Hello Everyone,

Well if you live in the US, I hope you had a very nice 4th of July yesterday. Hooray for the colonists!

_____________

The Finnish Kantele Build

Heres the background to this latest project:

Ive been wanting to find plans for a simple harp-type instrument that I can easily make and perhaps even learn to pluck out a few tunes on. If you Google harp plans or something similar, most of the designs are rather advanced and require more equipment and woodworking knowledge than I have. Several days ago I stumbled across a website about the kantele, a Finnish folk-type lap harp. It consists of a box frame and a solid top along with a bar to hold metal strings with and some pins to attach the ends of the strings for tightening and tuning.

Discussion and Plans

There is a gentleman in the UK named Michael J. King (http://www.michaeljking.com/) who offers plans for a variety of musical instruments including the kantele and for 9 pounds he emailed me a pdf-book that contains complete plans for a 5 string kantele and a 10 string kantele.



Im going to make the 5 string version.

Kanteles can be made one of two ways: out of one solid piece of 2" thick hardwood or they can be constructed out of a thin piece of wood for the top and 4 separate pieces for the box frame, which sits underneath. The solid piece kantele would require a lot of hand carving, which after my spoon extravaganza of earlier this week, my hands are still pretty sore so the constructed version is what Im going to make.

I have several pieces of poplar for the frame and a thin, wide piece of clear poplar for the top. Im going to purchase the tuning pins for it along with the strings a little later.

Now, as Mr. Kings instructions are something hes developed over the years, it would be improper to share all the instruction details online so Im not going to do that. But I will show you some photographs of my build along with an changes that I make. Its my intention then to make a small prototype kantele and if this works out, Ill make a nifty one out of some of my shop hardwood.

Step 1: The Top

The plans come with a ton of drawings and so the first thing I did was to print out a drawing of the top and tape it down to the poplar sheet and transfer the shape to the wood with a pencil:



Now since this is a soft wood, Im a little concerned that the tuning pins wont hold well so Im reinforcing the poplar sheet with a thin piece of aspen wood that is left over from another project (see a good reason to keep some of your scraps!). Ive cut it the same shape as the end of the poplar sheet:


And Ive glued the two pieces together and Ill leave these until tomorrow to make sure that they are really dried and the glue bond is strong:


My next step is to cut the remaining poplar pieces into the framework sections.

VW

Hutch Woodworking Plans

Woodworking Plans

Do-it-Yourself Patterns and Crafts, Woodworking kits, Furniture Plans Plus Much, Much More. Will Show You How to Make 16,000 Different Woodworking Plans. Use The Plans For Fun, Functionality or Profit!

Hutch Woodworking Plans. Wood is one of the most lovely, sturdy and versatile components that you can work with while on a do it your self project. The beauty of a cabinet door that is completed in wood can not be matched by any other material whether or not all-natural or man made. As with any project, you would call for a detailed set of plans whilst you function with wood and wood based components. This is why it is advised that you use a detailed set of woodworking plans once you program to extensively use wood based supplies to complete the project that you have embarked on.

Now let us examine why woodworking plans are important in any wood primarily based do it your self project. To begin with, these plans aid you do achoice with waste. If you start a woodworking project without a firm program, the chances are that you would finish up working with additional wood that you initially intended to. Most of the wood based projects would need extensive assemblies and sub assemblies.

When you commence your project, you would be ideally functioning with person members of wood and finishing them individually just before assembling them. If you do not have the right woodwork plans, you could finish up with mismatching wood members at the time of assembly. This could trigger high-priced expense and time overruns in the project. All these challenges can be avoided by utilizing a effectively laid out set of wood plans.

The other advantage that you could have if you use woodworking plans are that you would be prepared with all the tools and implements that you would need for completing the wood primarily based project. Frequently we find that we do not have access to a certain tool in the middle of a woodworking project. This predicament could lead to a loss of time and occasionally you may possibly even have to abandon the project in case a distinct tool is not out there. All these challenges can be avoided if you have a detailed strategy at the onset. Hutch Woodworking Plans

Hutch Woodworking Plans Information

Consistent Advertising - The romance of woodworking will will need to be balanced with the constant marketing and advertising and advertising vital to retain the operate coming in. In time, phrase of mouth brings in a lot of operate if you develop a great popularity. Till finally then, you will will need to get the phrase out routinely. Immediately after the function arrives in you have to have fantastic manufacturing systems so you can full the tasks promptly and continue to retain the cash flowing. If jobs think about also pretty extended and the dollars movement stops, it can turn into difficult to shell out the expenses. Speaking of revenue flow, you really should create and adhere to regular assortment techniques. This is 1 area where by various woodworkers fail. The payment for the perform will want to be as vital as the execute by itself. If you are lax in accumulating, you will run into prospects who fall brief to shell out you and this will lead to seriously serious income movement problems.

The Small small business - Even nevertheless you like woodworking, you will will need to do the house small business if you are to make a dwelling at it. Very good results commonly needs an in-depth facts of each woodworking and small business management. If you never have each and every, I suggest you hesitate to leap in till you have honed your enterprise expertise.

Looking back once again I recognize that my lack of expertise in the course of my startup fairly a couple of decades back could have been offset with some common details and a further person to advise me.Sadly I had to find out most elements by trial and error.

Just about just about every and every and just about every week, I take the time to go via the comments that my viewers make about my woodworking internet site. 1st of all I want to them for taking the time to comment, I definitely worth all of the comments and strategies. This earlier week there was a comment from a gentleman, who expressed a will need to get into woodworking. As a man who is passionate about woodworking, I want to welcome him to the fold. And I want to offer you you him all of the ideas and encouragement probable in his endeavors.Hutch Woodworking Plans

Related Hutch Woodworking Plans :

Tag : How Do You Hutch Woodworking Plans, How To Quit Hutch Woodworking Plans, Affordable Hutch Woodworking Plans, How Do Hutch Woodworking Plans, Where Can I Buy Hutch Woodworking Plans.

in a recent post, i wrote about refinishing a table i built 21 years ago in a style i am still working in today, and in fact, started working on in 1986. ill give jasper johns some credit for that as i often use his quote in the title above when talking about a design language. my introduction to my style was by complete accident in 1986. a client/friend who had been living in germany for a few years described this desk she wanted me to build for her based on some furniture she had been living with during those years abroad. i kind got what she was describing and made her desk, as she described it to me. click the photos to enlarge them ...
there it is, in the upper right hand corner, mahogany and black paint with brass hardware. my wife and i both liked the style and since our house at the time was more or less devoid of nice furniture, i decided i would participate in a show at a local gallery and whatever didnt sell (hah !), we would bring home for the dining room. well, we know how that goes, and i have had this lovely furniture in my own home for 25 years now. this was before the internet and before my book collection had grown to include anything regarding the biedermeier style. the desk above we liked, but was too formal for us so we used native natural cherry with the black paint instead of the stained mahogany. presto ... studio style ....thats our table and chairs in the upper left corner above and our sideboard in the top left corner of the top photo. so, what am i trying to say here?. this is a post i have been trying to write for a while about, really, how did i get here? we actually did two custom studio style dining rooms last year, this one, and this one so on we go with it ...
so, here we are ... take an object, or a design, or a combination of woods or colors and try to imagine how they could be different, or similar but different; change a little here; change a little there; change a lot, but keep some stuff; keep at it; keep reading and looking; keep an open mind and keep changing ... when you look back 30 some years later youll indeed wonder how did i get here? , but youll be pleased that your designs hang together from the same thread or threads that run through all of it ...

you can add some inlays ... here we have a studio style half round with abalone inlays, which led to some bed headboards with abalone inlays, and we know where that went, which was on to one of our most involved and challenging pieces. more on the wood and metal style in a future post.
wood and steel tables ... the bethlehem steel series.

Perhaps my favorite woodworking blog is Chris Schwarzs over at Popular Woodworking. How he produces the discharge of substantive output is beyond me.  Then again, it is his job.

John Economaki recently pointed out that Chris has the exact voice of Tom Brokaw. Click the hyperlinks to see for yourself. Watching his videos are never the same anymore. I also see that Mr. Schwarz is coming to Alpharetta in March to teach some classes. That might be fun.

Anyhow, yesterdays blog entry was titled "A Dovetail a Day-Hurray." Not the cleverest title, I know. Apparently he had written a little article in Popular Woodworking a couple of months ago about getting really good at dovetailing by knocking out one every day for a month. His blog links to the article which I think raises a really good point. Ill quote: