Building
AlCarruth@aol.com
Fri, 21 Jun 1996 23:37:47 -0400
Once again, I agree with Mike; hand tools are best for most things, and
not always a lot slower except in real production settings. (OK, you say you
want THIRTY identical harps?) Of the power tools he named the most
essential; the band saw and drill press. A router is good for making rub
rails, but you might be able to find a rabbet plane at a yard sale that would
do as well, and be a LOT quieter. But he left out the most important tools;
good sharpening stones!
If your drill press has a good thrust bearing, so that there is no
vertical play in the spindle, you should look into the Wagner Safety Planer.
This is a sort of end mill that chucks in your drill press. With it you can
accurately thickness and level rough stock fairly quickly. One nice thing
about it is that it will take stock down to .5mm thickness, if it is sharp;
make your own veneer! It is also inherently much safer than a joiner; I have
only been bitten once in over twenty years of using one, and that not badly.
They are available from The Woodworker's Warehouse or Woodcraft Supply Corp.
and probably also from the manufacturer; G + W Tool Inc., P.O. Box 691464,
Tulsa OK 74169-7464 Phone # 918-486-2761. Accept no substitutes!
You may be able to find a luthier who will teach. Most of them only
build guitars, of course, but some are adventurous. Deb Murcurio, who appears
on this list from time to time, built a 4-octave cherry wire-strung under my
supervision a few years back, and it turned out very nicely.
I've built everything from dulcimers to violins. Every kind of
instrument has it's own challenges. If you can work carefully, and learn to
be satisfied with small progress, you can build anything. I will say that
getting the angles on a harp JUST RIGHT is as difficult as anything I know,
but, by the same token, it is no harder than carving a violin scroll, for
example. If the harp is what you love, build yourself one! Then build a
better one, and a better one.... Thirty identical? Well, not exactly.... ;-)