| Recently I was asked to build a harp by a member of the traditional Irish group in which I play, and when I agreed, it became apparent that another member of the group had also always wished to acquire a harp. So I committed myself to building two. One is now complete, and other well on the way to being finished. As with the mandolins, I took photos during the construction, and this section is a record of that learning experience! I intend to start with the photos and a simple explanation, and gradually add more technical detail. | |
| 1. Construction of Harp Parts (still compiling) | |
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I chose to build the harp
from the plans only, sourcing the wood locally. For what it would have
cost to buy the wood WITH the plans and ship it, I could have bought a
finished harp, so I ordered only the plans, strings and hardware.
Also, because I only intended to make 2, I did not want to buy a lot of specialised equipment that perhaps would not be used there-after. (Not to mention the expense and lack of space!!) So I have attempted to build these with only the hand tools found in a typical workshop, a router and a bandsaw for the heavier cutting. |
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The first problem
was to find plans for a harp, having never made one before. I decided to
tackle a lap harp, as being of a realistic size to start on, whilst
still giving more than two full octaves range.
Eventually I found a set of plans at 'Musicmaker's Kits' in the States, which had the added advantage that they also sold the hardware for the harps and the strings as well. It was a good place to start, but the plans have not been without their problems?! |
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The harps started off like this, several rough-cut planks of maple and walnut, from the local saw mill, about 30mm thick. Plus this I decided to use a couple of old maple neck blocks, which were a bit thicker, for the arm and pillar of the first. I also needed guitar topwood for the sound board and backwood (maple) for the back. |
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I started by tracing sections of the pattern for each piece, sticking it to the wood with a Pritt stick. The locations for the tuners and bridge pins were transfered to the tracing as well. Sadly, as it was my first harp, I did not have the reflex to check that there was enough space for the levers beneath the bridge pins..... needless to say, when it came to fitting later, I discovered that there was a slight error in the plans, and there was not really enough space for them below the upper strings. They are in now,m but overlap the edge annoyingly. I've made allowance with the second, and moved the position of the post holes up a little at the treble end!! |
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The first thing I did, was to drill out (by hand) large holes where the tight curves were marked on the plan. This had the double advantage of allowing the cutter to cut in sections, and also get the curves right, using different diameter drill bits. Most of the rest was cut using a simple two-wheel band saw, fairly close to the line. |
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Here I am final thicknessing the arm. I decided to do this after cutting the rough shape, so I would not have so much wood to shift in hand-planing. No thickness planers here I'm afraid. Almost everything is by hand. I have it clamped at one end, and butted up against a rail fixed to the table at the other. To keep the ends even, I just kept turning it around. |
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Using the same approach, traced pattern glued on.... rough cutting on the band-saw.... the pillar was then cut. Like the arm, it was thicknessed afterwards. |
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Here I am rounding edges, again by hand, with a heavy file and a pile of 80 grade sandpaper. At the same time I began sanding the whole piece. Other outer sharp corners were done as well. |
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These are the two sides of the
sound box.
I rough-planed the planking first as it had been drying for several years outside at the wood yard, and was fairly dirty and dusty. Once the grain, and more importantly the imperfections, were revealed, it was possible to locate where the side pieces could be cut from. |
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Here the sides are being planed down to thickness by hand from the 30mm planks, having been rough cut by saw and on the bandsaw. |
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Because the sound box is angled in every direction, (it leans backwards, the sides are angled back in towards the back, and the top is much smaller than the base...) it was necessary to cut the joins with great care. Every cut was angled precisely, and by hand it was almost impossible to get them all right. It have to admit I did look around for a bit of kit that would allow me to do this more accurately than my angle guide........ but found nothig that would fit the bill without costing me a fortune. |
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Here is the solution I used to enable me to make an angled cut in a flat piece of wood, which was not at right angles to the front, nor was the front a good edge for the guide to rest against. The essential piece of kit, and not too expensive, was the adjustable saw guide. This one was bought from Dick Tools in Germany, but I'm sure there are other alternatives. Once clamped down it worked quite well. |
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A particular problem, was
making angled cuts in the end of wooden sections. The angle guide needed
a flat surface to operate on. This was my Heath Robinson solution.
I built a block at 45* so that I could extend the saw guide to more than 180*. I screwed the guide to the 45* angled surface. By clamping the whole thing on top of the piece to be cut, I was able to use the saw guide to get controlled cuts into the end of the wooden part. The exact position of the saw blade could be adjusted using the angle guide, but also by exactly where the angled block was clamped to the piece to be cut. All very fiddly, but it worked. |
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Here the base being cut above illustrates the problems with the whole harp.... a simple fairly small piece, but every side is angled, no corner is a right angle. Without the angle guide it would have been impossible. |
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Finally all the pieces were roughly finished apart from the soundboard and back. This will be a harp shortly. |
| 2. Assembly of Harp Parts | 3. Finishing the Harp |