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<\/a>The beautiful color of oiled African Padauk. Over time, the wood will darken to a rich red-brown.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>D2, the third lowest bar<\/p><\/div>\n
The first step was to calculate the angle for the holes through the marimba.\u00a0 As you can see below, with keys lined up against the wall, one of the string holes runs nearly parallel to the wall. The very slight angle results from the “node” (the ideal location for the string hole) of the low C2 being a bit further from the wall than the smallest key, C7.\u00a0 The angle was approximately 1 degree.<\/p>\n
The varying wood densities, grain, and shape of the undercut arch places each ‘node’ in a unique location and angle.\u00a0 There is no perfect place to fit the line through the varying nodes.\u00a0 I suppose the line could have been calculated with some sort of least squares line fitting, but we fought our urge to turn the problem into a spreadsheet and simply eyeballed the best fit.\u00a0 The angle turned out to be about 8 degrees.<\/p>\n
In the garage we cut a handful of 1 degree and 8 degree scraps wood that could be used to position each bar on the drill press.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Lining up the naturals to draw the angle for the holes to be drilled<\/p><\/div>\n
Our friend Dave from church let us use his drill press.\u00a0 Dave lives less than 2 miles away and has a variety of old shop tools in his garage.\u00a0 We dusted off the classic, well used machine and dropped in a new 3\/8″ bit.\u00a0 With our angled jigs we started slowly making our way through the keys.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Drilling the strong holes on a borrowed drill press at Dave’s house<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>We constructed a 8 degree and 2 degree jig for the respective holes to be drilled<\/p><\/div>\n
It took us two trips to Dave’s garage before all the keys were drilled and it was time to sand.\u00a0 The corners and edges needed rough-shaping with 60 grit, and then the whole bar was sanded smooth with 220 grit.\u00a0 Finally, to produce a wonderful semigloss matte we double sanded with 400 grit.\u00a0 The natural oils in the wood gave each bar a deep luster.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Final sanding with 220 then 400 grit<\/p><\/div>\n
The last step is our favorite finishing oil…. a 100% natural old-fashioned varnishing oil made from a turn-of-the-century recipe.\u00a0 Why is polymerized (boiled) linseed oil so miraculous?\u00a0 Even the smell of the thick honey-like oil evokes dreams of smooth, deep wood tones.<\/p>\n Our favorite all-natural varnishing oil<\/p><\/div>\n Beauty revealed<\/p><\/div>\n We applied the first coat to 11 bars<\/p><\/div>\n Step 1 is to flood the wood with oil.\u00a0 We then let it soak in for about an hour and then wipe it down, so a very thin film of oil remains on the surface.\u00a0 The wood looks slightly wet. In 24 hrs the remaining film will have been absorbed and dry into the grain.<\/p>\n For the deepest color, we need 5 or 6 micro-thin layers, with 2 or 3 days of drying between coats.\u00a0 Paul is getting anxious, and ready to settle on 2 coats.\u00a0 I will encourage patience…<\/p>\n After an hour, we will wipe them down<\/p><\/div>\n After all the bars are finished with several layers of varnish oil, we will tackle what could be the hardest step of all… final tuning.\u00a0 We also must start designing and building the frame. Ideas for hinges, supports, casters, and adjustable mounting plates have been bouncing around our heads for weeks.<\/p>\n 100 hours. We are probably 1\/2 way through the project.\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 We hear the tones of the wood and know that we have not made a mistake undertaking such an enormous project.\u00a0 The marimba will sound beautiful.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At every step, the hidden inner sounds of the wood grow stronger. Their glowing amber color is irresistible; we run our hands over the finished bars and marvel at the grain. Wait… we are ahead of ourselves!\u00a0 Today marked our … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n\n
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