Chapter 11

Drilling the Soundboard

     First, I have to apologize to you all for the delay in getting this chapter loaded.  I have been swamped with orders for my Aeolian Harps.  I've completed 6 of them in May alone, and the month isn't over yet.  Several of them had to be completed under very tight deadlines, and I even set a new personal record of 2 weeks from start to finish on one harp.  But business is business, and I was forced to set this project aside while I concentrated my efforts on getting these Aeolian Harps out.  I hope you all understand.

    I was able to spend a little bit of time on the harp, and took care of an operation that is more time consuming than anything else.  Drilling the holes where the strings penetrate the soundboard.  This is a fairly critical operation, and involved changing bit sizes frequently, and counter-boring each hole for the brass "eyelets" that fit into the soundboard.  I thought about trying to show you this operation with photos, and realized that photos wouldn't be able to show you what I wanted to convey.  I decided to explain what I've done with a construction drawing.

    This drawing applies to each string hole in the soundboard.  Dimension "A" is just deep enough for the length of the eyelet, in my case all the "eyes" had a length of 1/4".  Dimension "B" was drilled just big enough for the diameter of the shoulder, and on this harp I used 7 large eyelets ( .150" dia. ), 8 medium eyelets ( .120" dia. ), and 7 small eyelets (.088" dia. ), for a total of 22.  Finally, dimension "C" was drilled just big enough to allow for the string to be fed through.  I drilled the "C" holes first, using drill diameters that were as close to the string diameters as possible, without going smaller than the string diameter.  When you get to the strings that are wound, in this case Nylon on Nylon,  you'll have to allow for the way the wound string is knotted at the top of the core string, so these holes will have to be a little bigger.  I'd like to give you specific dimensions here, but for each harp, the dimensions will be different, so you'll have to size the diameters to fit your string set.  Then I came back and counter-bored each hole to accept the brass eyelets.  Watch your depth here, don't go all the way through the string rib.  It's a real bummer when you are trying to tune a finished harp, and one or two strings just don't seem to want to hold their tune, and then you realize that the string tension is pulling the knot through the soundboard.  It's a condition that can be corrected, but it's a hassle.  It's much better to just avoid the problem. 

    I've almost caught up with the Aeolian Harp orders, so I should be able to assemble this harp and start the pyrography very soon.  Thank you all for your patience and understanding.

Move on to Chapter 12

Return to Front Page