Mission: Violin

Starting to Finish

2009-01-28T09:28:00.000-08:00

Where we last left off...the violin looked like this. 3 pieces ...if you notice...there is the little black strips in the back. That's the purfling...it is 3 pieces of wood thinned down so much that when glued together they are only 1.2-1.3 mm wide total. You cut a channel all the way around the violin and inlay the purfling...the hardest part of this is that there is indeed a power tool that does the channels for you...but you can't cut the corners with it and have to do that by hand.

After the inlaying happens...this is what you get! (top)

Back:

Last night also marked the beginning of the journey to the end. The final archings...the metal template will perfectly match the curve of the whole entire plate when it's finished. For now...it's getting closer on the back. There's still some day light and gaps and they are pretty big ones. the little tiny thing holding up the metal template is a finger plane. That's what is mostly used to finish the plates and make them nice and soft looking and feeling and the right shape.

A view of the side. Where the shadow is is where the wood is removed to make it closer to fitting.

And next...hopefully I'll be able to show a further stage in finishing the back...then it's the same thing for the top...and after that is when things start to get nerve wracking (arching the inside and making the whole entire thing flexible and as thin as 3 mm or so.

Long Awaited Post

2009-01-16T17:54:00.000-08:00

An overdue update from before the semester break...

This will turn into the neck of my violin...My instrument has kind of turned into an experimental one...the back is cut on the slab...and so we decided to do the neck on the slab as well. This is the most you'll see of it for now.

An upside down view of the margins being trued. This means that I have taken down the gaps between the ribs and the top to 3.5 mm. The corners are cut down and the top matches the back now.

Margins are matching and corners are mostly done

Another view

Here is another view of the whole thing put together. This is the last time the box will be "closed up" until it is permanently ready to be put together. The ribs are also slab cut. While this may be a very unstable instrument, it will be very pretty when finished.

Filing the margins down to match top and bottom.

Up next: The purfling is being put into to the top...

Progress Update

2008-12-04T10:18:00.000-08:00

Another violin update. This step was really exciting...because you get to put the pieces together for the first time and it actually looks like a violin. Granted, it will have to come apart again, but you put the pieces together to work around the edges and get the edges or margins to the right size.

The top is glued on and arching is in phase two.

And this is with the back glued on.

Arching Goodness

2008-11-20T19:37:00.000-08:00

So...another update. After things are cut out...the hard part starts. You have to take a gouge...basically a really long chisel that has a scoop and you have to scoop the wood until it is at the right height...after this, we had to use the router and take the edges down to be the right size. The C bout part is 4.25 centimeters, the corners are 4.5 centimeters, and the rest of it is 4 centimeters... and here it is in pictures:

Arching of the top

arching of the back

After routing the top

top and back after being routed

Top Happy

2008-11-20T19:07:00.001-08:00

So...not too much has happened since the linings were put in...ok, ok, quite a bit has happened.

The top was thicknessed with the planer down to 16 cm...and before hand was made to be perfectly flat on one side.

The back was glued together (it's a 2 piece back) and the then thicknessed and re-flattened.
Then the shape was traced and corners drawn and then it was cut out with a band saw...and now, it looks like this:

That's the back...it's quilted maple, very preeeeeety :-)

The top

Back and top

Back again!!

You clamp it like that?

2008-10-26T15:46:00.000-07:00

To glue them...you use the red thing, which is a thermal blanket and lay the pieces of wood in between, then you heat them and bend them over the mold.

After the linings are bent, notches need to be made in order for them to be able to support the rib structure.

Then you glue, using some of the worst smelling glue ever. Hot hide glue (...yes, the hide of an actual animal. It's pretty nasty, but works very well for violin making.

after gluing the linings, it was the fun part...covering it in clothes pins to clamp them on.

If you're counting...there should be exactly 57...but, I was in a hurry when I was counting. :-)

Progression...

2008-10-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

Everytime a class happens, it seems like the idea of the mass of wood being a violin is more...realistic. So...on Tuesday, Violet underwent some more cosmetic changes. The corners are now all even there isn't any overhanging of the ribs, both sides are sanded perfectly flat and the linings have all been thicknessed to 1.8 mm thick. It's pretty exciting!

The ribs are on and not clamped anymore!

Another view...the corners are ready to be taken down

Planing down the corners...you have to hold it in this really awkward way to be able to get the corners to be flat. They were a pain, because they kept trying to chip and split.

It Looks Like a Violin!

2008-10-09T19:06:00.000-07:00

There is tons of new progress to report for today...as well as a couple of pictures to help in the understanding of how some of the stuff was done. So...here goes.

Today, the violin, which is now named Violet (thanks to Angie :-) took form. I glued on all of her ribs...and as a reminder, Violet has ribs that are all slab cut (hence the pretty curly forms that are the grain lines of the wood). Also, I received her top today as well...it is very beautiful. The wood for it is Engelmann spruce that has been drying for at least 50 years. It is absolutely flawless and phenomenal (sorry, that was my geek showing...)

And now: Violet in pictures

This is the top for my violin. It will soon look like an actual violin...but for now, that's how tops come, they take their form through a lot of planing with a block plane (i.e. by hand) Pretty cool right??

This is my classmate carving the blocks ...just thought i'd include this to show how the corners take their shape.

The piece of wood is the linings...they will be cut up into about 6 different 10 mm wide pieces and will go inside the violin. The black thing...a block plane.

Another step

2008-10-07T20:04:00.000-07:00

So...the c bouts from the previous post (the part that looks like the letter c...fyi!)is taking form...on Oct. 2nd...the very first of the ribs (sides) were glued in...those being in the c bouts. And...after having a heck of a time with the glue (...think hides of cows type of glue, blech), it was decided that a little creativity would be required...this glue job took 8 clams, only 6 more than it was supposed to be and it had to find a place to live, on its side...like a nearby shelving unit.

The glue is dry and the c bouts are unclamped...they look kind of like this...so the next step is to carve the rest of the c bout blocks.

The ribs for the rest of the violin

The ribs after a little bending (yes, they start flat and must be bent to fit around the instrument. Solution...heat, a little iron, some leather, water, and a rib...then you stick it on the bending iron (which is a stand up column that gets hot) and bend it to the shape you want. Notice: the blocks are all carved and come to a point, rather than only having one curved edge.

Introducing: the as of yet unnamed violin

2008-10-07T19:55:00.000-07:00

Well, we'll start off with step one in the process of Violin making then shall we? Ok there are several hundred steps and this one will be after many many steps have already been taken. It's pretty crazy what you have to do to make a violin...as of mid september, this is what it looked like:
To understand what you're looking at...basically there are three things to this picture (plus some more) So...you have the form of the violin...the thing with all the holes in it is the mold we're using. For those interested: it's a 1715 Stradivarius style violin, then there's the metal part, which will explain more about the third thing and that is the blocks (the little wooden pieces in various corners. Something cool...so you see that the metal pice lines out pretty well with the blocks...in the C look area (called the c bout) you use the template to match the blocks that you carve...just some random info on building a violin for you
Close up of my prettily carved c bout...it's not quite looking like a violin yet is it? ...ok, well it has the shape of one, but remember...the mold doesn't really exist, all it is right now is 6 blocks of wood.

The holes in the mold are where you put the tops of the clamps for when you glue in the sides.