Pete Staehling
03-06-2020, 8:17 AM
I have been building travel sized dulcimers for a number of years They are smaller than the typical instrument ranging from about 14" long to 30" long overall, with the majority sized to fit in a 22" airline carry on bag. Any way I have been building on a flat bench with some operations on various jigs and boards. Operations include a variety of assembly and gluing operations including things like glueing up book matched sound boards and assembling instruments.
It occurred to me right from the start that a little dedicated surface sized for the instruments might be nice and I have been using a couple different pieces of now well shop worn stuff to accomplish that. The clamping operations could be easier and smoother than the myriad of clamps and I figured that something like an MFT and some dog type cam clamps could be adapted only sized to the task. I figure that this "MFT" could be made from inexpensive materials (MDF and 2x4 studs milled into framing), if framed. I also figured that the size would be about 12"x32" for the MDF and that I could make several to have different operations going on at the same time or have different instruments in progress.
The plan is to make shop built dogs, cam clamps, and other fixtures, but first I am making a prototype "table".
I am not sure how multi-function the table will be. Initially it will be just flat surface with dog holes and clamping fixture for gluing, but I may or may not expand from there to do other operations once it is built. Who knows I may become an MFT convert. I sometimes think that in my shop I'd be better served with an MFT than a table saw if I were starting from scratch.
427471
It occurred to me right from the start that a little dedicated surface sized for the instruments might be nice and I have been using a couple different pieces of now well shop worn stuff to accomplish that. The clamping operations could be easier and smoother than the myriad of clamps and I figured that something like an MFT and some dog type cam clamps could be adapted only sized to the task. I figure that this "MFT" could be made from inexpensive materials (MDF and 2x4 studs milled into framing), if framed. I also figured that the size would be about 12"x32" for the MDF and that I could make several to have different operations going on at the same time or have different instruments in progress.
The plan is to make shop built dogs, cam clamps, and other fixtures, but first I am making a prototype "table".
I am not sure how multi-function the table will be. Initially it will be just flat surface with dog holes and clamping fixture for gluing, but I may or may not expand from there to do other operations once it is built. Who knows I may become an MFT convert. I sometimes think that in my shop I'd be better served with an MFT than a table saw if I were starting from scratch.
427471