Is this a begining?

At work the other day, my dear old friend monica was looking at helens blog. I said, shoot I should show my blog. So I did and she said it was lame, cause I started off the email with the link "its a lame blog but its mine" , Anyways I decided that maybe I should pursue this blog thing a bit more. More people than I know have blogs, such as my friend jamie, who is one of the more liked people I have ever met.  So I think I am going to start writing on this blog more often, whenever I feel like anything i have to say is blog worthy. Maybe even sometimes I will just write on it so that people don't think I am not doing it anymore. So heres a blog that maybe i will keep up with, and maybe with any luck, someone out there will read. So to start off my new concept: I wrote a song for the dulcimer today. I am not sure how to post it up here but I would like to at some point. Its got words and stuff. I can't sing to it very well, but I like the words I wrote. Thats the beauty of the dulcimer to me as well. I dont have to sing in key or anything it always just sounds okay. I intend on building another dulcimer because today at a guitar shop in chelsea, they expressed interest in my dulcimer building. I would like to build 2 more dulcimers, and try and sell one to the shop. This time I want to pick the wood myself and build it all myself with no help except for the gears for tuning which I will research where to get for cheap. Thats the plan. I doubt I will follow through with any of this blog but whatever, its a blog who cares if I follow through. End.

Finishing touches

Well, back again, Last steps. After mounting the stringing hardware, I stained. The stain really pulled out the wood, its just a basic minwax stain that embellishes grains in the wood. So I stained it up, let it dry and came back the next day and put the strings on, and I cant stop playing it now. I couldn't be happier with the dulcimer I created, and I really want to make another one, I had such a great time doing it and I will upload nice pictures of it soon. For now I will upload basic pictures I took in my apartment after I got out of work (I want to get some nice pictures of it in nice places for the final, look at what I did pictures.)

Oh how I let all 2 people who read my blog down (mom and dad)

haven't updated the dulcimer stuff in way too long for all those interested. Anyways here it goes. Last I left you I had mounted the fingerboard and done some minor sanding/shaping. WELL next step was the soundboard (the back.) So I mounted that let it dry, went to the coffee shop with antonio and hung out. Then I came back, cut the shape, and sanded for a way too many hours. After about 3 hours of sanding I came up with this magical instrument and a room full of dust. You can see my pants that were black, well they got really saw dusty from sitting down. There is also a picture of my book case. You can see the difference in pant color. Its insane. Anyways it was sanded. Next I began mounting the hardware for the strings to attach. Now the blog is full of pictures so I will post again with details about my next steps so the pictures can be added.

Busy day

Wasnt able to update this with pictures, but the back went on perfect and I sanded for forever. Tonight the finishing touches, stringing it and staining it are all that remain. 

Blood has been drawn.

Fortunately I have not cried yet cause then I would have the blood sweat and tears saying behind this guy. After gluing the fingerboard on I had to cut it up and shape my dulcimer. Well thats hard. Cherry wood is a soft wood that splits easily. So to avoid splitting while cutting with the coping saw, you must support the wood as best you can with your hands. All it takes is a few slips (3 broke the skin) to realize that this is risky business. Cant take your hand too far away from the saw, the first time I did that I split the wood but it was on part of the wood that was being cut off, and not on the actual dulcimer. Anyways I cut and sanded for 2 hours on the balcony cause once the sun came out it was so warm. I really wanted to be skating, but the dulcimer was alot of fun and I am skating tomorrow anyways. Anyways glued the soundboard on the back and will be cutting and sanding that at 6p (its 4:35p) 

Its happening so quickly.

Thats what she said. So last night I was shoving my file in and out of the tone hole repeatedly until I felt like I was finished. Be sure to see all of the sawdust that fell between my legs and was able to catch into the crease in my pants. I started off by doing one of the posts with my initials, but after starting one, I realized I didnt have the proper file sizes etc. to make that well. So I just began sketching out tone holes that would cover the hole I had already made. When its all said and done I dont mind the holes I created, I wish I had smaller files so I could tweak them and kind of roll the shape into the frame but what can you do if you dont want to spend money. Anyways so I sat there filing and sanding for about 3 hours last night for the tone holes. Once I was semi-satisfied with the tone holes I glued and nailed the fretboard onto the top pieces and then me and cory made music so I could take a break. I woke up this morning and glued the fingerboard to body frame. As we speak its drying under a pile of books (the weight of the of the books will put pressure all over the seals hopefully making a solid bond between the 2). Thats antonio yawning behind the c-clamp. At 1p (its 12:30 now) they will be dry and I will begin cutting the excess wood and sanding some more. After a few hours of sanding I will glue the soundboard onto the back. Then all thats left is cutting the soundboard shape up and sanding for a bunch of hours and then decided a finish  to put on it. Ill post again after I get some more done this afternoon. 

Sleep Dulcimer Building.

I got home from work last night after a working 14 hour day (only slept 5 hours the night before and 14 hours doesnt include the hour and a half i was awake before work, and the hour it took me until I started building.) Anyways, I had a cloud in front of my face, you could ask Elisa (girlfriend for those who dont know.) So before I spoke to her I spent about a half hour sanding the edges of the side wall. It was not locking into the scroll head very well at all, so after lots and lots of sanding I finished. The sanding was all by hand, and here is a story related to that. I wanted to build this thing by hand in the purest way possible, the way someone would have 100 years ago. So I am in home depot buying my supplies, and I go up the guy and I go "Hey do you have a hand cranked drill?" A nearby customer chuckled to himself, and the home depot guy who had a very thick spanish accent goes "Whats that?" and i said while making the gestures "A drill that you crank by hand, it was what they used to drill with before power drills." The guy goes "Oh I know exactly what your talking about. Why the fuck would you want that?". Anyways anecdote time over, I am no good at telling storys. So I glued the sides into the scroll head and then glued in the triangular braces which were used mount the bottoms with a C clamp to the tail block. So Now I have a fully shaped dulcimer outline. Next step is cutting tone holes. Ive got some designs I came up with. My friend jamie mentioned knives and skulls, which I think is bad ass, but since this is my first hand built one, I want it to be very classic, (skull and cross bones next time jamie) My current ideas are revolving around my first and last initial, JB. THose are 2 letters that string together easily to make one solid block of a tone hole. I have some curvy designs, some triangular ones, and then i have some weird thing that i cant explain. Right now my heart goes to the top one on the right. It does have alot of bends etc, but its very sleek and easy on the eyes. I might make it longer and shorter so that the details would be smaller and harder so they would be less noticeable. But I have no idea what the tone holes towards the scroll will be. I really have to think this all through, come up with some upper tone hole ideas. Anyways I have alot of thinking to do today while at work about it, cause tonight just might be tone hole night!

Now a question I have been asking myself.

BEFORE I TAKE THE NEXT STEP OF CUTTING TONE HOLES GIVE ME SOME INSIGHT....
Which tone holes do I attempt to create? I have so many options, but no idea which. I would like to be easy since its easy to fuck it up, but easy doesnt mean it cant be cool. Any comments appreciated. Oh and for those who dont know there are 4 tone holes, and they must be the size of a quarter, which is not to say that they cant be long and skinny or short and fat, but they must be the surface area of a quarter. Traditional ones have hearts, but thats not my style. I must cut them with a utility knife, and I must go over the lines 10 times to break through the wood. SO its not going to be easy the less detail the better. heres some ideas contact me in some way to let me know what you think is the best. ******ALSO on another note I forgot to tell you more about my mountain dulcimer! Its an hourglass shaped Northern cherry dulcimer, in which I have not decided a stain yet either, so feel free to draw up some templates for tone holes or pick a sweet paint scheme. I like the country feel of it so I am trying to stick with that. 

And it continues...

Well either I really want to blog, or  I really want to make this dulcimer. 

Its probably both. Step 2 has arrived (Using the elmers wood glue only takes 30 minutes to dry, so giving it an 1.5 hours is just fine.) After mounting the heel cap and tail block mended my next task was the mounting the sides. I kept the clamp on the tail block just so that no matter how much pressure I applied it would not budge. See mounting the sides requires more wood glue and a larger clamp with 2 triangle pieces to allow a flat clamping surface (the triangle pieces in the close up will be removed and placed where the sides meet the head.) So after gluing and clamping I realized that my large clamp was too heavy and large to stand on its own so I used the wood files to keep it balanced. While that dries I began fitting the head. The side mounts will enter the head piece in slots. I am in the middle of sanding the sides so that they will fit into the slots on the head. I cannot glue the sides into the head until I unclamp the tail block because those triangle slots will be needed up there. So I am calling it a night for an early call time tomorrow and leaving the sanding for when I get home tomorrow. 

And It Has Begun...

It starts tonight! I received my wood this morning (yea i know, i had morning wood) you can see it on my last post. I ran out to home depot during some down time, and picked up various supplies, lots of various supplies (3 grits of sandpaper, steel wool, wood glue, clamps, coping saw, wood files, utility knife, tack cloth, --I couldn't find the tung oil at home depot, but I wont need that until the end of it--etc...) Anyways, I came home and unpacked it all. All the pieces are there, everything I need is in order. Now the only thing I needed to do was start now. I have a long day at work tomorrow, so I did not want to let this project start a day behind since the first step takes 24 hours of drying. I began by attaching the heel cap to the tail block using the wood glue. After 24 hours of drying I will be able to attach the side pieces to to the tail block, and it should only take a few more days after that as long as I keep at it. So thats step 1 and step 2 of the side pieces to the tail block will begin either after work (if not too tired) or friday night after work.  I going to go watch this glue dry.

It has arrived.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Let me introduce you to my mountain dulcimer project. She has arrived at my office at work, and whenever I get home, I will glue the tailblock together, and probably make a posting about it tomorrow. 

Be Ready

Mountain Dulcimer Wood arrives tomorrow at my work, a blog will shortly after appear, with my adventures in dulcimer creations. Keep your eyes peeled.