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...