TOP: A Rope Trick. Arching the back. My goal here is to put a slight arch in the back and bring the edges back flat for gluing. Trace the inner side of the skelton on to particle board. Use a round nose bit, route out a 1/8" deep groove just inside this line. lay in a 1/2" braded nylon rope. Dampen the middle 3/4 of exposed surface of back and the inner surface 1/4. Place back over rope. Overlay with a reduced size cutout. Add compressable block in center (a dry firm sponge , styrofoam, poly styrene etc.). Add a lid and clamp slowly over next 30 minuits. Let set 1-2 days. Right: The back is being weight clamped to the skeleton. This is done on the rope in order to protect the arch in the back. (the weight of the tool box is about 1 and one half cinder block)

The addition of cross ply pieces is an extra step added to some of the Cedar dulcimers that I built. The reason being the delicate nature of Cedar and the thinness of the backs. The stiff foam was used to even out the clamping force and get the ply pieces to conform to the shape of the arched back. Plans and Tips to be up loaded soon! Here we see that a couple cross braces have been added. These are shaped to conform to the curved bottom. The top surface of braces were left flat until after gluing. This makes weight clamping easier. They will later be trimmed to a taper and sanded to remove excess bulk. I like to seal the interior of all my dulcimers with shellac; but not necessarly with the amber that you see here. Also you see some masking tape used to try and keep the glue areas free of the sealer. NOTE: I do not add cross bracing to all my backs, but if you feel the braces are needed due to, a delicate wood, a thin back, less than 1/8" , or a wider pan, then added the braces. I recommend two, one on the 1/4, the other on the 3/4 division of the space between heel of neck and tail block. Or one brace at the 1/2 point. Removing waste from the edges with a hand chisle. I will on occasion glue an untrimmed square back or top on a dulcimer and remove all the waste with a hand chisle and sometimes the aid of a small block plane. Working with the curve, from the widest point towards the ends a good sharp chisle will remove this excess rapidly. Looks like this is almost finished, right ?? Wrong, still hours to go, I would mark this as one third the way to completion. Look for new tips on the Plans page frequently The plans will deal with a couple methods of handling the space under the fret board end. in this picture a 2 degree wedge is used. This is a delicate piece to cut on position. Clamping on the fret board with 1/4" surgical rubber after it has been properly positioned. This works well, but has the draw back of the glue sticking to the rubber if not all removed. Next Page Back Home