Back It Up

Once the sides were cut, leaving the ends square . . . well . . . square-ish . . . I clamped it together. I have a large piece of heavy glass measuring about 1' x 2'. It provides the perfect surface for sanding accurately. I used it to level or even-up the bottom edges of the body of the harpa. It worked! This created flush edges all around which made attaching the bottom or back much easier.

Sides glued up.

To help with attaching the bottom/back and the sound board, I made clamps. These are simply threaded rods (you can buy them at the local hardware store--precut in 6-inch lengths; however, I found long lengths at the lumber yard and the guys were happy to cut them for me . . . let's just say I could have saved about $20 if I'd gone to the lumber yard first).

I cut 1" pieces from the largest diameter dowel rod I could find. Some matching washers and suitable wing-nuts, and "washers" I cut from a sheet of cork, and there you have it! Voila! There's just enough wiggle room plus the cushion from the cork that they can clamp uneven/slightly angled edges.

Here are my clamps in action. Working very well. They did leave a little cork residue when I took them off, but some light sanding took care of that.

This blog post belongs to me and was originally published under the "Lemon Floss" blog. I am updating my blog and moving my old posts to my new blog.