Here's where the other end of the dowel with the cup hook is used. I had drilled a hole using the #30 bit (same as for the pin block) to accommodate a tuning pin. Making sure I was holding the wire tight so as not to lose it off the hitch pin, I took the other end and poked it down into the hole. I then crammed a tuning pin in the hole also. Turning the tool away from me, I made two or three wide rotations of wire to bring it up to the beginning of the flat part of the tuning pin. I was winding up the pin, from left to right.
I then turned the tool a little and began to wind the string down the pin from right to left, making sure to wind back over the left-rigt rotation and being careful to not wind the wire on itself. I tried to keep the coil as neat as possible.
After a few wraps, I removed the pin from the tool, brought the left-to-right wire out, returned the pin to the tool and continued to wind until I was over the appropriate hole in the pin block. In the picture below, you can see all my little "wild hairs" on the other strings I've wound. For now, I'm leaving those in the event I have to redo those strings because I've failed to secure them adequately and they slip. I'll try to salvage the string by unwinding it and trying again to get it right. Fingers crossed I won't have to do that.
For me, winding turning pins is a little like riding a bicycle. It comes back to you when you've been away from it for a while. Still, I'm not as confident as I'd like to be, so I'm not brave enough yet to trim those little wild ends.
The wire needs to pass over the correct pin on the bridge and come off the right side of the pin. If it's not, it's been wound backwards and you have to carefully unwind the string and do it over, hoping against hope that the string will hold up for a second go.
Taking the pin out of the tool, I hammered it into place until it was about 7/8" above the block and turned the pin with the tuning hammer just enough to confirm that the wire was holding, but not bringing it anywhere near pitch just yet. The 7/8" in pretty important because the lid won't close if they stick out much higher. The wire should be wound to about 1/4" above the soundboard. If it's not, the wire gets spaced out more on the pin to meet that requirement or, conversely, you have to try and slide it up higher on the pin, being careful tat the string doesn't double up over itself.
Then I repeated everything on the next string to the left. Each tangent is responsible for two strings, so you have to string a pair before you go on to place the tangent. I'll tackle that blog entry tomorrow.
