used for outdoor projects.

Stereo-typical fine woodwork is usually made from perfectly matched boards, each with the same color and grain. The result is expensive and sometimes boring. The array of colors and textures represented in this Indonesian dunnage was so far opposite of that perfectly matched look we just had to experiment with some shipping crate flooring.

Pallet Wood Cabinetry

Except for the top trim made from saw mill tailing, the cabinetry shown here is solid hardwood, 100% recycled from pallets and shipping crates. The finished product is superior in durability and character to commercially available cabinetry at any price.

Glass, glue, screws, hinges and handles were purchased for this project. The wood was FREE - except for the labor to haul it away and process it that is. After the rough edges are machined away, the nail holes, spalting and wane create a unique character to this cabinetry clearly elevating the status of wood refuse to its highest and best use.

Dining room highlights include sideboard, china cabinet, room divider / hand rail made from an extremely tight grain bent cedar tree and a door casing (far left) made from pieces of a salvaged ROSEWOOD pallet!

Logging Slash Picnic Table

Twisty cedar logs from the slash pile are not always small with really tight grain. The tree used for this table top and benches was pushed over at a young age by some force of nature. The “S” curve shape resulted. The log was milled to preserve that shape producing the unique lumber necessary for this project.

This log could have been milled into a small amount of dimension lumber by rotating 90 degrees on the mill. The resulting lumber would be of poor quality as the grain would cut through the face of the boards at sharp angles in two places, and the rotted center spiraling through the log would totally ruin some of yeild. This log would never get loaded on the truck at the harvest site, but when crafted into its highest and best use the results are impressive. You just don’t buy lumber like this at Home Depot.

The framing supporting this table features lumber dimensioned on three sides leaving the spike knots protruding as the stubs of limbs from one edge of the board. This is significant as a visual reminder that this is part of a tree and not just a board cut in a factory somewhere.

The process of acheiving this "belongs to the land - lodge style look" starts at the timber harvest. Efficient commercial harvests will always cut the limbs flush with the bark to make loading and handling easier. This is usually done with a timber harvest machine that cuts, fells, limbs and bucks a mature connifer tree in less than a minute. With any luck they might leave a usable top after the last log is bucked from the tree for the slash pile. Once again Mintlake Technology identifies what is discarded by others as the most interesting material.

Landscape With Slash

This vegetable garden features 1: deer and rabbit fence wire supported by a cedar slash frame, 2: raised bed areas created with stone and small twisty cedar logs that would never get loaded on a truck at any logging operation and 3: cedar gate with self closing hinges made from salvaged industrial conveyor belt material.

This old conveyor belt material is 5/8" thick and made like a nylon belted tire. It is incredibly tough and very handy to have around for right job. Here, the perfect amount of self closing tension can be achieved by scoring the rubber side of at the radius of the open hinge.

The frame supporting the wire has poles secured to existing cedar stumps and the twisty logs at the front of the garden bed. The poles and boards are made from very slow growing (tight grain) cedar trees about 6” in diameter. Small, tight grained cedar logs come from trees that had a hard life. They are frequently not perfectly straight. When milled into dimensional stock, internal stresses are relieved, resulting in extremely bowed or crowned boards. Clearly material that would not likely ever get loaded on the truck at that commercial log harvesting operation. Boards for the frame were milled specifically for this application. They are rough cut to 1 1/8” thick and usually not dimensioned on one edge (natural shape of the tree with wane). Badly crowned boards are used to an advantage in this project. Pairs of boards around the top of the frame are mounted with the top board bowed up and the bottom board bowed down. The boards were then pulled together straightening and stressing them before the spreaders were attached. The resulting structure works like a pre-stressed beam with more strength and rigidity than it would other wise have. You can’t buy wood like this at Home Depot, or at any other retail lumber outlet conveniently available to the public. It seems significant that the lumber you can buy at Home Depot would not work as well for building this structure as lumber made from logs left behind as slash by the operation that eventually supplies Home Depot with their ordinary dimension lumber.

ICF construction

People are usually surprised when they are told this building is poured in place, steel reinforced concrete all the way to the roof. Insulated concrete forms (ICFs) were selected for constructing Mintlake Lodge as this is the most cost-effective and functional approach to building a residential structure designed to withstand the ravages of time for several centuries.
The first question people frequently ask is "how does the cost of ICF construction compare to conventional stick framing?" The cost comparison will vary depending on the price of lumber, energy, concrete, and the availability of tradesmen who are familiar with the methods and materials, and who will keep you out of some serious problems resulting from inexperience, ignorance or incompetence. There is no doubt that when properly designed and assembled these structures are superior in all aspects of new residential construction - except perhaps the cost.
If after researching the advantages of poured in place ICF construction you still have to ask about the cost comparison, then you should stick frame. If you want an inexpensive house built quickly, you might be disappointed with the ICF process. If you are more concerned with thermal performance, acoustics, fire safety, resistance to wind sheer, seismic load and falling tree damage or the over all life expectancy of the structure, then you should consider poured in place concrete walls using an ICF product. Mintlake Technology is an authorized ARXX® Forms installer.
Function and durability are the primary considerations that lead to the selection of poured in place ICF construction. The cost should be a side issue. Any additional construction expenses resulting from choosing concrete over wood will be recouped many times over during the life of the structure.