Building a Cranky Crane #4: Eureka, Grr and Okay

Been trying to think of an easy way to drill a pretty large hole down the length of a 3 inch dowel. While walking past my dowel storage space I spotted a length of bamboo I had left over from an attempt at making a recorder. Bamboo is hollow and thus does not need drilling! But alas, This piece of bamboo is a bit large. I need a piece with an outer diameter no bigger than 3/4 inches.

I went out to the two places close by where I had previously seen bamboo for sale cheap. Neither place had it. So on the way home I decided plastic pipe wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all. It’s more uniform, smoother on the inside and if I don’t have some of the desired size I’ll be near a place tomorrow where they have all kinds in all sizes.

The block seen above was an idea I got while googling my problem. It should work as it gives the end of the crank axle somewhere to be anchored. So things are plugging away.

Below is the base glued up and Cranky’s head block is on the right. This should work out eventually.

-- Ni faru ion el ligno!