Day 47: I Do Love Teaching.

We started early today, which is really good because I woke up at 05:18.

"What's the 'oh' for? Oh my god, its early!" My Robin Williams tribute to we fans.

But I really did wake up too early. I set my alarm for six because that gives me two hours to get up and out to Dwain's. It is a nice pace to start the day, and because I'm pushing myself to work harder on the bike so that I can run faster, I'm getting to Dwain's with time to spare!


We had a nice second breakfast of cereal, flax seed, fruit, yogurt and honey. I couldn't eat all of mine because of our change in schedule, which was fine for the first day of it. We were both a bit sluggish, but we got going.


Today we attached the pegboard to the top, and as with all of the aspects of building a dulcimer, there are a number of steps to get the fretboard to live on the top.

First, we marked off where the feet go and then applied tape to mask off the areas we were preparing for glue. We had to remove the shellac from the glueing areas. This is kind of nerve-wracking because this is permanent--attaching one component that took a lot of work to make to another that took just as much time to construct. Then glue was put on the fretboard feet, and it was placed on the top, and both were clamped to the table, where it'll remain until tomorrow.


The glue was 2:1, glue to water, because different strength glues are used in different parts of the machine according to factors like the type of joint, the amount of tension put on the glue area, or if the glued area will need to be taken apart in the future.

This makes perfect sense, but I'd not have thought to put it to words. I think it is the lessons like this that will help me create a curriculum for teaching how to build a dulcimer. I recently met George Haggerty, who is a builder. He teaches kids how to build and play the dulcimer, and he lights up when he talks about the process and results--mostly the results.  I can see myself where he is. I have a ways to go to get there, but I'm laying the groundwork, for sure!

Next, two screws are added to each foot to help the glue bond the top and the fretboard. The top has to bend to match the curve of the fretboard, so there is two times the bonding strength. And here are a couple blocks of instruction: fasteners and glues. Sure, I've screwed, nailed, stapled, pinned, pegged or by some means, attached so many materials in my art making. But I've taught kids who have only ever tried to nail things together. A great lesson would be to get two disparate materials and have the kids design a fastener that allows for movement.

Four screws are put into the corners of the foot at end of the fretboard, but each of the screws put in the other feet should be in a specific pattern, like top-left corner and bottom right corner, or whatever. But there should be a pattern, as there is in every step. I just have to learn the patterns to each, and I'm already starting on the second machine; so let the practice begin!

Today we choose the wood for the peg head and tail block for our next instruments. The trick is to match the tones of the two pieces, and then to see if the grains move in the same way, or in some similar way is more accurate.

Dwain is fulfilling another commission, so he is starting where I am. His plan is that he'll work alongside of me for carving the peg head and tail block. We started off really fast today, but I kept it together. We talked about pace, which was nice. I said it was fast but doable. But I want to make sure that this stuff is sinking in. My notes were really good for this part, except there was one part out of sequence, which is where we left off today.

There were a mess of steps to get to that point. Find sides that are square, or make them so. Then declare base and reference sides. Find the center line, but that should be off of the reference side if there is any deviation in the width of the wood from one edge to the other. This makes perfect sense because each deviation from the layout will be magnified at the edge of the wood--Dwain drew out a quadrilateral and showed me with over-emphasized angles how amplified the deviations could be (Visual aides are great.).


Next is to copy the templates onto the wood. Then start taking wood off. Of course there are some steps even between these steps, like using a centering ruler! Then the holes are drilled out. This peg box is Dwain's because for this machine I'm doing a peg head with four tuners (Pegheads). I'm also doing a double bout. I'm so stoked to be moving forward while finishing up the first instrument!

I spent several hours today working on the black walnut. I milled down the untouched side, and the last thing to do is to take off .005 inches from part that I did the other day, which is good because the work I did was not good. I was going too fast with the wood and mill, and the cuts are rough. So I'll get that as smooth as jazz!

After we finished eating dinner Dwain brought Layla out to watch me wash dishes. They started playing the dance game, which I never knew existed. With this dance Layla almost endeared his feather-head self to me. It is really cute how Layla moves with the song Dwain is improvising, or perhaps they sing this song often.

And I got this today. This is one of the reasons that I love teaching, and I will definitely figure out a way so that I can.