Day 164: A Visit with Owen Daly

From time to time, I hop down to Salem, Oregon, an hour's drive from Tortuga Early Instruments Worldwide Headquarters in Vancouver, Washington, for a visit with Master Builder Owen Daly. Owen is a kind and generous mentor who always provides a ton of information for any questions I might have. This last weekend was no different. I headed down to see Owen with several questions in hand. My questions ranged from bridge making (yeah, I'm having another do-over party with the bridges) to soundboard thinning to string pinning.

Owen makes a small Italian instrument that sounds absolutely wonderful. Of course, his craftsmanship is also stunning, yet it's the warmth of tone that comes from one of his little harpsichords that is most impressive. And I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. This weekend, Owen was lining out the string speaking lengths between the nut and bridge (this one is a 2x8) using some thread and a couple of small weights.

In the photos above, Owen is hanging a spool of regular thread over the front of the instrument and then using it to track where the string should fall on the register as it makes its way to the distal/bridge end of the instrument. As with most of Owen's work, this is a brilliantly simple way to ensure complete line accuracy of string speaking length. I can't wait to use this method when pinning my own instrument.

Other questions led to more answers and I ended up stopping by Rockler on the way home to pick up a couple hundred solid brass escutcheons/nails/brads that I'll be chopping down for use as pins when the time comes. Another answer involved picking up some Melton wool at the Mill End Store in Milwaukie that I will be "felting" with "agitation and heat" in the near future. The felted wool will be use as jack rests on the distal ends of the keys as well as for an upper cushion on the jack rail. I like the milk chocolate brown.

Finally, Owen and I discussed at length a quick and easy way to bend and cut the bridges. As with most aspects of building I've spent considerable time and effort overthinking how to go about doing this. Owen showed me the way again by asking yet another simple question: "Why don't you just use your bentside lamination form to bend the bridges?" Once again, my answer was, "I don't know." After discussing it with Owen, I've decided to go ahead and follow his directions for steam bending, cutting and cleaning them up. There will definitely be more to come on this subject in the weeks ahead.

On a completely unrelated note, I've decided to sell the Laguna LT14x14 SUV band saw. I purchased this saw with the best of intentions. I wanted to create a cottage industry for myself resawing exotic and local woods for luthiers, but life and time are short and my focus needs to remain on building, not on cutting wood. So, out the door it goes. It's not a cheap item by any means, so it may take a while to leave, but I've learned to be patient about such things. It will sell. Someday.

I've also committed to purchasing a Carbide3D Shapeoko 3 XL CNC machine from Cool Craigslist Guy in Waldport, Oregon. This is a small unit that is easily extensible (to create more working space) and quite affordable. It comes with great design and operation software packages and Cool Craigslist Guy added necessary dust collection to it that I will be basically getting for free when considering his awesome purchase price. So, a road trip next weekend is in order. And then...a moderate learning curve as I figure out how to include this sort of automation into my building life.

Until next time...

Day 163: They Call Me Captain Hook

The bridges came off the bending form some time ago, but I've been busy with other things, as well as engaging in my annual Winter Maintenance work, so I'm just now getting around to finishing them up. One remark I received from one of the Master Builders on Facebook regarding soaking and bending the bridges was that he wouldn't like all the nails in his bridges. Of course he wouldn't, and neither do I, but it needed to get done and this is the method suggested by Mr. Miller in his eBook Most Excellent*.

The detritis in the photo above is composed of the remnant pieces of 1/4" plywood pads I used for cushions against the brad heads. Part of the reason I'm not crazy about the soaking method is due to nailing the bridges to the form while they were still wet. This resulted in the brads leaving dark stains on the bridges at each contact point - not my preferred level of quality. And, yeah, using stainless brads was probably the key here. My bad. If I build another Ruckers, I'll bend the bridges in a completely different manner (to be disclosed at a later date).

The 4' bridge is ready to glue up. The 8', on the other hand, requires a "hook" to be joined to its larger, "far end". This hook curls the string contact points away from the bend and requires me to cut one from a smaller piece of beech and then stitch it onto the bridge at the correct point. As you can see below, I traced the hook onto some parchment paper so I could draw it onto the smaller piece.

I then took it to the band saw, the table of which I set at a cool 30-degrees, and went to work - until the blade snapped. Granted it was a tiny blade, but it was still scary. I neglected to purchase a new blade last payday and the tiny blade was the sharpest in the shop. Suffice it to say, it made the work a lot more interesting.

I made it through most of the cut before the break.

I then mounted an older blade onto the saw and went to work, resulting in this:

It turns out the smell of burning beech is actually kinda pleasant. The burns notwithstanding, I pulled out the oscillating spindle sander and went to town cleaning things up.

As you can see, it cleaned up nicely, though I'll do some final polish with a spokeshave once I get the hook joined to the bridge. I'm planning on using a half-lap joint, which I've had some success with in the past. Before I can do this, I'll need to get another printout of the plan - I mangled it pretty badly getting the bridge templates onto the bending form. This is not a big deal because I'll have it printed at the local FedEx Office up the street for a few bucks. The lady there is now referring to me as "the harpsichord guy." I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing.

On a completely unrelated note, my wife and I travel to the Oregon Coast every Christmas season, sometimes staying there for Christmas day (a beach with 10 people is a good thing, even when it's chilly outside). This year, we found ourselves in Lincoln City where we stopped at an antique store and I discovered the Holy Grail of 6" rulers.

I've been looking for a 6-incher to keep stowed in my shop apron and this one is special because it's not only sturdy, it offers both U.S. and metric measurements, as well as decimal equivalents for numerous measurements on its reverse. This was definitely the best $5 we've spent in a very long while.

Until next time...

*Mr. Miller has significantly updated his eBook Most Excellent, the Harpsichord Project eBook 4.0. It now has more content with multiple ways of accomplishing several tasks, as well as upgrades to several of the sections. If you're looking to dive into building a harpsichord as a first-timer, I highly recommend this book - it's a bargain.