Lee Harps

Summer is not a good time to spend much time in the shop. The fact is that I’d really LIKE to spend more time there, but there are just so darned many other options for my time in the summer! That said, I really have been able to make a little progress.

The topic of today’s lesson is: the Neck Joint! Here is the part of the harp I’m trying to reproduce at the moment:

If you use your imagination here a bit, this is a sort-of rectangular version of the above which, as you can see, still needs a bit of work.

If you’re interested in this sort of thing, here are the steps I took in making that particular assembly.

First, I began by using epoxy to fasten two pieces of wood together to get the thickness I needed. This assembly is actually long enough to make TWO ram’s heads (in the remote chance I will screw up!)

I scratched my head a lot in deciding how best to design this joint. I’m not certain that my final decision was the best, but time will tell. Anyway, I chose to go with a sliding dovetail joint. I think this photo may show you what is meant by a sliding dovetail joint:

This joint consists of a dovetail cut on the end of the neck (harmonic curve) which slides into a stopped groove of the same shape that is cut into the yet-to-be-apparent ram’s head piece.

First, I decided to cut the dove tail. I carefully cut the end of the neck piece to the correct vertical angle (according to the blueprint). On this, I drew what I thought would be a good length for the dovetail and the angle of the dovetail sides that I thought might be best (don’t ask me for these figures – I simply do not remember. I would guess it is about 1 inch long, and I forget what angle I chose.)

Anyway, I placed a high, vertical fence on the table saw, angled the saw blade to the chosen angle, then after carefully setting the saw blade height and the distance from the fence, I ran the neck end thru the saw thusly, first cutting one side, then turning it around and cutting the other side:

Once that was done, I had what I had hoped for: A DOVETAIL!

Having done that, I then needed to have a groove in the “ram’s head block” into which to slide my dovetail. The first step for this was to set up a straight router bit to the exact depth of the dovetail length and cut, first, a straight groove down the center of the block.

Notice the dovetail shape drawn on the end of the groove. How does one make a dovetail-shaped groove? Had I owned a nice, long dovetail cutting router bit, I could have made both the dovetail AND the groove with that and done so with perfection. Since all my dovetail bits are only about 1/2 inch in depth, this was not possible. Therefore, I had to choose a bit more handwork in making my joint.

Since the saw blade was already set to the dovetail’s angle for the cutting of the dovetail, I kept the table saw blade at the same angle and, using a piece of scrap wood, cut a chisel guide to the same angle as the sides of the dovetail (that would be the piece on the right).

This cut was made by running the piece of wood thru the angled blade of the table saw like this:

Next, by clamping the correctly angled block of wood next to the still-vertical groove in the “ram’s head”, one can use the block to accurately chisel away the sided of the groove to the proper angle and width.

This must be done rather carefully with chisel and mallet, but it is very possible and here is what it looked like when finished.

You have a tail-shaped groove that is cut to allow the dovetail to slide into it — and so it did!

The tension of the strings will pull this joint firmly together. Only when the tension is applied will I know if my joint choice will have been adequate.

Anyway, the joint did fit rather nicely.

and it’s on to the pillar assembly.

When I was asked to work today, I responded by saying, “No, I had planned to have breakfast at the fire house, then I will be attending Jubilee Day.” I was given the day off. Following the sign below, I enjoyed a fine 7 AM breakfast of pancakes with butter and syrup, sausage, OJ and coffee. I happened upon a man from church, Fred, and enjoyed the chat during breakfast.

Let me tell you about Mechanicsburg’s Jubilee Day. Originally it began as a farmer’s fair, with farmers bringing in animals, produce and the like to town to display for the local citizenry. Over the years, this area has become more and more populated, less and less agricultural, so, even though Jubilee Day continues every June just after school is out, it no longer is a place to find prize pumpkins or well groomed sheep. It is currently booked as “the largest one-day block party in Pennsylvania”. Block party it is. On Jubilee Day, our little town of 9,000 becomes overrun by an estimated 60,000 visitors! Main Street is barricaded against traffic. Electric cords and portable generators power numerous french fry, sausage and crab cake vendors and others who set up shop. It’s Jubilee Day!

The weather today in Mechanicsburg was GORGEOUS! It was probably the finest weather we have had for Jubilee Day in my memory! My house is within easy walking distance from the main event, so let me first share with you some sights I was able to enjoy on the way downtown. Just about a block from our home is a vision I’ve been wanting to photograph for some time.

Knowing how heavy clay pots are, I’m amazed that the chair will support this character. House decoratives have always been of interest to me, and I found the color coordination of this door wreath and the blue door and shutters most appealing.

Friends of ours used to live in this house and I think the current owners have done a very tasteful job of maintaining it and detailing it.

Todays builders do not have the time nor the resources to incorporate some of the fine detail that was used in building a century ago. Here is a somewhat worn roof detail that, in spite of its condition, still demonstrates just such detailing.

Another pointed detail that I happened upon as I walked downtown that I thought was pretty neat was this chimney.

They just don’t do things like that any more! Along Main Street are two nearly identical Victorian homes, side by side, one of which is in the photo below. I’ve always found their architecture to be most appealing.

The old Washington Fire House also shows some of the typical building styles of years past.

Here is a home that I’ve admired ever since having moved to Mechanicsburg in 1970. I like the home, but have always felt that it really belongs in some quaint, New England coastal setting.

(The orange barriers are located around a paint warehouse that went up in flames a couple of months ago which is just being rebuilt.)

Jubilee Day can best be described as a place where many people go who are willing to rub shoulder to shoulder with total strangers and find the eating of poorly nourishing, greasy food a delight. Before I show you the “sights” of Jubilee Day, let me show you some of the food offerings. Admittedly, this looks pretty appealing: It is a deep-fried HUGE onion.

For those with an Asian taste, here is the rice, noodle and egg roll offering.

If, on the other hand, you prefer fried foods, this is available too!

Some sort of kabobs:

Kettle Corn is a big item in these parts, it seems. There was a Kettle Corn popcorn vender at each end of town.

A very popular item at local events like this is fresh-squeezed lemonade. You can watch then squeeze it fresh on the spot.

This vender took his lemonade even more seriously and squeezes his lemons INSIDE A LEMON!

Then, there’s sausage….

and MORE sausage….

This offering looked pretty tasty, but I was unable to bring myself to try even that: London Broil.

I didn’t avail myself of it this year, but a very good bet if one is hungry is to have homemade soup at the Washie’s Fire House.

When I arrived at Main Street, here is what greeted me:

This was around noon time and the crowds were already quite large. The evening “shift” becomes even more crowded as folks pour into town after getting off work.

Here, then, is a random series of photos I took while downtown. Among the numerous craft venders, there was this Amish lady and, I presume her son, selling yummy looking baked goods and very beautiful quilts.

I’m always attracted to things musical. This year we were blessed with music from the Andes — South American music.

Later on, I encountered their competition.

As part of this display, there was a very nice set of pan pipes. One doesn’t see them often. Unfortunately, I did not get to hear them being played, but to play them one simply blows over the top of the bamboo tubes like blowing over bottles. The longer the tube, the lower the note.

At the U. S. Marine recruiting table, they had set up a chinup bar and many of the young men in the crowd tried their stuff doing chinups.

Shoulder to shoulder was the order of the day….

so I decided to retreat to the sidewalk rather than walking down the center of Main Street; less pedestrian traffic and, to my surprise, many more photo ops! Here was an interesting clandestine burger option that I should have checked out. Clearly a backyard entrepreneur who did not pay a vender fee….

I also learned of a couple of downtown businesses that, had I not been walking down the street, I would still not know existed. While I have no need of their services, I thought this sounded interesting: Princess for a day party?!

The G-Man has been downtown for years. I thought, except for the missing “N”, they had it looking rather spiffy for the occasion.

We have a ceramics dealer downtown and, each year, they set up tables where both kids and adults can paint their ceramic of choice. I thought this young lady was doing a particularly good job of concentrating on her art.

The tongue always helps.

As I walked by the bank, I noticed this young lady and her HUGE Great Dane standing in the shade beside the ATM machine. I asked her permission to take their photo. What a beautiful (and LARGE) dog!

Up Market St. I could not help but notice a pedal harp! It was Lewis Lynch’s harp; he’s one of the more active harpists of the area. He must have answered the call and was visibly absent from the booth. I’ll catch you next time Lewis.

Here were two boys doing the ice delivery thing with their coaster wagon.

Not all the kids were working, however. Here were a bunch of friends just “hanging out” on a porch that is located on Main St. They seemed to be having a good time.

Just beside the barber shop that I use is a relatively new “Hard Bean” coffee shop. These young guys were local talent doing a bit of ad lib for the coffee shop at amplified volumes that were deafening! Is it possible that they were using volume to compensate for talent or the lack thereof? I had to applaud them for their enthusiasm!

Seeing this sign, suddenly I knew that I was welcome to be walking the streets of OUR TOWN!

This guy was selling the top-like device he is playing with here. He was actually pretty good at it!

As I was going past the G-Man, who did I see walking up the alley beside it, but our esteemed mayor, Mayor Jack Ritter! He willingly tilted his top hat for my camera.

Over behind the bank, in the parking lot, the “midway” had been set up by the fly-by-night ride venders. I always advised our children that these rides could be dangerous….

I’m not sure why, but this photo seemed to earn being included. Perhaps because the porta johns were so very convenient to the lemonade stand. Whatever….

Nearby, in typical block party fashion, was the ring toss.

I don’t know if she won anything or not.

A retired gentleman from upstate apparently fashions interesting play houses at no cost which are raffled off for various fund-raising events. I was particularly impressed with the detail he put into this one. A man who was “manning” this stand was the husband of a lady who, years ago, purchased one of my harps.

People watching is always fun. Here is a “people” who seems to have washed his T-shirt in water that was too hot (I guess….) Just emulating the teenage girls, I suppose….

In the parking lot behind the laundromat, there was some sort of organized skateboarding competition going on.

Then, around the corner, my attention was drawn to another apparent ongoing “business” downtown that I was unaware was there. I didn’t go in, but perhaps I should check it out.

Here is whom I encountered outside of the Subway.

In front of the gas station, there was trout fishing.

I don’t know what he was selling, but I couldn’t help but wonder when I’d see Harry Potter….

I’m always a sucker for things made of wood — rarely buy, just like to look….

…and I often said that, in my next life, I’ll come back as a well-financed female who would have the time and the means to be a quilter.

It was such a beautiful day in Mechanicsburg.

Seeing the sign for helicopter rides, I decided to take advantage of the great weather and walk to Memorial Park to see them take off.

I had been watching them fly sideways over Main Street and was curious to see them up close.

Here is one just landing. Helicopters are another thing that fascinates me, but I was too cheap to pay the $25 fee for a ten-minute ride.

The rides originated in a ball field on Memorial Park, a part of town that I’ve not really visited since the kids were small and we would take them there to occupy their time when they got bored at home. I think this may still be the same dome climber they climbed on over 20 years ago; the pavillion appears to be the same as well.

Here’s the old cannon still guarding the stone entranceways to the park.

Some new play equipment has been added that was not there when we used the park.

This picnic pavillion is still there; I’ve never seen it used very much for some reason.

Further down the same road is the stadium where the high school football games are held.

Right next door is the town swimming pool. I guess not everyone in town was at Jubilee Day.

Here, some of the local boys decided to shoot some hoops.

It was a great day to become reacquainted with “our town”. The walk was healthy, it was fun catching the event with my camera, and it demonstrated to me, once again, that LIFE IS GOOD!

Yes, the French harp reproduction project continues, although I’ve been otherwise occupied and have not had a lot of time to work on it. The garden has been nearly completed with plantings, and I also helped a friend from North Carolina get started on the building of a harp using purpleheart lumber. We spent a busy and fun three days in my workshop doing so!

For those of you unfamiliar with harps and their “parts”, this is what is known as the “neck” or the “harmonic curve” of a harp. With the soundboard being a straight line from which the strings exit, it is necessary to build the neck with the characteristic curve in order to achieve the optimum range of string lengths appropriate for the instrument to play properly. Here is the neck as it appears on the bronze statue:

Notice how very thin it is on the left, just before the fancy carvings. On my reproduction of this harp, it will be necessary for me to make this entire structure a bit wider in order to make the instrument playable. Even in today’s conventional harps, the sharp curve at the left (above) represents one of the greater structural challenges for a harp builder. I have had breaks occur here even when built with flat, vertical laminations; this area must withstand the full 1200 pounds or so of string tension.

For the neck of my French harp, I have decided to make my own curved, horizontal laminations under the lower aspect of the neck. It will be like taking a 1-1/2 inch walnut board and bending it to the shape of the curve of the neck.

First, it was necessary that I glue two pieces of walnut together to get the width of the board necessary.

Next, using the drawing as a guide, I cut the board to the shape of the under side of the harmonic curve.

Next, I needed thin strips of walnut that could be bent to the shape (above) and glued together to that shape. Doing so makes an extremely strong structure as the grain of the wood follows the line of the curve. These strips were cut on the bandsaw and kept in the order of their being sawn (white lines, below) so that, once glued together, the glue lines become less obvious.

Here are the thin strips, all cut and planed smooth, awaiting being glued into shape.

Using powerful clamps and correspondingly shaped pieces of wood and tiny wedges, the epoxy spread strips were then bent to shape against the solid-wood blank and left to dry.

Removal of the clamps left it looking a bit messy,

but when run through the planer, it cleaned up so that it looks like this:

I then glued a photocopy of the neck to a thin piece of plywood and cut it out as a template. Here is the template above and the laminated assembly below it.

Marking the neck with the template, the upper edge of the neck was cut to look like this:

Blocks of wood were added to the underside of both ends to provide the wood necessary at these places to complete its final shape.

Here in Pennsylvania we have finally begun to have spring and some milder temperatures. With that, there is little time for harp building as any spare time this time of the year is critical for getting the garden planted in a timely fashion. In times like this, one simply THINKS about harp building while working hard in the garden.

Before I get into the subject of this entry, I will first tell you about some of the other happenings in my life. Unrelated to anything in this blog, I was working outdoors the other day when I heard what sounded like an old Volkswagen overhead. On looking up, I saw something one only sees rarely these days: a blimp. It was the Met Life blimp, complete with Snoopy, asking, “Have you met life today?”

Last Tuesday evening was our monthly SAWS Woodworking Club meeting at the local Woodcraft store. Not related to the topic of the evening was a woodcarving display at the store. If I’m not mistaken, the objects in this display were made by members of the California Woodcarver’s Assn. and was purchased by Woodcraft and is “circulated” around their retail stores. Anyway, it is a saloon scene and has many stories incorporated in the display. I would guess it is 3 feet wide, perhaps 2 feet deep and 2 feet tall. Very cute and entertaining. (I took lots of photos; perhaps the subject of a later posting.)

One of the monthly features is our “show and tell” segment of the meeting where members bring along things they are working on to share with the other members. Naturally, I took my harp soundbox along and tapped the wealth of talent there by asking questions as to how I might proceed with certain engineering challenges remaining with the construction of my “French” harp. Other things that were shared were Alan’s spalted cherry candle box which he made as a gift. It has hand cut dovetails.

David brought along one of his very unique stools, complete with toes, that he makes for young newborn relatives as keepsakes. I was particularly impressed with his incised lettering on the stool.

The main topic for the evening was hand planes and the use of them. The first presenter was Dan, who owns a very impressive “bag of tricks” collection of the high end hand planes made by Lie-Nielsen. He showed and demonstrated the use of these metal planes.

Next, one of our few female club members shared with us her passion for hand-crafted wooden hand planes. Kari attends workshop session with professional plane makers and has learned not only how to make the wooden parts, but also how to grind, temper and sharpen the blades. Her work is most impressive! You should hear the nice “whoosh” when she passes her planes over a piece of wood! Her’s is clearly a talent I will never even attempt to emulate!

All the planes in this photo are ones Kari has built except for the one sitting crossways in the back . They’re not only gorgeous to look at and to feel the wood, but unseen are some of the highest quality cutting blades I’ve ever seen! Kari is so committed to the use of planes that she does not use sandpaper in her construction!

FINALLY, I’ll get on to the topic at hand: Mrs. Wabbit!

Here are some photos of some of the livestock I find myself dealing with in my attempt to have a growing vegetable garden. Here is one of our many chipmunks whom, to my knowledge, do very little damage to the garden.

With THESE, however, it is quite another story:

Realizing they must eat too, I’m afraid I am not willing that my rabbits be GOURMET rabbits! They have voracious appetites and have made my gardening success very difficult.

One evening last week I was taking a near-dusk walk by the garden, stopped to admire the things that were growing, and to my amazement, saw several quite small bunnies traveling from my potato row to the RABBIT FENCE, crawling thru the spaces in the wire fence, and having a good time. If you recall my earlier posts, the whole object of the complicated fence I built around my garden was to KEEP THE BUNNIES OUT!! Several days earlier I found Mrs. Wabbit munching inside the fence, chased her out (jumped thru one of the higher 2-inch openings in the rabbit fence), and I proceeded to tighten the security by adding 1-inch chicken wire to the rabbit fence. Apparently the chicken wire had successfully kept Mother Rabbit OUT of the garden, but unknown to me, she had already delivered a family of 4 in the straw IN the potato row! Since she couldn’t get in to feed the young, the young were going to find her. Here is the nest from whence they came:

And here is what the little critters looked like (this is two of the four):

For those of you who are S.P.C.A. members, I was a bit frustrated, but I brought NO physical harm to the youngin’s! I very humanely escorted them to the OUTSIDE of the fence, then, using thin wire, carefully fortified the chicken wire so that it very closely hugged the rabbit fence. The little guy in the photo was clearly the “runt” of the litter, and a neighbor lady took him, hoping to nurse him to adulthood. Unfortunately, he did not survive. I am inclined to think the others did, however, as I saw them darting under the bushes as I mowed the grass on Saturday. They look quite healthy. I’m inclined to think the mother may even be caring for them under the same bushes. I have a family of baby doves who seem to like to hang out in the garden straw, but it’s pretty difficult to deny residence to things that can “fly in”! I don’t think they will bring much harm to the garden. I THINK the garden is secure against rabbits now, but then, I thought the same the last time….

Today was our very first really warm day. I’m hopeful that the warmer temps will encourage things to prosper in the garden. Here is what those early cabbages (and the potatoes) look like at the moment:

I am fairly adamant about limiting the use of chemical insecticides, but the cabbage butterflies had made their marks and the leaves were being eaten up (literally) and I gave them a dusting of Sevin. They are now looking pretty much picture perfect. We’ll soon have more cabbages than any one couple could eat. The sweet corn has been progressing slowly with the cool weather, but hopefully will prosper now that the nights are warmer.

It was fairly labor intensive to install, but what you do not see in the photo of the sweet corn is the watering system. Hidden under the straw mulch is a strip of ’seeper hose’ that delivers water just to the row where the plants are growing. Here is the one I installed for the marigolds and the peppers. The straw will be added when the plants develop a bit of height. A single hose connection at the corner of the garden supplies irrigation water to the entire garden.

A plant that is showing its colors at the moment is the sage plant:

The chives are also in full bloom:

By the lawn, a peony bush is presenting its show at the moment (didn’t notice any black ants on the blooms):

And, by the house, rose bushes that came with the property when we bought it back in 1970, are giving us a show. I am not a rose person (I don’t like the thorns nor the smell of roses, but I do enjoy their blooms when they are fresh):

Finally, I have a photo of one of the few apricot fruits still remaining on the apricot tree. We have not harvested ripe apricots in many years, thanks to the squirrel population. They are busying themselves to harvest the fruits now and, by the time the fruits would have been ready for picking, the tree will have been denuded of any fruit. We must buy our apricots, I guess.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. I hope you have a wonderful holiday and that we may all remember those who have died for our country (and continue to do so today, unfortunately) who will not be able to share picnics and family events. We in America enjoy such a marvellous level of luxury and freedom. May the powers that be make wise choices, restore our dignity and respect as a country with other nations and preserve for us that which we hold so dear!

(Please note: I assembled this page late in the evening. I will add links as indicated at another time….)

Much of what has been accomplished thus far with this harp is fairly standard operating procedure in harp construction and, even though I’ve done these things many times, even so, I come up with different ideas as to how I might accomplish each task.

By definition, the string ribs are pieces of wood that are glued to the outside and inside of the center of the soundboard which support the lower end of the strings. The soundboard outer edges are attached to the soundbox, and the strings are tied in a knot inside the string rib. Here are some photos of the string rib as represented on the bronze:

These are not great photos of it, but the ribs extend all the way from bottom to top in the center of the soundboard. As you might guess, these strips of wood are rather thin, and I chose to make the outer rib of equal thickness from top to bottom (sometimes they are tapered to be thinner at the top), but I did choose to taper the width, making the top narrower than the bottom of the string rib.

It isn’t always easy to work with power tools and thin wood pieces, so here is how I chose to fashion the outer string rib for this harp. Here is the formed rib just laying atop the soundboard.

To form this rib, I began by using a quarter-round router bit to round off the one corner of a walnut board that had been carefully planed and jointed to be quite straight.

Because I wanted to taper the width of it, I rounded over only one corner of the board. Next I cut the thin strip off the board with the table saw.

Having done that, I then applied several pieces of double-sided tape to the cut edge of the board and reapplied the thin strip, leaving the unrounded edge extend past the edge of the board at the desired taper angle.

This was then run thru the table saw once again with the cutting width set just to the thickness of the board, the end result was a thin strip of wood with a top-to-bottom taper.

Before releasing my tapered piece from the board, I ran it once again thru the router to round off the newly cut corner.

The outer string rib was completed:

The next challenge is finding a system whereby one can glue the string rib to the soundboard with a solid, reliable glue joint, but without having glue come in contact with the walnut veneer adjacent to the string rib. The veneer is very thin to begin with, and to try to sand or scrape wayward glue from the veneer would surely destroy the veneer. I chose to use wide masking tape which I ran down the center of the soundboard, carefully marking the width of the string rib and where it would lie when glued. I then used a metal straight edge as a guide, and with a carpenter’s knife, made knife cuts along those lines, making cuts in the masking tape. I then peeled back the center portion of the masking tape, leaving the outermost parts of the tape intact.

As you can see on the next photo, I then widened the outer margin of the masking tape by applying a strip of blue, low-adhesive tape to the strips of yellow masking tape. I then applied glue to both surfaces, the string rib and the soundboard, and used the frame and clamps as shown below to apply pressure until the glue dried.

When the glue had dried (it is always best to do this BEFORE the glue is totally dry), I peeled back the blue and yellow tape to reveal a perfectly glue-free surface on each side of the newly-glued-on string rib.

Next came the INNER string rib which is generally more rugged than the outer string rib. Each harp string passes thru a hole in the string ribs, and it is behind this inner string rib that the lower end of each harp string is knotted. Since this rib projects into the soundbox interior, and since I make it a practice to have this rib be totally attached to the top and bottom ends of the soundbox, it is necessary that a notch be made in the top and bottom to accommodate it.

As with my most of my recent harps, I have chosen to design the inner string rib in the manner that Musicmaker’s Kits have used in the design if their “Regency” harp. It is thickest under the lowest bass string, tapering to very thin at the top of the harp. Below is the inner string rib (I chose to use oak) laying diagonally in the notch I had just cut for it.

Here is a view of the inner string rib laying in both notches. This is where it will lie when the soundboard is glued into place.

At this stage, I glued the inner rib to the inside of the soundboard, using the same methods I have described above.

Another job that needed to be accomplished before installing the soundboard was to widen the gluing surface of the soundbox opening. This was done by installing what are called “liners” – a practice often used on guitars and other stringed instruments. The thickness of my soundbox material was 1/4 inch, so I opted to double the width by installing an additional 1/4 inch thick “liner”. Here you can see it after its having been installed:

The liners are actually two strips of wood that are the length of th soundbox that have been shaped to fit flush with the soundbox sides. Clamping them in place until the epoxy dried was rather low tech: I used common clothes pins to hold them in place for the required time.

At this point we were nearing installation time: the liners were in place, the inner and outer string ribs had been glued to the soundboard, so it was nearly time to actually install the soundboard.

One more thing needed to be done, however, before access to the inside of the soundbox was no longer possible. I use what are called “T-nuts” and stainless steel 5/16″ bolts to attach the harp base to the soundbox. I use the “T-nuts” that are attached with brads (there is a similar type that I choose not to use that come with downward projecting “points” which are simply driven into the wood).

Now it was time to install the soundboard, so I applied epoxy to the back of the soundboard:

Also to the edges of the soundbox…

Added a little extra-thick epoxy to the string rib notches:

Rolled it over on its face and applied some clamps:

I was particularly interested in seeing epoxy “squeeze-out” to be sure that I would have good adhesion around the entire soundboard:

My West System epoxy takes 4-6 hours to set up, so once that has occurred, it is time to clean up the edges of the soundboard. For this I used a combination of router trimmer, sanders, etc.

Because I was tired of balancing the soundbox with my piece of steel railroad tie to make it stand up, I decided to fashion a bit of a foot which I bolted onto the underside of the base. Having done that, here is where this project stands (literally) at the moment.

This being Mother’s Day, 2006, I’d first of all like to wish all mothers the very best and say thanks for being you! Without you, we would not be here! Not too profound, but nevertheless very true.

In a previous entry, I mentioned the varying degrees of “fun” that one finds in constructiing the various components of a harp. The soundboard is a part of the harp that isn’t terribly visible, isn’t a great deal of “fun” to build, but is probably one of the most important elements of the entire project! As with the speaker cone of a set of fine audio speakers, it is the soundboard of the harp that, in my opinion, primarily determines the tone and volume of the instrument! While many makers are using various woods and wood combinations to build their soundboards, I am still sticking with sitka spruce which is still, I think, the most popular of soundboard woods and with which I’ve had excellent results. Here is my small collection of sitka — probably enough to build several harp soundboards.

While sitka spruce can be purchased from many sources, I have found the “Bargain Bag of Spruce” from Aircraft Spruce to be a good source of quarter-sawn soundboard material. These packs sell for $25 (plus about $25 shipping), and are random-sized pieces of fairly clear spruce. Occasionally one must trim a piece “with the grain” to be sure the grain is running true and horizontal, but it is generally pretty nice wood and it works well. For harp soundboards with the grain running horozontally, shorter pieces generally work very satisfactorily.

First, one must resaw the sitka spruce to proper thinness. To do this, one uses a resawing blade with the bandsaw.

The sitka boards are passed carefully thru the blade yielding thin pieces of wood. As you can see in the photo, I have my thumb curved in; these blades will cut thumbs as well!!

It is somewhat difficult to work with thin material using a wood planer as planers will sometimes turn thin wood into splinters. Instead, a gentler thicknessing can be accomplished using the “thickness sander” or “drum sander”. Mine is the Ryobi sander which has a sandpaper covered drum which spins. Below the drum sander is a motorized belt that draws the material under the drum, sanding the material to a given thickness. Sometimes numerous “passes” are necessary to achieve the desired thickness as only a small amount of material can be removed on any single pass. Here is the sander with the cover open.

Here is the sander with the lid closed. The black knob on the right adjusts the speed of the motorized belt, thus determining how quickly the wood will pass thru the sander. The port of the top of the cover is attached to a vacuum to collect the sawdust generated by this process.

When the sitka has been properly “thicknessed”, it is then roughly cut into angled pieces which will fit the harp soundbox. (The photo below is not of the French harp, but rather the replacement soundboard of my friend, Celia’s, harp and is somewhat wider than the French Harp soundboard. )

The adjacent edges of all the pieces are then “jointed” for tight fit, glue is applied, and they are clamped together on a wooden frame (below) to dry. This system is all from the genius of my harpmaker friend and mentor, Rick Kemper, and is a WONDERFUL system! The round, white clamps are actually pieces of 4″ PVC drain pipe cut into slices, and the frame is the approximate dimension of the finished soundboard. At the lower (wider) end of the frame are two sliding wedges. With the glue applied and the joints kept flat with the ring clamps, tapping the double wedge at the bottom drives the joints together. (This photo is also that of Celia’s harp soundboard.)

Having used this same system with the French Harp soundboard, here is what the sitka looked like after having been glued up. Note how much narrower it is than the frame as used above for Celia’s harp.

My latest “secret” (again, probably STOLEN from Rick Kemper) soundboard design is to taper the soundboard core from top to bottom and also from side to side. My goal is to make the soundboard thicker at the bottom, tapering to very thin at the top and also to make the board thicker down the center where the strings pass thru it, tapering to very thin at the edges. Once the sitka has been glued together, I then take a sander and carefully perform the tapering as I’ve described it. (Note that I am wearing a coat in this photo. Once again it is a photo of me tapering Celia’s soundboard this past winter.)

Those I consider the “better” builders will choose to use only solid sitka for their soundboards. To make this work successfully, they must place the soundboard into a drying chamber for a time before installation so that, once installed, atmospheric humidity will tend to “swell” the wood. If this is not done (as I’ve learned from experience), soundboards will dry out in winter when in heated room conditions and will develop horizontal cracks! Rather than be a sitka soundboard purist, I have adopted a laminate approach to building soundboards. My soundboards are made of three layers: an inner layer of vertical grain veneer, a core of horizontal grain sitka, and an outer layer of vertical grain veneer. In this instance, I am using maple veneer on the inside, book-matched walnut veneer on the outside with a core of sitka spruce.

On the left you can see the roll of veneer tape which is used to hold the various pieces of veneer together until it is glued to the substrate material (in this case, the sitka core). You can see a single strip of tape holding the two halves of walnut veneer sheets together above on the right. In like fashion, the maple inner veneer is held together in the same way on the left. I use a fabric cutting wheel to do most of the veneer cuts. Here is the making of the inner veneer in progress.

The triangular “waste” pieces are then turned end for end and attached to the lower edge of the veneer sheet to make the lower end wide enough. With the three components of the soundboard prepared and cut to shape, I then use this “Better Bond” veneer glue from Joe Woodworker to attach the veneers to the sitka core. Better Bond is a powdered resin that becomes usable when mixed with water. While the container says “cleanup with water”, I’ve learned to use it with disposable containers, stirrers, spreaders and to wear rubber gloves when using it! Cleanup is nearly impossible as it sticks to everything!!

Incidentally, I am not a financial person and certainly not a “Certified Public Accountant” as stated on the photo above. Somewhere I have come upon a piece of foam board that has this writing on it. It makes for a nice, semi-soft work surface. By placing this on my cast iron table saw top, I find I cause fewer “dings” to my woodworking projects.

SO, after spreading the Better Bond glue onto the sitka core, I then let it sit for 15 minutes, place the veneer on the glue, and place it into the vacuum press to dry. What you see here is a plywood “caul” atop the veneer which evenly distributes the pressure of the vacuum over the veneer.

On top of the “caul” is a sheet of white fabric which serves to facilitate air flow to the suction tube in the center when the vacuum pump is turned on. To prevent the caul and other surfaces from being glued fast as well, I use sheets of regular kitchen Cut-Rite waxed paper. Here is another view of the vacuum apparatus showing the vacuum pump arrangement I have put together.

Better Bond takes 4-6 hours to dry in 70 degree temps. The vacuum apparatus has a vacuum-operated switch on it which turns the pump on and off as needed to maintain the vacuum for the prescribed time.

I have decided to make the thickness of this soundboard thinner than ones I’ve made in the past in an effort to compensate for the fact that this soundboard is considerably narrower than my other harps. This is an effort to get as much tone and volume as possible from the narrower soundboard. The board has been made only 3/16 inch thick at the bottom tapering to a mere 3/32 inch at the top. One can only hope that one’s choices will be appropriate and that the thinner board will withstand the harp’s string tension. Here is the outside, walnut veneer-covered surface of the soundboard after having been removed from the vacuum bag. Note that, even though the grain is not exciting, I have attempted to do what is called “bookmatching” to make the veneers look very similar on each side of the center line.

Here is an edge view of the soundboard, showing the three elements of the lamination. Below you see the maple veneer, in the middle is the end grain of the quarter-sawn sitka spruce, and on the top is the walnut veneer. Once the soundboard is installed, you will not be able to see these laminations. This edge will be covered by a strip of walnut trim.

Here is the soundboard standing against the “soundbox, thus far”.

The next process will be that of making and attaching the string ribs to the soundboard, installing “liners” to the soundbox to broaden the gluing surface of the sides, then actual installation of the soundboard.

In any project, some aspects are accomplished because they must be done, others are actually great fun. The base construction has been great fun. Here’s what the base looks like on the original bronze. In reality, you’re looking at something that is probably an inch or less in width. As a point of reference, look at the size of the dust particles (just kidding).

The round “thingie” you see sitting on the base is called the harp column – the vertical stem that supports the front end of the neck and harmonic curve. On this instrument, the downward push on the column from the tension of the strings will be 1200 pounds plus! Imagine what over a half-ton of pressure would do to a flimsy base: it would snap it right off! SO, one attempts to design the base to be strong enough to support that kind of pressure 24-7, but light enough to keep the harp as lightweight as possible. I could have made it of a single piece of solid, 2-inch thick walnut, being sure to have the wood grain run front to back. This would have left me with end grain wood for much of the detail in the front of the base, so I decided to surround a walnut board with fitted strips of walnut, thus making the exposed sides with long grain exposed rather than end grain.

To begin this process, I made a plywood pattern of the shape of the base.

As you can see in the photo, I have prepared a notebook of photos which I am using in the workshop as reference for the various elements in building this harp. Using the pattern as a guide, I then prepared strips of wood to fit the outside of that pattern. Here they are, each piece cut to fit, laying in a line awaiting glueing.

Here are those same pieces assembled for a trial assembly.

Much like the assembly of the shell, masking tape is used to keep the pieces together when glue has been applied to each joint. Here is the base ring glued together.

In order to be sure it dried flat, I weighted it down with heavy weights.

With the glue dry, I had to see how my new base frame would look with the soundbox atop it.

Behold, a harp-like object!

Not bad. Next I prepared the other components of the base which look like this.

On the top is the pattern, next the walnut top with the grain running front to back (about 7/8″ thick), next the just completed outer base frame, and a thinner bottom piece that will be screwed in place, making access to the inside of the base assembly possible. I was so “into” the next process that I forgot to take photos of the base after the top piece was glued into place. Here is the next step: that of adding the detail to the outer frame. This began with drawing the shape onto the assembly using the plywood template as a pattern.

Having done that, it was time to cut out the detail using the bandsaw.

Once that was done and after a little cleanup, it was time to see how it looked with the shell in place. (Note how I use my trusty piece of train rail as a weight to keep it in place.)

Not bad. This is sitting on the bottom piece which has not yet been shaped to fit the base. When completed, the bottom piece will have to be a fraction of an inch smaller than the profile of the base in order to match the original bronze. There is still more detailing to be done on the base, and here is a trial sample I’ve done to try to duplicate it.

I’m still looking for a more precise means of doing this. My plan is to postpone this detail for the moment.

After having done the above, I decided to finish adding the horizontal bracing and inner supports to the shell. I’ve not had time to clean up the misplaced epoxy marks on the outside, but that will be a small job. This is the project to date. Not too bad for the short time I’ve been working on this, if I do say so myself!

Next will be attachment of the base to the soundbox and construction of and installation of the soundboard, string ribs, liners and the like. Stay tuned.

Here is a view of the back of the bronze harp, showing what the details are of the back of the soundbox.

While it would be possible to duplicate the soundholes shown on the bronze, I have decided that tiny oval soundholes like those above would be quite impractical and would make dealing with the strings rather difficult. I have decided to be more conventional with the number and placement of the soundholes. Before beginning the soundholes, however, I decided to add some of the vertical lines one sees on the original bronze.

Cutting these details with a knife gives a bit less precision than were I to do so with a power tool, but I think I prefer that this harp have a bit more of a handcrafted look rather than a factory perfect look (great rationalization, anyway!) The knife line pictured here is a typical chip carving technic that one can find in the Wayne Barton chip carving books. The knife I am using is the Wayne Barton knife that I hone and use quite a lot. Moving on to the soundholes, I decided to use the same soundhole templates that I use on all my standard harps, spacing them to fit the length of this soundbox. One clamps the plywood template into place and then bores a starter hole for the router bit.

Notice the guide bearing above the red cutter. This follows the plywood template to create the shape of the soundhole.

The Festool router did a nice job of keeping the shavings and dust under control. Once all the holes were cut and the grooves cut with the chip carving knife, here is what the soundbox looked like.

I had also trimmed the top and bottom to fit the top and bottom inserts I had installed in the previous post, so decided to see if this part of the harp fit the drawing.

It was a fine time to check, but the soundbox is a tiny bit longer than the drawing. I’m sure I can make it work when I get to fitting the neck onto the soundbox. I have also completed the base, but will have to wait until later to post it. I found the base construction to be most interesting….

Having completed the shell for the soundbox, the next step is to install a top and bottom into the shell.

At first glance, this seems like a fairly straightforward thing to do, but the compound angles involved always amaze me. One has to fit a piece of flat wood into a space that is both angled backward and which tapers too. I use thickened West System epoxy which is a wonderful, strong gap filler, but my nature is that I feel better trying to make the pieces fit rather well before I begin to apply the epoxy. If mine were a production shop, I probably could not afford to be fussy in this respect. I’ve had some sycamore floating about the shop, drying, for quite some time, so decided to use sycamore for the top and bottom. It took quite a bit of trial and error with the belt sander to get the angles correct. Here you see the bottom piece shaped to fit and held in place by a piece of wood screwed to the top side. The angle of that piece of wood is the same as the bottom angle as it appears on the drawing of this harp.

Likewise, here is the top piece cut to fit and secured with a strip of wood and a clamp.

The next step is to prepare the thickened epoxy, a mixture of West System epoxy and some brown, filleting mix that is sold for the purpose of making the epoxy thick enough to remain in place until it hardens.

You will notice that I am wearing a blue, rubber glove. Epoxy is an inorganic compound and, for some users, can produce severe allergic reactions. It is recommended that one also wears protective clothing to use it, but I generally limit myself to the rubber gloves. Thus far, no allergic reactions….

Having prepared the epoxy mixture, one then applies (smears?) it to the desired surfaces

and lowers it into position.

It is then clamped and permitted to sit the required several hours until the epoxy has set up.

Notice the pretty, lacewood grain on the quarter-sawn sycamore bottom piece. Here is a photo of the smaller top end epoxied and clamped into place.

When the epoxy has dried, the ends are trimmed to be flush with the pieces just installed and it looks like this:

Shall we get the process underway? Here’s a closeup view of the lower end of the soundbox. I will have to eliminate the screw. Can you imagine how large that screw would be in real life size? My guess is that the screw gave access in the sculpture for installing the wire strings.

For a couple of reasons, I have chosen walnut to be my wood of choice for this instrument. First, I think the dark wood will closely resemble the dark bronze of the original statue. Secondly, walnut is a pretty decent carving wood, and there will be lots of 3-D carving involved with this project. Interestingly, the “walnut” boards I had gleaned (and clearly labeled as such) from my late father’s workshop, when planed from rough lumber to smooth lumber, turned out to be CHERRY. So, with my designated wood pile being NON-WALNUT, it was necessary for me to seek lumber. I found a young man, Ben Hagenbuch, who does chainsaw milling and has a drying kiln way up in the woods near Mt. Holly Springs, PA and was able to procure the necessary walnut lumber from him for this harp. Here is one of the slabs I brought home, this is one of several probably 14″ wide by 7/8″ thick and about 4 feet long.

Having planned to make the thickness of the soundbox material only about 1/4 inch, it was necessary for me to size the material and to resaw it to the necessary thickness on the bandsaw.

Having done that, it was then necessary to cut them to size with beveled edges that would be glued together.

Laid face down, these boards were then taped together with masking tape.

Turned over, the “seams” were then spread with glue.

At that point, the assembly is “folded” into a “U” and clamps are used to hold it in position until the glue dries.

Note the heavy blocks I’ve clamped to each side of the assembly. These are there to assure that the edge pieces are vertical. See how easy that was? There’s really nothing to harp building! (Okay, I must “fess up”. My first gluing of the shell wasn’t a total success, so I had to separate the seams and redo it. This made the soundbox dimensions smaller than I had originally planned, but now it will be closer to the size of the original harp.)