First try at call making

[bowmike]

I have now wood working experience other than a year in woodshop in 9th grade so please don't be too rough on me.

I gave it a try of going over the motions and processes on a 1 piece box call this morning. Learned a lot. I ran out of time before I could finish chiseling out the inside. I am just practicing the steps and getting the proper tooling down before I buy any decent wood, so this is just a scrap 2x4. The sides are not tapered as I don't have a table saw yet. Here are a few things I learned from today's exercise:

-I need to get a different bit in my press.
 -need to stay back off of my line when cutting the arc on the band saw
 - need to stay back from the line a bit when drilling out the inside the outer edges
 -need to use smaller chisels
 -need to wear gloves


I am talking with A few call makers and doing research on these but given my current set up and tools, I think this will be my starting point on call making.  One piece boxes and scratch boxes, will be doable with the tooling I have. Have a long way to go but off to a decent start.

I am happy with what I got for my first crack at it but it will be a long time before I can make any nice looking calls. I had a lot of fun trying it and it can only go up from here. Any tips or advice is appreciated.

Thanks for the look

[bowmike]

I have  a ton of work to go on this but thought I would put up my projects and ventures in this thread so I can track my progress. Hope to stick with it. I will only have the early am before work to do this, and maybe some late nights on the weekends.

[callman]

You are on your way buddy.

[Shag Hill]

Send me your address and I'll send you a decent block of wood along with a lid blank and a bottom.  No charge.



Jeff
Shag Hill Custom Box Calls.

[bowmike]

Tried again last night. Used a different type of wood. Not sure what kind it is, but it was scrap that my dad got for kindling wood by taking apart a few crates where he works.

I went to a smaller chisel and boy what a difference that made. I didn't have to use a hammer or anything. Still working out making straighter lines and such, but I got the sides to look a heck of  a lot better than the first try. My belt sander blew the belt off last night so I didn't get as nice of top curve and did not have time to put a new one one. Not that I know how anyway. LOL

At least I made some progress. This is pretty cool.

Does anyone have any good reference material, besides this forum obviously  . I joined a few call making forums as reference by a few member here. I was told to check out the Cost books as well, or maybe the dvd.

I need to learn what way the grain of the wood should be going and such for when I get these motions down, and try my first real attempt.

Where do you guys go for wood? I saw a ton of items on ebay and such but would rather buy a bit longer wood, to try and keep the costs down.

[ghost5]

You are off to a good start. I am one of the members that sells blanks. I sell wood from trees we rescue from a logging operation which means we get the best looking wood. The high figured woods like crotch pieces and burls are left in the woods so we process those into blanks for wood workers. We try to keep the prices down as best we can and for common plain woods I think we can help you out.

Let me know if you want to talk. Just send me a PM and we will go from there.