The Frame, part 2 (staining & assembly)

Staining the wood was actually quite enjoyable. I've seen from many different sources that it is very difficult to stain pine evenly. I tested the stain on some scrap wood and I was pretty happy with it. For the stain I used the Minwax Dark Walnut stain.

 After the stain dried I applied 2 coats of Watco Danish Oil Wood Finish. My pictures with the lighting conditions don't show the stain very well. I was very pleased with the finished result. There were a few blotchy spots where the pine unevenly soaked up the stain, but it's not terrible.

I then had to assembly all the parts of the frame. It came together quite nicely for the first time. I did have to add 2 additional bolts on each end board to provide stability. I will add a support beam connecting the two end frames from the bottom. The pedal will also be attached to this beam. I also painted and screwed in all 88 screw eyes to suspend the bars. I bought black latex tubing that I will cut into small pieces and stretch over each screw eye to better suspend the bars and to serve as a buffer against the bars.

This is now the second big milestone that I've reached in the project. The first being tuning the keys.