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Thread: A Clavichord Build

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
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    Lakewood Colorado
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    53

    A Clavichord Build

    It was back in June of 2016 that I asked this forum on suggestions for a first clavichord build project. The first week in January of 2016 I got the plans for the Christian Gottlob Hubert 1784 (serial 8604) from St Cecilia. I began the building process in August of 2016. I decided to build the instrument casework from ash not the original cherry since I had some well seasoned ash on hand.

    The build began with resawing. I have since upgraded my frame-saw "bandsaw blade" with proper re-sawing blade and WOW did it work faster....of course I had already completed on the tough re-sawing with a bandsaw blade.
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    Initially I made a base of some crappy blue stained pine that I had sitting around but after a month it warped & twisted something fierce so I had to pull it off and replace it with some popular that went out and purchased. At the time of this photo my little chocolate lab Deacon was only 4 months old. He is definitely too big to sit in the clavichord now!
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    Gluing the base on took a bit of skill to get it done quickly before the animal hide glue cooled! I slightly modified the one mouse hole design from the plans and made it from 4 smaller scraps of oak. It seemed like the easiest way.

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    Well, 8 photos are the limit per post so, to-be-continued!

    Phil
    Attached Images Attached Images

  2. #2
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    Feb 2012
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    Lakewood Colorado
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    Time to plane & re-saw some more ash for the top. Mortising the top for frame and panel construction almost two weeks with a 1/4 inch mortising chisel. I was very careful to not blow out the sides. I think for the second I will use a drill to start the mortises.
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    I have made more than a few frame and panels before this but this was the first one in which I needed the french miters. It was a bit tricky and I am not quite content with my final product but all that matters is the next one will be better!
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    I the returned to the casework. The front of the key-well was glued into the place and the back-board was put into place without much problems. The back board was two pine boards laminated together to get the proper thickness and then with an ash board laminated on top for which will eventually get drilled for the pins.
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    So far so good!

    Phil

  3. #3
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    Now I started to layout the position of pine & oak wrest planks underneath the sound-board.
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    Another slight modification from the plans, I decided to half lap the oak top of the wrest plank to make it stronger. This oak wrest plank will later be drilled for the tuning pegs.
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    Fitting the pine/oak laminated balance beam required a bit of care since it is not parallel to the front of the carcass!
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    Gluing all these things onto the inside of the carcass required some thin wooded braces using the wood shop ceiling!
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    And finally the rest of the of the soundboard support was glued into place.
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    Phil

  4. #4
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    Feb 2012
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    Lakewood Colorado
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    All of the finer/smaller molding I made using some hollows and rounds. Unfortunately I must have forgotten to photograph. But for the larger lower carcass molding I decided to make a custom cutter for my Stanley 55! A man does have to use his toys or otherwise he cannot buy more!
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    These are the top moldings made with hollows & rounds. I discovered making custom Stanley 55 cutters is not as much fun as I thought they would be. And making Ash molding with a #55 is challenging to say the least....
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    Gluing the moldings on with hide glue and no nails wasn't too bad.
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    Phil

  5. #5
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    I made and glued the top moldings slightly over-sized/wide so I could then trim them perfectly flush with the carcass.
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    Next stop the key-plank!

    Phil

  6. #6
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    The first step of the key-plank/keyboard construction is the arcades....those little spiral decorations on the front of the keys. I took an old 3/4 inch spade bit and started filing.
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    I then cut two strips of black walnut that I harvested from firewood and then lightly glued them together.
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    I tried to drill the arcades with an egg-beater drill but wasn't really happy with the results so I the went to my shopsmith drill press. Sorry neanderthals out there!
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    And then add a bit of water and heat and separate the two pieces of arcade key-fronts!
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    Phil

  7. #7
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    The keyboard/key-plank was made from basswood.....or lime wood as the British plans call it! So a plank was procured, jointed, cut, glued and then planned to thickness.
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    Then some more re-sawing of black walnut for the key touch pads
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    This walnut veneer was then glued into a long wise strip and affixed to a rabbit planed into the front of the key-plank.
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    The key-plank was then flipped over and then the arcades were glued onto the front underneath the front touch pads.
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    Phil

  8. #8
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    More walnut firewood veneer was re-saw for the back half of the key touch plates and glued down. I hammered sewing pins into the basswood to keep them properly aligned during gluing and clamping.
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    Phil

  9. #9
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    Lakewood Colorado
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    Before properly fitting and cutting up the key-plank I switch gears and made the sound board and bridge. I had some very lovely fine-grained redwood that I salvaged from my friends 1951 porch ceiling. So it was well aged out here in Colorado! I wasn't too worried about the sound quality since this is a clavichord not a violin. And there are more than one reference to old time clavichord makers using various woods for the sound board. The bridge was cut from a plank of English sycamore which so far was the most extensive thing that I have had to purchase for this project.
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    gluing the bridge to the sound board required a few cauls.
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    And now I flipped the sound board over and affixed the soundboard bars made of redwood
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    Now the soundboard was glued into place. Again sorry I don't have any photos. It was a bit of a frantic glue up so I think that I just forgot to photograph it.
    But after gluing in some fine molding around the boarder of the sound board it was time to drill the tuning peg holes using an egg-beater drill and an angled guide block.
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    And finally I put a thin coat of shallac on the sound board. Next time I will try and egg-white mixture for sealing the soundboard and I will also try to remember to to the bottom of the soundboard as well before I glue the thing in place!
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    Phil

  10. #10
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    Now back to the keyboard. I used a marking gauge and the corner of of a file to make the fine lines across the top of the front of the touch pads.
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    The key ends are partially cut first with a rip back saw.
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    The key-plank is then placed into the carcass and temporarily affixed/positioned into place with nails in the pre-drilled balance pin holes.
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    Then all the balance pin hole locations are marked into the balance rail before the plank is cut up into individual keys. Then the guide pin locations are marked using the key-plank saw kerfs as a guide.
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    Now using a fret saw, a frame saw.....and okay a band-saw I cut the keys apart. Sorry for the band saw I got lazy and my frame saw cutting technique is not as good as I wish...
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    Phil

  11. #11
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    Now that the "key-plank" is no more and all I have is separate "keys", it is now time to start the carving of the key-top arches.
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    Now the little oval shaped balance pins were hammered into place. They were also real fun to file to shape.
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    And then the oval back-rail guide pins were hammered in place.
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    The balance pin holes in the key board are broader a the top and round at the bottom to allow the see-saw action of the keys so a wedge was filed from a steel rod. This was then hammered into the balance pin pilot hole previously drilled. I should have made these punched holes before I cut of the the key-plank. Oh well live and learn.
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    Phil

  12. #12
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    Now that they keys are in and roughly fitted:
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    It is time to turn the natural keys over and carve the underside to remove some weight from the front of the keys.
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    This is my first time working with basswood. It is very nice to carve! This process went a lot easier than I though it would.

    Now I cut & planed to size some maple that I also harvested from local firewood for the accidental keys! And then carved the underside of the front of the accidental keys to remove weight.
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    Phil

  13. #13
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    Now it was time to trim the back ends of the keys slightly and glue some fine leather around the tips so they fit properly without too much play between the guide pins. This took a bit of fiddling to get right and I believe that it will require more work at a later date.
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    They key touch pads were then coated and 5-6 coats of boiled linseed oil and are really starting to look store bought!
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    Hay it is really starting to look like a clavichord!

    Phil

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Lakewood Colorado
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    I am mainly a woodworker and I just recently got a small craftsman 109-21270 metal lathe. I decided to make my own tuning wrench as my first metal turning project. The handle I made out of ash and it required a single off-center turn to form the shape. It all came out acceptable.
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    I then took 16 penny nails and made the tuning pegs. I finished the tuning pegs by gun bluing them. I should have used the thicker "common" 16P nails not the slightly thinner "box" 16P nails. After pounding the tops of 78 tuning pegs I wasn't in the mood to start over again.
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    Also please notice my forethought. I made the tuning wrench first and then made the tuning pegs so I could make sure they all fit the wrench! Sometime I get lucky!

    For most of the brass hinges I was able to source some appropriate ones from the hardware store without any problem. But I couldn't find any nice brass lid hinges for a 1cm thick lid. Accept some very expensive ones from a harpsichord parts dealer in Europe and I felt US$60.00 per hinge was a bit too pricey for me. So I made my own.
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    Making your own brass hinges wasn't too hard but I must say I don't think that I want to make a living making these!

    Phil

  15. #15
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    Now it was time to put felt on the back rail to cushion the backs of the keys when they fall down. The red felt for the back rail & the listing cloth strips that I will install later were pool table felt. A a strip of paper was glued between the tuning pegs which records which note the tuning peg should be.
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    Now it was time to start the stringing process.
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    The last 22 lower bass strings are open over-wound strings. Copper wire spiraled down the brass string. These are difficult to find and typically expensive. So I had to build a string winding lathe.
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    It wasn't too hard to build but as you can see it only has a hand crank. A made my girl friend turn the crank. She really loves me.......nobody is really sure why. For the next instrument I will put a sewing machine motor on it otherwise I will be living alone and lonely.......

    Here are the strings on the clavichord!
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    Phil

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