HG wheel surfaces

[Bob King]

First I want to say thanks for the opportunely of being on this form, I have enjoyed looking at some off the post.
Now I have a question for HG person, I am finishing up my first HG and read in Philippe Destrem's book "Adjustment and Maintenance" that the surface of the wheel be sanded with 220 then 400. Is that not too smooth ? I have used a scraper to achieve the angle and now need to surface it to take the rosin .

[Barry Daniels]

Welcome to the forum, Bob. Nice looking HG. I have wanted to build one for a long time. Can we see some more pictures?

[Simon Magennis]

As far as I recall there is resin on the wheel, like on a violin bow, which gives friction. I have a vague idea that some even had horsehair wrapped on it however, I can't find a reference for that so it may be complete nonsense.

[Randy Roberts]

Bob,
Sign in and go to the "Library" section at the bottom of the page. click on Search Library ( there are two, search both).
There are a lot of threads on HD's, I just grabbed one for an example below:

https://www.mimf.com/old-lib/make_hurdygurdy_wheel.htm

[Charlie Schultz]

Simon is pretty close- rosin is applied to the wheel. Then as you turn the wheel, you feed in a *little* cotton or wool which will wrap around the strings. Both the rosin and the cotton have to be added from time to time. A strap really helps when it comes time to play it!

[Chris Richards]

I have built a couple of HGs and when you get to this stage it can be very frustrating because they're a very difficult instrument to set up. The wheel should be sanded smooth and a very small radius sanded on the front edge (near the keybox) really just take off the sharp edge, I don't know what tunning you're going for but probably the easiest to get going is G/C and the two chanters tuned to G in unison, so the low drone is G the petite drone C, the mouche G and trompette C, it's also important to use the correct strings I use oiled gut for the chanters at 0.89mm diameter, firstly set the chanter height such that the strings fractionally "kiss" the wheel then apply cotten to them (plenty of instructional videos on Youtube). getting rosin on the wheel is imporant, just turn the wheel and hold a rosin block on it, then again while spinning the wheel polish the rosin with a cotton cloth pressed hard against the wheel. Now it's a case of adjusting the string pressure on the wheel, the lighter the better, because the drone strings are thicker they tend to be much less sensitive to pressure on the wheel but again light as possible is best. Also your handle/knob really should be a more traditional shape to have the correct grip for playing the trompette. Hope this helps, I was in the same position about a year ago and wondered whether the instrument would end up as pretty wall art! but in the end I got it going and now it is great fun to play!