Here's My Workshop!
Oliver Apitius
Shelburne, Ontario, Canada
Click on any picture to see a larger version.
I built my first guitar in 1976 after meeting guitar maker, Grit Laskin, at the Mariposa Folk Festival. A few years later, at the urging of mandolin player, Randall Hill, I built my first mandolin and fell in love with the instrument. Through years of hard work and dedication, I slowly built up my reputation to where I had a steady waiting list of 2 years for my instruments. Though the majority of my customers were from the U.S., I also received orders from Canada, Japan, England, Italy and Germany.
In 2005, due to circumstances beyond my control, I had to pack it in and put all my tools etc. into storage and my business into dormancy. In 2014, cicumstances finally turned around and I was able to build a brand new shop on my property.
I had the building framed by a local contractor and then I proceded to do all of the interior work, myself, including wiring, insulation, vapour barrior, drywall and trim. Making world class instruments requires, amoung other things, a climate controlled environment for assembly and storage of wood. With a very tightly sealed vapour barrior and a commercial grade dehumidifier I am able to keep the humidity at a constant 40%RH through the most humid of days. In the heating months, a little humidifiction is needed.
Heating the shop is accomplished using a propane radiant tube heater. This system offers many advantages for me. It hangs from the ceiling, leaving me with all my valuable wall space. It also has sealed combustion so that it does not affect my climate control by exhausting interior air. There is also no chance of an open flame igniting sawdust in the air.
This space is such a pleasure to be in, with its high ceilings and lots of natural light (daylight flourescents and LEDs at night). I am so grateful at having another chance to persue my #1 passion, making musical instruments. I'm hoping to replace my old website with a brand new one very soon so check it out at
www.apitiusmandolins.com
.
You can visit Oliver's website at:
www.apitiusmandolins.com
.
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