Day 45: Taped Up and Ready for Paint

I finished taping up the sharps tonight in preparation for their painting with black semi-gloss. You may be wondering why I'm painting them black when I've already told you the sharps on a harpsichord are light wood or bone and the naturals are dark wood such as ebony. Well, you'll notice in the photo below that I taped the tops of the sharps with the intent of providing a clean surface on which to glue quarter sawn red oak strips. Remember, I'm completing this instrument in the Craftsman/Arts & Crafts/Mission style, which requires quarter sawn (red) oak with ebony/African blackwood accents.

Yes, I use green painter's tape, rather than the traditional blue. This was recommended to me by the first guy who taught me anything about building guitars many moons ago, so I'm sticking with it (pun intended). Regardless of the tape color, I'll be painting them with six coats of black semi-gloss (not at the guide rail ends, of course) and sanding with 320-grit sandpaper every two coats.

Now, this is real progress!

Until next time...

Project Update: Following Directions

In dealing with the extra sanding of the sharps, I decided to revisit Mr. Miller's eBook Most Excellent to see again what he had to say about cutting them on the table saw. Well, it turns out he basically uses a crosscut sled and a spacing stop against the rip fence. A crosscut sled is a framed structure that you lay wood in to more easily, and less dangerously, cut it on the table saw. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

Photo courtesy of StartWoodworking.com

Now, I'm not 100% certain he is using a sled from the pictures in the eBook Most Excellent, but he is certainly supporting the wood with another piece of wood. He also uses a "sacrificial" piece of wood against the back of the cut to prevent tear-out, something that frequently happens when sawing or drilling wood without the additional support.

Well, heck, here's the photo of the cut from the eBook Most Excellent (he has removed the spacer):

Photo courtesy of The Harpsichord Project e-Book 3.1 by Ernest Miller of Ernest Miller Harpsichords

As you may recall, I decided to cut the sharps on the band saw with its table tilted at 10 degrees. Big mistake. Okay, maybe not a big mistake, but I really should have cut them on the table saw because it would have prevented the wee, little cut marks on the sides that I had to take the time and effort to sand away. And you know by now how much I love sanding.

So, the moral of the story is to follow the directions, especially when they've been created by a guy who's been at it for 30 years and has been generous enough to share his knowledge with the world as Mr. Miller has.

Lesson learned (again).

Day 44: Gluing the Sharps

I finished gluing up the sharps last night. The interesting thing about this step is that it required using a "rub joint". This is a simple operation in which you spread glue on one or both surfaces and rub it until it firms up. Some say this pushes the glue into the pores of the wood. I think it may do that a bit, yet it also help dry up the glue, making it more sticky to the point where the surfaces adhere pretty solidly together. I must admit it was a bit odd not clamping with a clothespin or small clamp, yet it worked quite well.

In preparation for gluing the sharp pieces to the keys, I weighted down the back of the keys and then lightly clamped a straightedge across a line I drew when the keyboard was still a large piece of jointed wood.

When I posted this photo to the Facebook project page, my Australian observer suggested I finish capping the naturals before proceeding with gluing the sharps. He reasoned that I would be able to adjust the positions of the sharps easier if the naturals were completed. I emailed Mr. Miller, author of the eBook Most Excellent about it and he said that it's done both ways and that it's a matter of personal preference. Because his directions have thus far not steered me wrong, I decided to continue to follow them and move ahead with gluing the sharps up. We'll see what I learn from this as I cap the naturals in a later step.

For now, the sharps are glued and I'm preparing them for painting.

Until next time...

Day 43: Notched and Ready for More

The Dremel tool sanding barrels arrived a couple of days ago, so I was able to complete the notching of the guide rails ends of all of the keys last night. As you may recall, this will help when maintaining the instrument once it is completed because the guide rail pins will be hidden from sight. The notching will simply make it easier to slide a key in after it has been removed and repaired.

The next step is to glue all of the sharps to their respective keys. I will remove the naturals from the keyframe and glue the sharps centered and lined up with a line I drew when the keyboard was still a single piece of jointed wood. The glue up will take 24 hours to dry before I can do a spacing quality check on the keys in general. For those where a gap is insufficient to allow enough play between keys, I will use a heat gun to bend them at the balance rail pin hole. Should I need to do this (I believe I do on at least three), I will, as always, detail the process here.

Until then...

Day 42: Slowly, but Surely

If I were to start a company making instruments, I would name it Tortuga Ancient Instruments. I may move slowly, but remember: the tortoise always beats the hare. Tick...tick...tick...

I was able to make a little progress last night, though it didn't feel like much because it was sanding the sharps to remove the wee, little band saw marks I introduced a few weeks ago. Again, if I had been able to cut these using the glue line rip blade on the table saw, little sanding would have been necessary. Regardless, they are now all sanded and ready for gluing to their respective keys.

Once I glue them up, I will paint them with 6 coats of semi-gloss black spray paint, sanding with 320-grit sandpaper every 2 coats.

We have a new addition to the family! I recently acquired a Stanley Bailey No. 7 bench plane from a local antique (okay, junk) store. It's a newer model and is in pretty good shape. I'll be cleaning it up over the next few weeks; it doesn't require removing the Japaning, electrolysis to remove rust, etc., which is good because I'd rather spend my limited shop time on cutting and gluing wood.

As you can see in comparison to the No. 4 above, it's a fairly large creature. I'll be using it on the soundboard and parts of the case in the very near future.

Until next time...

Day 41: A Break from Sanding, and Sanding

As I continued to use the Dremel tool to sand the notches into the ends of the keys, I was producing more and more smoke. This is usually not a good sign when woodworking. Because I'm the thriftiest guy in the world (my wife uses the word "cheapest", but I'm not sure why), I decided to purchase additional sanding barrels on eBay where I found 100 for $5.00, rather than five or six at Home Depot for $10.00. They will be arriving later in the week.

In the meantime, I am turning my attention to sanding the sharps. As you might recall, I was having a bit of a challenge cutting the sharps on the table saw, even with the glue line rip blade. I had decided to cut all of them using the band saw with its table tilted at 10 degrees. This worked fine, yet it left wee, little cut marks, or ribs, on the sides of all of the sharps. Had I been able to execute the cuts on the table saw, this would not have happened.

The result: I now have to sand all of them using 320-grit sandpaper, so I set up a nice sanding block using a scrap cedar 2x4 and the 3m Super-77 spray glue.

This works great, but I can't help reflecting on how all of this time could be better spent on something else; anything else,  really (I detest sanding as a general rule). When I had cut the sharps, a visitor to my Facebook project page noticed the wood is aligned cross-grain, which he suggested is an unusual approach. Hey, I was just following the directions in Mr. Miller's excellent eBook. In hindsight, though, I would much prefer cutting them with the grain and using the table saw, which would result in long sharp strips that I would finish cutting with the band saw. Much, much smoother and easier.

So, another good lesson learned as I progress through this, my first build. I must admit I've learned more about woodworking and myself over the past four months than I thought possible. This is the true essence of the project and the main reason why I consider my shop to be a sacred space. When I cross the threshold into the garage, something in me changes and I shift from an insignificant wage slave to a Creator of All Things Wonderful. As I transform wood, it transforms me. And this keeps me coming back for more, especially when I learn from a mistake or think of a better way of doing something. For me, the magic is in the act of creation, not in the finished product.

Until next time...

Day 40: Much Ado About Notching

Yeah, I couldn't help myself.

I'm still chipping away at notching the guide rail key ends with the Dremel tool; slowly, but surely. Yes, I am a Dremel tool warrior.

For once, I'm glad one of my tools is not cordless/rechargeable.

You can see my progress in the photo above - 17 down, 34 to go. It shouldn't be more than a few more days and I can start sanding the sharps and getting them glued to their respective keys.

Until then...