It's not a carving,,,but

[Bill Dieckman]

OK, some quick questions:

1) Is the brass on the bridges just brazing rods?
2) You mentioned the hitch and tuning pegs as available commercially. Any recommendations for source? Are those the terms I should be looking for.

In looking around a bit, your information, this link, and this link might get me going.
Thanks.

Got my cast off yesterday evening, but can barely lift the weight of my hand, so still a bit too weak to work safely with the power tools and to work as off-hand vise for carving

[Mark Yundt]

Hi Bill,
Brazing rods,, sure. I didn't have any so I just went to the local hobby store ( trains, planes,R/C cars,,) and got the rods there. Some were a foot long that I sliced up , others were 3 ft long ( cut down ) ,, for the side frets to be in one piece. I used 3/32 and 1/8. The only reason was to shift the strings slightly as to my layout. They could have been all the same. The slot for them I ended up doing two ways, One, was using a table saw set at 45 and using the edge of the blade to make a small V groove, the other was a router with a bit I had that made more of a squarish U shape. Actually most of this was made on the table saw including the coves for the bridges. They don't have to be coved, I just thought it looked neat.
Accessories,, here's a link.
http://www.folkcraft.com/hammered-du...-supplies.html

Yup,, hitch pins,, just like hitching up a horse, and the opposite end of the string is the tuning pin. Hook the string on the hitch, pull it across the bridges, put it through the hole and twist the pin to tighten and tune the string. Friction keeps it in place as the holes are slightly smaller than the pins.Don't forget a tuning tool. The "T" handles work best by applying more even pressure as opposed to the "L" shaped ones.

[Bill Dieckman]

Thanks. I found the Folkcraft site about 5 minutes after I posted.
Are the finished bridges the same as the ones in the 2nd set of pix (2nd picture)? The in-process ones look like they have more walnut on top, the maple looks narrower, and segmented the top. They also look to stand taller than the finished set of bridges.
I like the design of them. They just look different for some reason.

I mentioned brazing rods as I have a few from some of my past forays into odd hobbies. Used them to make designs or highlights in chainmail. Biggest was a knee-length mail shirt (I'm 6'8") with brass trim around the bottom.

Thanks for all the info.

[Mark Yundt]

Sharp eyes Bill! Yes, the Walnut is a bit thinner on the final piece. What happened is this. There was a bit too much height in the bridge causing the strings to not press down on the side frets, especially near the top where the strings get shorter. Lowering the bridge a bit allowed the strings to then press against the side frets a bit more snugly and angle a bit more as they passed over the fret and connected to the hitch/tuning pegs. Keeping the strings low on the hitch/tuning pins also helps. That's the reason the pin blocks are angled ,,allowing the strings to "bend" as they pass over the side frets. Remember , pressure from the strings is all that keeps the bridges and frets in place as neither are glued down to the sound board. Another thing I did was to taper , especially the right side ( bass) bridge to be a bit shorter at the top end. Over it's length there is a taper of approx. 1/8th inch with this bridge itself 1/4 inch shorter than the left, Treble , bridge. Doing this just helps the strings pass over and under each other more easily near the top where the angles get steeper as opposed to the shallow angles at the bottom. Lowering the bridges at the top lessens the angles of the strings as they pass over the frets on their way to the pins.
Just reading this may sound convoluted , but if you draw out a side view,( I think I have mine around, if not I'll draw one for you, ) you'll see just how the angles change from the very short strings vs. the long strings as they pass over the bridges/frets. Doing this side view will also show you just where the holes need to be to allow the strings to pass through them.
Oh,, and yes, the walnut was glued in one piece over the maple with the holes in it. Then it was just a matter of band sawing slots through to the holes. It can be done in one piece without the slots. I just wanted to separate the strings and their vibrations from each other, two,, it looks cool, and three, makes stringing a bit easier without threading . Threading isn't such a big deal, but I did remove the bridge a couple of times as I needed to clearance the holes a bit after it was strung and having this slot allowed me to not have to remove the strings as I was able to just tip the bridge over a bit, let the strings pass through the slots and remove the bridge easily. Slide it back under the strings on it's side, tip it up and let the strings fall into place through the slots again.

And , truth be told, I had both bridges finished completely, lacquered and all when I discovered the angle issue. So,, with holes, slots and all, I decided to pass them through the table saw to trim the walnut down, recut the angles and slot. Well it worked for the bass bridge,,even recalculating the taper needed to make a consistent pass and making the slot in each of the sections for the brass rod.
But when it came to doing the second bridge,, well, there isn't much support in the narrow sections between the holes and you can guess what happened. Yup,, vibrations etc. passed through the bridge as the cut was being made, one snapped off and took the rest with it. All the work ,, gone. Back to square one in making a bridge, remarking where the holes needed to be, trying to remember just what angle I passed the maple over the table saw blade to achieve the same radius cove,,bla, bla, bla,,,

[Paul Jordan]

Pardon me for jumping in but, I've recently bought a backpackers guitar kit from Andy Mackie, can't remember the exact price but, I think it was $75.00 plus $12.00 for shipping. The neat thing about Andy is that for every kit he sells, he builds a guitar and donates it to a school.

You can read all about him at http://andymackiemusic.org/index.html. He's also donating tons of harmonicas and giving lessons to the students on how to play them. He does the same thing with his strum sticks, 3 string guitars, and backpack guitars.

It feels good when you buy something that gives back to school children..

One more thing... His instructions are VERY crude, handwritten mostly but, I think you can get the gist of what he's trying to do.

[Bill Dieckman]

Hey, Mike.
They just started a new Instrument Makers forum 2 down from this one.
I would highly recommend this thread be moved there
Needs to be seen

[john brenton]

You built all of that in a week? That is impressive.

[John Coloccia]

That's nice work, Mark. I was just commenting the other day how I'd love to see a hammered dulcimer show up here.

[Bill Dieckman]

Been ruminating on a question while I continue to heal up :
1) How did you attach the pin boards and top/bottom sides to the back board and each other?
-Glue, screws, both?
I ask as the shear force exerted by the string trying to pull the pin boards together as well as trying to shove the bridges through the back are tremendous.
I notice you lapped the top/bottom side across the ends of the pin boards and wrapped the ends of the pin boards to match.

At this point, I'm looking to do a 12/11 out of maple or ash. Not sure on sound board or other accents.

[Mark Yundt]

Sounds like a plan to me!
Yes, there can be quite a bit of force on this area. Some suggest something along the lines of essentially a French Cleat type of joint. I considered many options as well but wanted to get on with it so I glued and countersunk screws with contrasting plugs. I could have left the ends where the glued up blocks are for the pins, but I wrapped it instead with 1/4 inch pieces of the rest of the frame. I just wanted to see the perimiter all the same wood and it stood nicely against the maple with the inlay running along the pin boards as well. Sort of framed the whole thing aesthetically.
Also, this allowed me to cap the Ply bottom nicely as well since who wants to see the edge of ply on something like this. Now from the back side it too is framed nicely with 1/4 inch contrasting wood wrapped around the birch ply.
The top and bottom pieces ( main frame) , being 3/4 stock , were routed to allow the ply to sit flush with the edge. So the end panel pieces appear the same looking at the bottom.
So with the almost 3 inch wide pin boards glued to the ply, the top and bottom frames routed for the ply , glued to it and the end panels with screws I figured it would all hold and add rigidity to the whole piece.

There are many woods that will work for the soundboard. Mahogany seems popular. One trick you see instrument makers do is to suspend a piece of wood with their one hand ( thumb and forefinger) and tap or give the board a rap with their knuckles. Try it with different woods. Some just go thud, and other actually have a bit of resonance to them. Pick the ones with resonance that seem to vibrate and give a sound.
Don't let the board lay on a surface and do this. It kills the vibration, It has to hang free. Try it. You'll see what I mean.
I have a wonderful chunk of actual Honduras Mahogany that I'm keeping for the next one. Even at 4 ft long, 2 inches thick, you should hear this thing sing when I knock on it as I just described. Lively, like a bell with an actual ring to it.