Alternative Dulcimer

My wife found the pieces I cut out of the mold in the trash and gave them to my son. He created his own version of a stick dulcimer:

Internal matters

It is all about internals this week. I shaped and glued in the end block. I used a piece of waxed paper to prevent gluing the instrument to the mold.

Earlier I bent the linings in the same manner as I did with the sides. I clamped them up for a couple of days (all four of them at the same time).

Tonight I removed them from the mold and glued them in. This is where the multiple layers of the mold com into play. I removed the top layer of the mold to give room to clamps.

I use paper clamps for clamping the linings to the sides.

When dried I still have to cut the sides to length and after that I will make a start with the neck.

Shape

A quick update: The second side came out of the side mold. I placed it in the instrument mold together with its counterpart. They are supported by a piece of wood and a block in the neck area.

The next steps will be shaping and gluing the end block and bending and gluing in the linings.

Second Side

The side I bent last week has been clamped up for 7 days now so time to get it out and bent the second one. I removed the clamps and there was not much spring back.

It is now sitting in the instrument mold clamed up a little bit to settle more and waiting for its counterpart.

Speaking of which, it was in the process of being bent. I found a juice jar which I could use for this one.

After soaking in boiling water for about 15 minutes...

 ... it is clamped up. It will remain clamped for another 7 days.

Last week I bought a piece of Walnut which will serve as the neck. Also I bought wooden linings and cut them to size.

Plans and sides

The plans for this project form Michael J. King came in (that is the printed version). I worked from PDFs which I printed and glued together. But now I have it all on one big A0 sheet:

After making the molds it is now time to really start working on the instrument it self. The first task is to cut out the sides. The rough sizes are: 420x30. The thickness had to be brought down to about 1.5 mm (was 3 mm). 

The first side went smoothly but on the second one the plane caught to deep in the wood and snapped the side in two. On the replacing one I took a little bit more care and finally ended up with two sides that could be bend.

There are several ways to bend sides of an instrument. In the guitar making course I used a bending iron to do the job. Since I do not have one at home I have to go for a plan B. There are multiple examples on the internet on how to build a bending iron your self (much cheaper then buying one) but since this is such a small light instrument there is an other way to do it which is boiling the wood. This sounds a bit strange but this is how it goes: You need a jar with a wide enough opening to put the sides in it, a piece of aluminium foil, clamps and the mold I made for this purpose.

Boil water in a pan, kettle or cooker. Put the wood into the jar, poor the boiling water in and seal off the top with the foil so no steam can escape preventing the water to cool off to quickly.

Let it soak for about 10-15 minutes (some wood works after 10 minutes, in my case I had to go up to 15 minutes). Pull one of the sides out and place it in the mold. Then clamp it up in both directions (vertical and horizontal).

Leave it this way for a couple of days to fully dry the wood. After it is dry it will retain the form of the mold. I hoped to clamp both sides in the mold at the same time but that did not work. I will do it one at a time. Also I noticed that the second side is not as thin as it should be (it is still 2mm instead of 1.5mm) so I have to sand or plane down that one to the proper thickness before bending it. Other wise I am afraid to snap it.