Category Archives: Harpsichord

Getting Ready for Steam Bending

Posted on November 4, 2017 by

This week my wife gave me a Rockler steam bending kit (yes, she is awesome!) and I just completed building the steam box for it. Soon I will need to bend some bridges for my harpsichord project and want to … Continue reading →

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Carving and Casting

Posted on November 3, 2014 by

One of the details for the bench is a rosette that is placed in the corners above the legs. The plan calls for eight of them in total. Carving one out of basswood took a few hours and was then … Continue reading →

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The Jack Rail installed

Posted on November 3, 2014 by

The Jack Rail (aka Jackrail, aka Upper Rail) is the piece that fits in front of the music desk and controls how high the jacks will ascend when a key is pressed and the string is plucked. Consider this diagram, where … Continue reading →

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Case Mouldings for a Harpsichord

Posted on November 1, 2014 by

I’ve been working on the Harpsichord’s case mouldings for the past two weeks. At 1/4 x 1/2 inch they are rather small and delicate, and all have to be routed. The routed profile is only ~ 9/32 of an inch, … Continue reading →

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Ready to sit down!

Posted on June 7, 2014 by

The bench, for all intents and purposes is now complete! All told, I think it was about 16 1/2 hours of work to build this bench. This was quite satisfying to finish. I hadn’t gotten much accomplished over the past … Continue reading →

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Back to the Bench . . .

Posted on May 20, 2014 by

Literally and figuratively. I’ve been away for quite a while for a lot of reasons, but I’m back at the bench now. And as it turns out I’m working on the Harpsichord bench. I’ve done most of the important parts, … Continue reading →

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Filling a split

Posted on April 15, 2014 by

A few months ago I discovered that the harpsichord case had developed a split in the bottom. Although it sounds more awful than it really is, it was somewhat alarming at the time. I knew I would have to fix … Continue reading →

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Legs to Stand On

Posted on October 19, 2013 by

The four legs for the harpsichord stand are complete. I haven’t turned much lately, but today I finished turning the four legs for the stand. It took me about 8 hours total, probably pretty slow, but I’m really a novice … Continue reading →

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Transposer and Music Desk

Posted on October 19, 2013 by

I recently spent some time looking at and copying pictures from the Ruckers book for the moulding profile used in the period instrument I’m building and discussing it with my mentor. In the end I decided to seek out miniature … Continue reading →

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Upper Registers Installed

Posted on October 5, 2013 by

The final, and trickiest part of the harpsichord registers is to install brass capstan screws in both the bass and treble ends to allow for adjustments left and right to align properly with the lower registers and to ensure that … Continue reading →

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