Building a hurdy-gurdy

[Yuri Terenyi]

By the way, the strip of wood on the edge of the wheel should be a wee bit thicker than normal veneer thickness. I use some 4-5mm pear. (Pear is the traditional one to use in E. Europe ( Hungary, to be precise) and I cannot see any reason to doubt them. Pear bends amazingly easily.) The reason for the thickness is that you will need to shave it back, to align it with the strings exactly. And along the way, as you play for years, it will periodically need truing, even if nowhere near the amount it needs with solid wood wheels.

And, yes, it is simply much easier to make it from off-the-shelf plywood and face it with pear (or whatever), than making custom plywood wheels.

[Charlie Schultz]

Time for a progress update: I've made a bit of progress, some of it actually forward.
First, I redid the wheel with some baltic birch for the wheel proper, some 2 mm pieces of maple for the outside and some 2 mm thick veneer strips to wrap around the wheel.

The BB wheel, sides and veneers

Wheel with sides glued on, then trued on the lathe.

Wheel with sides trued up

I used a web clamp to clamp the veneer strips to the outside of the wheel.

Using a web clamp to clamp the veneers

Wheel, pretty much done. I'm going to mount it on the shaft and then finish it up.

New wheel, just about done

[Charlie Schultz]

I've gone ahead and glued the supports to the back.

Gluing the supports to the back

Supports glued

Foot block added

Sides glued in- linings are used in the front section of the instrument

Sides and top divider

[Charlie Schultz]

Next, the peg box. Although the plans are pretty clear, I still goofed up here...

Here I've got the component pieces (sides and bottom)- for some reason I thought the bottom extended forward, in reality it is just a small square on the bottom.

Of course I realized that after it was all glued up. So I put a recess in it and am calling it a "feature" <g>.

Wilfried was kind enough to send along some photos and gave me permission to post them. So the next couple photos show how he does it.

Next I used the router to put in a couple rabbets in the top part.

In position with the holes for the tuning pegs.

Wilfried's photo:

Finally, sides on, hole drilled in footblock (kinda munged that up a bit. Obviously some trim work to do. The piece on the left will go on the outside to cover the big hole for the shaft and bearing. The plans do not show that, but some of the photos do show such a piece.

[Clay Schaeffer]

I noticed the nylon bushings on my wife's drum carder have the holes drilled off center to allow the drums to be moved closer together or further apart. That might not be a bad idea for the bushings on the gurdy to allow the wheel to be adjusted relative to the strings.

[Yuri Terenyi]

Well, yeah...
I used ball bearings for mine, the one (or, rather, two) that appeared here a while ago... I know, it's totally untraditional, but, hey, it's something that works!...

[Charlie Schultz]

Yuri, how did you get all the bearings to line up? Did you maybe drill after things were assembled?

[Jim McConkey]

Clay's idea of using a slightly oblong slot for the bearing (especially the middle one) should allow easy alignment.

[Yuri Terenyi]

I drilled a large diameter (the bearing outside diameter) hole half-way through in both units that were to take the bearings, then a smaller hole for the shaft itself. Once everything was glued to the bottom/sides, so the braces were in place, I simply pressed the bearings into their respective holes, and twiddled the shaft in. This lined the bearings up Now it was simply securing them with a bit of glue, and to make sure they don't fall out if the wood expands, a couple of wooden bits screwed across the face of them, just covering the rim of the bearings holds them tight..
But if I make another one one day, I'm going to try lignum vitae bearings. It is used in boats, for the main shaft of the , er, propeller...? Whatever you call it. The wood is self-lubricating, and I figure if it's good enough for boats, it can't be bad for gurdies, either. The bearing is made by cutting four flat square pieces, lining up the grain so it points into the center on all four, then drilling the hole in the exact center. This way the shaft is turning in mostly quartersawn grain.

[Charlie Schultz]

I got all the side ribs on so it's just about ready for the top. But I have to finish up the wheel and axle. Per the plan, I drilled a hole through the small wheel at an angle into the axle. Then tapped that hole:

Tapping the axle

And here's the wheel on the shaft:

Wheel mounted to axle

I put that assembly back on the lathe and trued it up and cleaned up the sides. Then here it is in position:

Wheel in position

[Josh Humphrey]

Fun to watch this! Looking good...

[Jim McConkey]

How did you end up aligning the bearings?

[Charlie Schultz]

How did you end up aligning the bearings?

Sandpaper! The holes were close enough that I could get the rod through, but it was way too tight. So I used some sandpaper wrapped around a dowel rod to open the holes in the Acetel "bearings" up a bit. I'll try something along the lines of Yuri's method next time.

[Charlie Schultz]

Here's the knob I turned.

Knob

Everything in place. I had to turn down the smaller wheel to get it to clear the top, it wound up ~27-28 mm in diameter. Also had to countersink the screw.

Crank assembly

I went with spruce for the top- had a couple pieces of Deb's Maine spruce that were too narrow for a guitar. Finished thickness is 3 mm. Still have to drill the access hole for the end of the axle.

Top with slot for wheel cut

With some trepidation, I glued the top on.

Top glued on

Next, started work on the top assembly. A good bit of sanding was needed to get the sides and front and back supports to conform to the curved top.

Top bits

With the lid on.

With lid

The back support still needs to cut to shape.

[Yuri Terenyi]

Charlie, you seem to have done the classic mistake all makers do when they come to the H-G from guitars or similar. The timber thicknesses are too thin. Thing is, H-G-ies rattle. By definition. They also pack a real wallop of energy, so power is not really a question. The traditional non-French type ones, like this one, which is some kind of Germanic, have soudboards in the region of 6mm thick. No kidding. I got caught on this, with my first one, that I made some 15 years ago. It had all sorts of wobbly and rattly problems. (I managed to eliminate them eventually, but only with difficulty.) In the two I posted recently, the spruce one has a soundboard thickness of between 5 and 6mm, the cypress one somewhere around 4.5mm. And they are oodles louder than French type ones, it's kind of built into the type.

[Charlie Schultz]

Well, I posed the question to Wilfried and he says that a 3 mm spruce top is not a problem for the given bracing. So there you have it, two different takes from two competent builders. What to do? Given my limited HG experience, I'm inclined to continue per the GAL plan, and worst case, it's a great learning experience and a reference point. It's been fun so far and I definitely see another one in my future ($100 HG challenge anyone?? <g>).

On a different note (ha), does anyone know of a good source (preferably US) for HG strings? Wilfried recommended Kurschner in Germany. And I've seen some Savarez strings on-line but they seem a bit pricey.

[Steve Senseney]

What is the difference with H-G strings and regular violin/viol/cello strings?

[Jon Whitney]

Hey, I might bite at a $100 hurdy gurdy challenge. Seriously. It would take a lot of work so make it a long duration - 6 months or so. And please wait until I'm done with the two banjos I'm building now (which probably means 2015).

[Jim McConkey]

I have no experience with either of them, but MusicMakers and HurdyGurdy.com both sell H-G strings in the US. Or emulate Amy and make your own gut strings!

And +1 on a hurdy gurdy challenge!

[Yuri Terenyi]

http://www.nrinstruments.demon.co.uk/HuG.html
I have copied the hurdy-gurdy page. The company (Northern Renaissance Instruments) is run by a guy who has been researching and writing about ancient strings from when I was a teenager, which was a considerable while ago... (sigh) They make gut and other strings for just about anything. They also have two addresses, one in the US (the other in Britain). The page on the link gives a very good intro to understanding what are the differences between different strings, different gurdies, and what to look for when choosing.
Oh, and the owner (dr. Ephraim Segerman) is a very helpful guy, who will answer questions.