This is my first composites project so I thought I should show it off.
My wife plays a harp but being made of wood it goes out of tune every time the weather changes. I figured that Carbon fibre would be stable.
It plays beautifully. The sound is rounder and a bit louder than the wooden one.
It weighs 3.6 Kg or about 8 Lbs. Half the weight of the wooden one.
More importantly my wife loves it.
Brian.
I cannot make too many compliments to you, making a fine musical instrument.
Indeed carbon changes the sound, and the challenge is to make the sound pleasing. Absolutely very well done!
Amazing and beautiful. One day, I would love to try and tackle the construction of an acoustic guitar for my wife like you’ve done. Way to go, and big thumbs up on the brownie points you must have gotten from the wife!
great job!
Thank you for your kind words.
It was a bit worrying not knowing if it would be strong enough. The pull across the strings is about 660 lbs. This is offset to the side of the neck by the tuning pins. I love the shape that the soundboard has pulled into. I learned a lot making this.
Brian.
Good job! Please post here a link for a video to let us hear this beauty.
I have not got a video yet. My wife is shy.
Here is a recording done on a cheep digital recorder.
I hope you like it.
Brian.
Seriously way to cool! Great Job!
Any details on the construction process?
First I made a mould for the neck by cutting the shape out of 2 sheets of 12mm MDF. I used a router to shape the sides and angle them out at 10 degrees. Then glued each sheet onto another uncut sheet to give me 2 mirrored cavity’s. I then got these sprayed with 2k primer.
I was hoping to use this as a mould and tested it first using Fibreglass as it is a lot cheaper than Carbon Fibre. This mostly worked but it did damage the MDF and the finished piece was not as smooth as I would have liked. Rather than start again I cleaned up the 2 Fibreglass sides. Used filler to smooth them off and improve the shape. Then made plastic locating pegs to fit the 2 sides together. I used silicon sealant to bond one side, cavity down onto a board. Then used Easy Composites’ Uni-Mould system to make one half of a new mould from this. When this was set I removed it from the board.
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Without removing the Fibreglass part I cleaned it up The white dots are modelling clay which I removed to make locating pins for the mould. I fitted the other Fibreglass side to this and made the second half of the mould.
Taking the 2 new moulds, I painted them with Gel coat then laid up the Carbon Fibre and foam core material and infused them.
I trimmed these up to fit together.
Then put them back into their moulds and bonded them together with a polyurethane adhesive. This left a bond line that needed cleaning up so I sanded it down and painted gel coat over it.
When finished and polished it looks OK.
I then drilled this out to fit the tuning and bridge pins.
The sound box was made by infusing the parts on a glass sheet. I wanted a rounded corner on the sides so I found some Bath edging strip in a DIY store, bonded this to the glass and infused over it. The sides are strengthened with 5mm foam.
Most of the ragged bit at the bottom of the sides was trimmed off. I thought it would be easier to make them and cut them to size rather than try to mirror the angles and get the lengths matching. Where the edging strip was it was a bit sharp and rough. I painted Gel coat over this and sanded it down. This was lots of work and did not give a perfect finish but I decided it was good enough or at least as good as I would get it.
The sound board has a rib down the back to strengthen it where the strings go through. I used 5 mm foam to make this.
I then bonded it all together with the same polyurethane adhesive.
I was worried about it taking the strain of the pull from the strings. This is about 660 lb. This does not sound much but imagine 4 men standing on it!
Brian.
Wow! Very Nice.
Very impressive!!
great job!!! :eek:
I take my hat off to you that is a very beautiful Harp
Nicely done! You muscled through the difficulty nicely!
I helped a friend build an acoustic guitar in CF and we both were amazed at its resonance and crisp sound.
Makes me want to make a fiddle/violin and a 5-string banjo now.
Lovely altogether
Thank you all for the compliments. I enjoyed making this and I am looking forward to making another one with improvements from the techniques I have learned.
Brian.
Whats the best way to clean a harp? Plastic comb and wood comb.
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