MIMF

Years ago, I built a wild cherry with a silver maple top. Not tremendously loud, but had a nice tone and pleasant look.

Brian, I found it one of the easiest woods to bend. Didn't think of this before, but maybe I should cut some binding strips from some of the boards with little heartwood and wormy sapwood.

Here are a couple more pics

The first dulcimer up using persimmon I harvested a while back.

The ends are painted, bark off and trimmed. It's stacked with stickers in my shop attic. The picture was taken right after rough sawing.

Was lucky to get a few logs of this persimmon. Some boards up to 10 inches wide. Lots of heartwood, the sap has nice curl, as does some of the heartwood. Now to wait for it to dry!

Normally the two halves of the top are glued together. The fretboard is glued on to that. Many hollow out the bottom of the fretboard to reduce weight, claiming it makes for better sound. While I usually hollow out my fretboards, I'm not going to make claims about it improving the sound, there are t...

OOPS!
multiply by 10.

I shoot for .010-.012 on my dulcimer sides. The curly maple should bend fairly easily on your bending iron. Practice on some scrap wood. Tho I have never used Spanish Cedar, I think you will have a nice sounding instrument.

Karl Wicklund, I bent the staples myself out of .042 music wire. Once I got the hang of it, it went quickly.
Bryan Bear, I'm in Webster Groves, we'll have to meet up for a beer someday at Urban Chestnut.

Was recently asked to build a "old style mountain dulcimer", three strings, hand carved pegs, and staple frets. Twas a fun build, had to learn how to make the frets. Here's a short clip of the new owner with his dulcimer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4uOuN0Ky4M&t=3s

Thought I'd show a picture of the dulcimer made from the above board.

Being primarily a mountain dulcimer builder, I can use woods in my builds that are not the "norm", such as this curly burr oak. I wetted down the board with water to show off grain and color.

For those who own this model and similar ones....Have you had problems with the threads stripping out on the height adjustment? The female threads. I have owned this drum sander for three and a half years, it has stripped out twice. The second time, this past week, I was told the part containing the...

Fretboard!

https://www.facebook.com/WildMeadowDulc ... =3&theater
Bought a little persimmon yesterday. After planing it, part of the board showed some curl, so thinking of using it for an instrument or two. Has anyone used persimmon? How does it bend?

A power jointer. Ended up replacing it with a jointing plane, no. 7 I believe. Can join backs in half the time with a much better joint, and the hand plane cost me 1/2 what the power tool cost!

Went out in the shop today, went to sand the saw marks off a newly cut brace, and discovered that the height adjustment nut had stripped. Those of you who have had this happen, should I replace the screw also? It doesn't look damaged....

I recently acquired a curly white ash board. The curl is as tight as high quality maple. I have never used ash before, plan on making a mountain dulcimer with it and was wondering if it is worth resawing into some guitar stock. Anyone with experience working with ash in acoustic instruments?

Does anyone do anything special to ground the hoses/tubes? I added a homemade cyclone to my dust collector, 4" dryer vent between my drum sander and barrel. First day using it I noticed a static shock every time I touched it. I have since placed a length of bare copper wire between the tubes an...