Trimming the Soundboard

Assuming "the soundboard will have to be trimmed" means "do it now," I set out to trim it down to size.  The instruction manual does not offer any hints on how one might accomplish that, so, taking no chances, I elected to use a cardboard template, an X-Acto knife, an Exacut with the wheel cutter attachment, and sandpaper.  The first thing I did was trace the shape of the soundboard onto a piece of cardboard and cut it out.  At that point I was able to slowly trim the straight "north" and "east" sides of the cardboard until it fit the case perfectly.  I then laid the cardboard template on the spruce soundboard and drew lines where the soundboard needed to be trimmed.  Laying a long metal straightedge along the line on the right ("east") side of the board, I cut a scoring line with the X-Acto knife. 

This cut went across the grain, so after cutting a good deep score, I switched to my Exacut with the wheel cutter attached to it and deepened the cut until it went through to the bottom.  Perfect!  I repeated the routine on the top, or "north" end of the board.  Since I was cutting with the grain, this took a fraction of the time.  The board was still (purposely) a hair too large, so I sanded the two edges until it fit perfectly.

Confession time.  When I glued the long hitchpin rail, I didn't notice that it was a fraction too long.  Two possible remedies:  try to trim/sand it or cut a small notch in the soundboard to accommodate it.  I chose the latter, and it looks fabulous!

Promised Pictures

The majority of the case joinery is done.  All that is left is marking the hitchpin rails (made from cherry wood) and then gluing them down.  The following pictures may resemble several of my dry run pictures (as you would expect), but the difference is that all of the "guts" are now glued permanently into place.  Here's the whole magilla:

This is the pesky middle belly rail that had me a bit concerned.  Further down the road, we'll see if my worries were for naught.  This picture is shot from the bass end toward the treble.

This picture shows the right cheek with its liner and the middle bellyrail, this time shot from the treble end and looking toward the bass end.  That little piece of wood to the right of the bellyrail is the back bellyrail.  If you look closely, you can see the chamfer I carved in the rear liner.

Below is a shot of the tool box.  The lid fits very snugly indeed, so I may end up sanding it a tiny bit.  For now, it is sitting off to the side.

And finally, here is a picture of a bead of glue I ran down the seam between the belly rail and the cheek - just because.  It will dry nearly invisible.

So there you have it.  Dare I think I could have the entire instrument finished by summer?

Back at it again

After taking a short break due to a minor snafu with my Black and Decker cordless drill, I'm back to work. I didn't get as much accomplished as I had hoped, but I did get the ball rolling again. Having previously clamped the bottom to the case rim and marked the places to drill for the bottom screws, I managed this evening to drill all the screw holes in the bottom. I then unclamped the bottom to backdrill the holes.

The manual does not specifically state what size drill bit to use for the backdrilling, but with a little Yankee ingenuity, I decided on an 11/64" bit. Perfect! When I removed the bottom, I happily discovered that my placement of the bottom and insistence on using a little muscle (yes, my husband thinks I'm being a royal pain when I insist on having it my way) to square the case rim resulted in all the pilot holes in the rim being perfectly centered. What more could I ask for? Damn, I'm good.

One picture is worth a thousand words

If memory serves, when I built my two harpsichords, the first thing I built was called the "horse." It was the business end of the instrument just above where the keyboard sat. Its centerpiece was the oak wrestplank (also sometimes referred to as the pinblock), which was the heaviest piece of wood in the entire harpsichord. Of course, the instrument was strung north/south, so it made sense that it would be up front. It was into that very solid piece of wood that I drilled holes for the tuning pins. With the clavichord, the rim of the instrument (its framework, so to speak) comes first with the small, lightweight (by comparison) wrestplank and hitchpin block being inserted on the sides for an east/west stringing. When the rim is done, it comes time to attach the bottom of the instrument.

On my old harpsichord, the bottom was an unattractive piece of plywood. On the fretted clavichord, it is a lovely piece of wood that is constructed, it would appear, from long pieces of spruce or fir, 13/16" x 3/4", that are glued together in a northwest by southeast pattern. It is the heaviest piece of wood in the clavichord simply by virtue of its size and thickness.

Again, the instructions are a bit confusing: set it up, flip it over, it should go in this direction, etc. All right..... Is that direction before or after you flip it? Not too clear, but fortunately, the writer explains that the "slanted" construction follows the direction the strings will take in order to counteract their pull. Consulting the photos included with the manual was helpful, although I did need to look closely because the various "strips" of wood do not vary in color nearly as much as mine below does.

The picture says it all.

Once I had this clear in my mind, I flipped the rim and bottom over and marked the spots where I will drill for the screws.

And then America's Got Talent came on, and it was time to stop. So I did.