Senior Project: Steps Eleven through Thirteen

Friday September 21, 2007 (6:35 – 8:03 AM, 10:58 AM – 4:33 PM, 8 ¹/₂₀ hours, 33 ⁴⁹/₆₀ hours total)

I devoted today to my Senior Project. This morning, when I woke up (annoyingly early, I might add), I watched Sylvia Wood’s learning how to play harp video. I observed the hand movements, music, and technique. That took a bit of time, so I took a nice-sized break in between that and working on the construction.

I set up and drilled the soundboard (mostly) during the obnoxiously long time period. I first laid out all of the parts, measured and traced them, and then I glued them on, or so I thought. Apparently, on the reinforcement bar, I did not apply enough glue to the tapered end, which I found out later. I continued on and soon had the stiffener on top of the reinforcement bar, which was on top of the inside of the soundboard. The glue said to let it sit for thirty minutes, but I let it sit for an hour.

During the hour of waiting, I started to sand the notch of the reinforcement bar so it was flush with the soundboard (it was too narrow, so I made it flush on one side). My arm did hurt a lot during that process, sine the reinforcement bar was quite tough. I did get it close before I just could not proceed even more.

Once the glue had set, I picked up the ¹/₈” drill bit, drill, and began putting holes in the soundboard. Of course, I followed the punch marks and kept the drill as vertical as I could. Around the seventy-eight punch hole, however, the board underneath slipped slightly. It was not a big deal, I figured (probably just my tired arm), so I took a small break and began again ten minutes later. Since it did not happen for the next few notches, I figured that I solved the problem. On notch thirty-two, though, I witnessed the reinforcement bar jut away from the soundboard underneath. Apparently, I put too much pressure on the glue and the very end of the reinforcement bar became undone. I applied more glue, waited another hour (ugh), continued the flush sanding on the other end of the board, and waited again. When the hour was up, I tested the tip of the soundboard’s reinforcement bar. It still came undone! Now getting frustrated, I applied glue for overnight drying. If anyone would try and build a Voyageur Harp, then my words of wisdom (that I’ve learned so far) are: Glue generously, clean quickly, and dry overnight.