MIMF

I’m not sure what I see on the placement in the first picture. Which side of the nut do the pins mark? The pins are set to the compensation. They are supposed to be at the leading edge of the saddle toward the nut. The pins are on the other side of the saddle. The saddle slot is 1/8” wide so the br...

I’m not sure what I see on the placement in the first picture. Which side of the nut do the pins mark? The pins are set to the compensation. They are supposed to be at the leading edge of the saddle toward the nut. The pins are on the other side of the saddle. The saddle slot is 1/8” wide so the br...

Engelmann is one of the most variable spruces I have used. Some pieces are paper white, light weight, and less stiff and are used in place of German spruce by classical builders. Other pieces are stiff and dense, and as Alan mentioned, hard to distinguish from red spruce. Because of the dark lines o...

A third choice for adding side reinforcement is to use wood veneer strips glued cross grain to the sides. Using a razor knife or sharp chisel you could cut small recesses in the linings, then bend the veneer to tuck it into the recesses and avoid the "dreaded stress riser". Thin wood venee...

I knew a builder who left his tops "floating", with only the string tension holding them in place. He relied on the frame rails and internal framing to hold the pin blocks in place. He liked that he could get inside the body of the dulcimer if he needed to. The internal framing made a heav...

Wood that was once relegated to the burn pile is now marketed by retailers as "unique" in some fashion. Years ago I traded some labor for a pile of Bubinga boards that were a mix of heart and sap wood. When wood was cheap and plentiful the boards were culled from the kiln because of the hi...

For stripping nitro I use lacquer thinner. The cheap Bigbox store stuff works fine. I soften the lacquer with the thinner and then use a plastic putty spreader like auto body folks use to scrape off the lacquer. I soak a clean rag with thinner and wipe off the reside, changing the rag as needed, and...

A friend of mine likes the small Harbor Freight dust collectors and puts them at the worst dust making machines: https://www.harborfreight.com/13-gallon-industrial-portable-dust-collector-31810.html What he likes about them is they are relatively small and tuck out of the way near the machines and d...

Some hammered dulcimers (which are zithers) and cimbaloms have additional bridges to extend their range. As different notes share strings and tuners things become more problematic.

Western red cedar can be left a little thicker than spruce and dents more easily. If you can't locate someone with a wide belt or drum sander, you could thin the soundboard on it's underside with a hand plane and sander where divots and gouges won't be seen. 5/16ths inch thick should be O.K.

I repaired a hammered dulcimer that had the back inset into a 3/4 inch dado in the top and bottom rails and into the pin blocks. Over time the pin blocks rotated from the string tension and because solid wood was used for the back panel it cracked from humidity changes. Hammered dulcimers are under ...

With hammered dulcimers the "treble" courses are a ratio of the strings length on both sides of the "central" bridge so you want to make the bridge movable - only held in place by string tension, so slight adjustments can be made to tune the string length in relation to both side...

Hi Jim, Thanks for the updates. Good to hear what some of the old crew are up to. Being close to the river and in somewhat of a "canyon" we are in kind of a microclimate with the water temperature of the river ameliorating the temperature swings a bit. Also the wind passes over top of us, ...

Hi Mark, Nice to see you posting again! I have been wondering how you and some of the "old crew" - Ellie, Amy, and Deb Suran, Julian Barton, Larry Clinton, and many of the regulars who used to post here have been doing. I know many of us are less active than we used to be, but it's nice to...

I 've made a couple - one from a bowling ball balancer and one from a Bosch mixer. The bowling ball sanding dish runs rather fast and can take off a half inch of material in just a couple of minutes, so a careful light touch is required. The Bosch universal mixer has three speeds and allows the dish...

As small scale builders we can afford to pay more and be somewhat picky with what we build with (when that is allowed) But I have noticed a drop in the quality of what is sold and a slipping of the standards of what is "premium" quality wood. Prices are up, quality is down, and stump wood ...

Hi Matthew, Congratulations on your Marriage and expected addition to the family! A workbench on the back wall of the garage is handy for all sorts of uses, and a workmate, a pair of folding saw horses, and an old fashioned wooden carpenters tool box can allow you to work al fresco when the weather ...

With pianos the higher notes are tuned slightly sharp to match the upper partials of the lower notes which go sharp because of string stiffness. I don't know if this applies to marimba bars but it may. Side note - the reason grand pianos and spinets can't play in tune with each other is because the ...

Fine looking job - your usual great work!
I like that jig you made to align the sides and back. I will have to copy it.

Here is a neck that was darkened by dipping steel wool in vinegar and rubbing it on the neck - no premade solution. The wood in the heel reacted differently than the neck shaft. different woods will react differently (probably depending on tannins in the wood). It didn't darken the wood as much as I...