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Five-String Fiddle Coming Along Fine!

A day off from work means a long day on Lutherie!

I got up at 5:45 AM (usually I get up at 3:45, so this was luxury), had breakfast, watered some fruit trees, checked e-mail, and got to work. I knew the outbuilding shop where my power tools are was going to get hot very rapidly today (99 deg. F predicted, I think), so I did all I could do out there while it was still cool, then worked in the basement shop for the rest of the day.

I took those rough-sawn ribs and thinned them to 1mm all over, using a fixture I made for my oscillating spindle sander (one of the few power tools I use), and cut out the neck block using my small bandsaw. I have a large bandsaw for cutting up large pieces of wood, etc. That is what I used to divide the back block into the two pieces to be joined at the back center seam (next.)
I then cut out the back and front plate pieces, and joined them, book-matched, so that the grain is nearly symmetrical bilaterally, both front and back. It wasn’t easy this time. I don’t know why. I use a small hand-plane to flatten the edges until they fit nearly air-tight– definitely light-tight. I have a larger plane but this wood was so wild it required a very low-angle plane, set very light, or it tears out at all the curly grain.
I glued the two halves of the front plate together using hot hide glue, and, while it was drying, I cut the ribs to the correct widths and lengths for each of the six pieces, planning as best I could to get the grain to line up appropriately at all junctions.
Once the front plate was dry enough to remove the clamps, I glued up the back plate, in the same manner. Some people get a great center-join using a rubbed-joint method. I have done it that way, but I am more comfortable if I add three clamps after I do the rub.
While the back dried, I planed the front plate to get it more or less level across the inner face.
I took the neck blank and laid out all the measurements on it, and began shaping it a little while I was waiting for other things.

About 11:00 AM I decided I was hungry, so I had a salad and some coffee, and took a picture of the work as it stood:

Back to Work!

I drilled 1/8″ pilot-holes in the scroll block for the pegs. When I drill them early like this I can use the drill press and get the holes perpendicular to the center line. My teacher does not do them this way– he says it risks sags in the varnish, and advocates drilling after all varnishing is complete. (He is probably right, but I can never seem to drill the holes correctly by hand, so I will risk the varnish issues.) I was right about working early in the outside shop– it is really getting hot out there now.
I used the small bandsaw to cut the side cheek excess wood off the pegbox, and trued up the heel where it was too long. From here on out the scroll will all be hand-work.
I used the electric bending iron to bend all six ribs, as well as the front linings. I will have to make some more lining stock– this was all I had for the moment. Fortunately they are easy to make. The linings add strength to the edges of those 1mm ribs, which are otherwise extremely fragile. They also triple the gluing surface of the rib edges, so the joint between the ribs and plates are much more secure. I try to get as much done as I can while the iron is hot, and then turn it off; for one thing, it takes about 20 minutes to heat up: but also, if you forget and leave it on, and then forget it is hot, you can get a bad burn. I keep mine at about 400 degrees F.
I installed the C-bout (center) ribs, and glued them in place with hot hide glue, using wine-cork clamping cauls (donated by a friend) for the small-radius upper corners and broom-handle cauls for the lower corners. (This is really going to be a pretty instrument. The wood is gorgeous. I hope it plays well.) The upper and lower surfaces are an even larger radius, so they will be clamped using a section of large wooden closet rod. Sorry I didn’t take photos of these steps. Wasn’t thinking about pictures…I was just working.

More Pictures

Violin in beginning stages — Ribs and linings bent; Center ribs installed; Upper and lower corner surfaces shaped; Scroll begun.

As you can see, the ribs sprang back quite a bit after being bent. I should have thought ahead and prepared a block to which to clamp them while they were waiting to be glued in place. I have such a block–I just didn’t expect the springback to be so severe.

Close-up photo of the Scroll start — Close-up photo of the Scroll…pretty rough-looking, at this point, but that is how they start out…at least when I carve them.

Scroll layout lines — In this photo, you can see some of the layout lines of the pegbox. The wood is so dark that the pencil lines are hard to see.

As you can see above, after the glue was dry on the center ribs, I worked the final shape on the upper and lower surfaces of the corner blocks to ready them for the upper and lower ribs. Then:

I installed the upper ribs, and, while the glue was drying on those ribs,
I worked some more on the scroll. At this point the simplest way to begin removing excess wood is by cutting from the sides in to very near the layout lines for the scroll volute (the back of the scroll.) I do this by clamping the neck to a work-surface (in this case a lap-board.) and carefully starting the cuts, one at a time, spiraling up the scroll from each side. Usually I can then remove the waste wood with a knife or a flat wood-carving chisel, but the grain in this wood is too wild, so I had to try to follow the cuts around the scroll with the saw, then do the final cutting with sharp gouges and small planes.

Meanwhile, the glue was dry enough that I could remove the clamps from the upper ribs and install the lower ribs. When the lower rib glue was dry, I installed the front linings. These little spring clamps are really handy. I got them on a sale once, at Home Depot, for about 37 cents apiece, if I remember correctly. They are just right for this sort of work, and I bought over 100 of them…cleaned ’em out at Home Depot.

Lining clamps — Ribs and linings all installed…waiting for glue to dry.

I had been working on the scroll between other tasks, so it is coming along, too, but I am getting pretty tired, so this is about as far as I expect to get tonight. Here are a few more photos:

Side view of lining clamps. — Side view of lining clamps holding the linings while the glue dries.

Linings — The glue is dry enough to hold, so I am removing the clamps. Here you can see the linings contrasted against the dark wood of the ribs.

Front linings — All front linings visible, here. They will still need to be shaped (tapered and scraped smooth) before the violin is closed up.

Difficult wood. — This is difficult wood to work, but the scroll is progressing in satisfactory manner.

Treble side of unfinished scroll. — Other side (Treble side.)

Back of unfinished scroll. — And, the back; barely begun, but you can see the Volute beginning.

And that is it for today! Too tired…gonna call it a night. It is 11:45 PM

Thanks for looking.

Chet

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Two New Five-string Fiddles in the Works

Spousal Encouragement

My wife has been after me for some time to increase my output of 5 string bluegrass fiddles. (She’s probably right, but there are so many other things to do!) So…what to do? I made two new molds, a little broader in the middle bouts, which may improve the sound even more. I installed blocks in both molds and hope to build one five string fiddle of Oregon Myrtle-wood with a Port-Orford Cedar top, and another five-string fiddle of figured maple with a spruce top.

Improved Perspective

I had belly surgery last month (gall-bladder removal) and I am feeling much better. It makes me wonder whether that has been the main source of much of my “don’t feel good” problems for years. I feel so much more positive about work, lutherie and life in general, it is pretty amazing. (And, no, I am not on any “feel-good” meds, in case you are wondering… although, I’ve got to say, after the few days of Oxy-Codone, I can see why people get addicted to the stuff. But I got off it just a few days after the surgery, with just a few times going back for a day or two, to get over a hump, so to speak, when pain became a problem again.)

Progress Thus Far:

So: I have bent the ribs for the figured Oregon Mytrle-wood/Port Orford Cedar fiddle, but still have to join the plates both front and back. I installed the center bout ribs last night, and hope to get the upper and lower bout ribs installed today.

Wood for Myrtle-Port Orford Fiddle — Wood for Myrtle/Port Orford Fiddle with Douglas Fir Tree. There was a hard East wind blowing, and the ribs kept blowing away.

Close-up of wood for Myrtle/Port Orford Fiddle

The plates for the Maple/Spruce fiddle are already joined, but the ribs are only cut– they still need to be thinned down to 1mm and cut to 35mm width. If I can get that done today, I will heat up the bending iron and try to get the ribs bent, and the c-bout ribs installed. After that I can work on getting the willow linings cut, bent and installed.

Both fiddles need the neck-blocks cut to shape, to prepare for carving. Neither have any plate-carving done, nor purfling, f-holes, etc., of course.

Follow along as I complete the builds. If you decide you’d like a private look at one of them give me a call or an e-mail.

Goals:

The intent is to have two new five string fiddles ready in time for the Marylhurst University Musical Instrument Show in the Spring ( April 25th and 26th, 2015) My problem is that I also realllllly want to have a new hand-carved upright bass ready in time to attend the International Society of Bassists (ISB) competition in Fort Collins, Colorado, in the last week of May/first weekend of June. (Too many goals…need more energy and time!)

One drawback to the competition goal is that (I think) I will not be able to post progress reports, (photos, anyway) until after the competition. Ah, well… I’ll post other stuff, I guess.

Thanks for reading.