So, after a couple suspenseful weeks, I have finally picked up my wood from the Ellis Planing Mill in downtown Ogden. I ordered oak pieces to replace the pieces on the base that support the bar trays (see previous post), and many feet of 0.25" X 0.5" maple. It would have cost $70 just for the maple if the mill had cut them to length, so I will be cutting it myself. All the wood (which is uniformly cut and beautiful) cost me just under $70, which will come out of my piggy bank. My poor allowance jar is feeling sad from the expenses (but, since it used to be labeled "marimba fund," I guess that's fitting).
The basic order for the work right now is as follows: disconnect the legs from the base frame, disconnect the central support from the base frame, replace the central support, fit the bar supports to the base frame and do the final joining, lay out the bars and mark the string support post locations, mortise all the post holes, cut the posts to length, drill holes, and string bars. At that point it will be playable while I work on the legs etc. When I list it all like that it seems like a hopelessly large amount of work.
***Time passes
So, after some work last night I have the legs off. Things got a bit more complicated, but let's dump in a bunch of pictures to explain more.
This is the new wood, neatly bundled.
The maple strips have nicks on the ends from the saw, so they gave me some extra feet of it.
I decided this morning that I will be constructing an entirely new base frame for the box.
The yellow lines in the picture outline the nice big center post, where the legs will attach. The red lines indicate the rest of the box frame. I will be mortising the corners (probably) and the end pieces will be screwed into the center post for nice-and-strongness. The idea is that the box panels will not be holding any of the load. I will probably put the legs farther out toward the sides than they were originally, for greater stability. I may have a third leg support in the middle - I haven't decided yet. I will be doing the legs last.
You may remember the end of the post held on by copper wire and a terrible-looking nail. The wire finally came off.
Yep, lots of bad nailing on display here.
This is one half, laid out for leg removal. It was harder than it looked because it turns out the triangular support pieces were attached with brads (it looks like someone shot a bunch of brads into it with a pneumatic gun or something, I'm not sure). There was no way to disassemble it without causing damage, so I just tried to be as gentle as possible with the panels. (Just off screen: Guardians of the Galaxy playing).
The triangles pretty much all got some damage with removal, so I will be replacing them. I have a dilemma with all the pieces I will be attaching to the panels, because they are relatively thin. I am not sure how I will be attaching anything to them.
Here's the front half with the legs removed. I pulled the legs off the back as well, and ended up cutting one of them (another was already broken in half). I have pretty much given up on the legs, at least in their current form.
Here is the box laid out on the floor with the legs removed. At this point I started to measure (three or four times, since I worry about error) to lay out the new frame. I still want to make the bar supports first, but I need a plan for how big the base will be so I can make sure the bar support frames will rest nicely over the top. I had a panicked thought about the bars at this point: what if I build the frame and then find out the holes in the bars don't line up? I decided I had to lay out all the bars over the frame (one joint of which I have not yet cut, so there's room for some change if needed).
The naturals bar frame, laid out. I still need to decide exactly what the spacing is going to be. I ended up moving the rear support forward about 1/8 inch, then all the holes looked like they would work out ok. I had had a nagging feeling about the bars - they're so inconsistently made in terms of thickness and width. The only way to make all the string support pins the same length, with the string holes in the same place, would be if the holes in the bars were drilled a uniform distance from the top surface. This turned out (unsurprisingly) not to be the case, which means that although I can make them all the same length, I will have to vary how far down the posts I drill the holes for the string based on the measurements of the bars next to each post. It will make the project that much more difficult. I also will not be able to put the posts exactly centered on the horizontal supports, because the holes in the bars are not spaced exactly right. Every one will have to be individually measured, cut, and placed which leaves a lot of opportunity for messing things up. I am out of honeymoon phase with this project and having serious concerns about what will happen if I put it together and it sounds terrible. I feel like I got a good price for it, but it was hard to get a good sound on the bars to gauge the tone when I was looking at it pre-purchase. What if I assemble it and it sounds bad or looks bad, and I can't sell it to anyone else? I won't have the excuse that it needs some TLC and is an investment for some future buyer because it will essentially be a mediocre finished product (I am a really good worrier because I get so much practice). I will just keep plugging along at it and deal with things as they come up.
On a lighter note, some of Aaron's pets provided some much-needed assistance with this project.
