Finished!

So, this is how my harp turned out in the end. It took exactly two weeks to put her together. I'm very thankful to my father who helped me a lot, I hadn't made it without his help.

Stringing

I have read a lot of horror stories about this task; stringing! So I was very worried. However, it went better than expected. I have installed all the strings now, and so far only one have broken! That's pretty impressive. But I still have a lot of tuning to do so it ain't over yet.... I have a few spare strings so I'm not that worried.

Tuning yes... it will take some days before I can play on it, because it gets out of tune instantly before the strings have adjusted themselves. But it has a very nice and rich sound! I compared it to my rental harp (a mid-east one called "Heather") and it's so much better and more beautiful (except it was false that's it...) I can't wait 'til it starts stay in tune.

Hardware!

Finally dry! It has two layers of coating now.
Today I installed the hardware (eyelets, guiding pins and tuning pins) and mounted it. It's only the stringing left now, I can't believe it's as good as finished!

Guess what?

It isn't dry yet...

*not at all impatient*

Updates like these are boring, ne? So until something new happens I won't update this blog. So no updates means varnishing process (and 99% of that is drying time). I hope it's just a matter of one day or two.

Drying time

According to the package, the varnish should dry in about one day. However, it still wasn't dry when I checked this morning. So I just have to wait a little while longer until I can sand it for the (hopefully) last time and apply final finish.

However, the neck/pillar-part was dry enough to turn over and varnish at the other side (picture below). I think when I apply the final finish I have to varnish the whole pillar/neck at the same time, but I have to find a solution to make it stand up stable.

Bright and shining!

Test-assemblage

Yesterday night I couldn't sleep, so I ended up sleeping almost whole day instead ^^;; Thence no work on the harp.

But today I tested to assemble the harp. Looking good, ne? I will start with the varnishing later today, I just have to get a better brush!

No decorations

I have decides that I will not decorate the harp for the time being. I'm not very skilled at decorating wood and I rather have no decorations than ugly decorations!

The sanding is all finished now, and next step is to fit the neck/pillar (which I have also sanded a little) onto the sound box... and to varnish it! Then the woodwork is all done. It's far from finished thou, I have to install all the hardware and string it.

Sanding

Have been sanding again today. It's very much sanding to be done D:
It's not that bad though, the heaviest sanding is done (the one I have to use machine for) and while I polish I can listen to audiobooks! Right now I'm listening to "The Hypnotist" by Lars Kepler, it's really good! I'm a sucker for Swedish crime novels ._.

On the pictures you can see how the lists turned out, the ones covering the ugly nails. It's very bad pics, I hade to support the box with one hand to keep it from falling over.

Wrong order of priority

My dad suggested that I should sand before I put on the small lists (the ones that will cover the small nails) and even though the manual said different I listened to him!! So I went outside in the beautiful summer weather, builded a temporary workbench and started with the sanding. It was very hard! And after a while I discovered that the surface is very sensitive, so when I turned the box around and sanded on the other side it became marks from the bench and splinter on the side that faced downward.

Therefor I went back into the working room in the basement and put on the lists, I'm waiting for it to dry right now. Otherwise we will just ruin the sanding if we do it later. This time the manual was right, and not my father!

I could start sanding the pillar/neck piece but I became so tired so I need a small rest.

Some pictures (if you wonder about the mid-pic; it's my dog Lucy who became very interested in what I was doing!)

Some justification

We cut off the waste parts of the soandboard and backside and filled in some of the small cracks in the top with some glue and sawdust. I will start sanding tomorrow and if it's nice weather I will go out and sand outside in the garden!

Second time lucky

So far today we have drilled some holes (the first two photos below) and then it was time for the very critical moment - to fit in the soundboard into the slots. Due to yesterday's mistake I was very worried about this step. But it all went very smoothly, I was so happy to see it go the whole way in! We also used a better glue this time, a one that doesn't swell as much. It really starting to look like something by now.

Next step is to put om some bars to hide the ugly nails, and to cover up the slot on the backside. My dad said we could glue a small bar of oak wood onto it. Then I have a lot of sanding to do!