I found that I did not have enough stock to shape tentalones for three tenors- so I had to make some more. I thought you might enjoy seeing the little device I created for cutting the slots. First of course, on the table saw you must slice up lots of narrow little sticks of basswood. I use use my thickness sander to get them all exactly the same size and then to the bandsaw and this clever little invention, if I do say so myself.
This simple but effective gizmo is mounted on a piece of 3/4 inch plywood which I call a sled. The sled slides back and forth guided by a groove in the saw table and a wooden batten screwed and glued to the bottom of the plywood. What you are looking at is a two rubber band powered bolt with a tiny indexing head carved into the end. The bolt travels under the cover with the screws in it and applies a tiny bit of pressure on the Tentalone stock as I gently push it through the wooden channel. The indexing head grabs the last cut notch stopping the stock from its progress. The sled is pushed forward and the running bandsaw blade cuts a new groove. Then a gentle push on the stock advances it until the indexing head stops it. Another push, another groove and soon the entire piece is ready for the next step, the step shown in the previous blog posting.
 you can just see the tiny indexing head sticking into the last cut. The bolt with protruding indexing head is made of boxwood, a very very hard wood. |  The unseen right hand is gently pushing the stock through the device the left hand pushes the sled to make the cut. |
