Hi all,
It’s time to build the harpsichord’s stand so I can get it off my assembly table. Since this is a rather small instrument, we’ll build a simple, 4 leg trestle stand for it. This type of stand can be taken apart quite easily and increases the portability of the instrument. Since this harpsichord will be painted, and the stand has only 4 legs, we’ll glue up some poplar for the leg blanks. Last year I built an instrument that had 14 legs (counting the bench). For this instrument I got some nice 12/4 poplar from Roger at East Wake Hardwoods. Here’s what the finished instrument looked like.
Here are the 4 leg blanks which have been glued up and milled to 3” square and cut to 22 7/8” in length.
Next, the blanks are put on the lathe and turned into leg-like objects.
While we’re at the lathe we can turn the four feet that will be glued onto the bottom of each leg. Here’s a photo of the four feet being formed on the lathe.
These are the finished legs (minus the feet) – rough sanded to 80 grit.
Next, we flip the harpsichord upside down and place the legs into their proper positions. Once there, we draw the plan for the stretchers directly onto the harpsichord bottom.
The next photo is a close-up of the rear legs and the drawn stretcher plan. We’ll take the dimensions and angles directly from this plan.
Next, we cut tenons onto the ends of the front and rear stretchers and mortises into the square sections at the top and bottom of each leg. Here is a mortise being cut on the dedicated mortiser.
Next, we prepare the upper and lower main stretchers, getting the dimensions and angles from the plan drawn on the Bottom. The stretchers are made from ¾” stock, 1 ½” in height. The top and bottom main stretchers have a piece of 5/6” threaded steel rod epoxied into their ends. This rod will pass through a hole in the front and rear stretchers and will connect the front and rear leg assemblies. The next photo shows all of the legs and stretchers.
We will add caps to the tops and bottoms of all stretchers in order to stiffen them. In addition to their decorative function, the caps also help the stretchers to resist warping. The caps are 1 ¼” wide and ¼” thick with a ¾” wide dado 1/8” deep routed into their bottom surfaces. The stretchers which are ¾” thick will slip into these dados. Here’s a photo of the caps.
Next step is to glue the caps onto the stretchers. The next photo shows caps being glued onto the tops of the upper and lower main stretchers.
The next photo shows the completed stand (minus the feet) sitting on top of the case bottom.
The knobs used to secure the bolts are simple wooden cabinet knobs I bought at the local borg. I drilled out the hole and epoxied a 5/16” brass insert into it to secure the bolts. The next photo shows the knob screwed down onto the bolt. Above is an extra knob showing the brass insert.
Now we have to secure the harpsichord body to the stand. We will accomplish this by gluing a dowel into the top surface of each of the four legs. Matching (I hope) holes will be drilled into the case bottom. The instrument is placed in position on the stand and the dowels slip into their holes in the case bottom. No mechanical fasteners are necessary. All we have to do is make certain that the holes and dowels line up. First step is to place the stand in position (upside down, of course) onto the case Bottom and retrace the top of each leg onto the Bottom. Of course, we already did that when we drew the stretcher plan onto the case Bottom but the plan and the execution are never quite the same. The holes for the stretcher bolts have to be drilled at 90 degrees to the front and rear stretchers but the stretchers themselves angle at 78 degrees. I’ve never found a good way to do this and rely on my eyes to hit the angle correctly. This time I got lucky and hit the angle correctly but the stretchers ended up about 1/8” short for some reason. Not a problem as the distance between the front and rear leg assemblies is not crucial. The next photo shows the redrawn position of a rear leg with a cross mark to show the middle of the square.
Next a small hole is drilled all the way thru the Bottom so it can be seen from the top when the harpsichord is turned upright. I use blue painters tape to outline each drawn square to make it easier to check if the legs are in their proper position. The case is flipped right-side up and placed in position on the stand. The case is moved on the stand until the legs are all centered between the tape indicators.
Then, using the four holes we already drilled as guides we drill from the inside of the case through those holes into the top of each leg. Now we have a drilled center mark on the top of each leg and a corresponding hole in the Bottom of the case. We then drill a 1” diameter hole in each leg top and a corresponding set of 1” holes in the case Bottom. The following photo shows two of these holes in the rear of the case Bottom.
And the two corresponding holes in the top of the rear legs.
Next, we separate the four feet that we turned earlier and drill a hole for a dowel in the center of each foot top. Here’s the four feet with the dowels installed.
Now that we know everything will fit properly, we disassemble the stand, apply glue to the mortises and tenons in the front and rear leg assemblies, clamp and allow to dry. Here’s the rear leg assembly glued up and clamped.
Now we can reassemble the stand and place the instrument on it. If the various glue-ups dried without moving, the dowels in the leg tops should fit perfectly into the holes in the case Bottom. Here’s a photo of those dowels at the rear of the case. Pretty good fit.
And, finally, here’s the harpsichord sitting on its stand.
And that’s it – all you ever wanted to know (and more, I’m sure) about building a basic harpsichord stand. I’m still waiting for a delivery of Sitka Spruce for the soundboard so next time we’ll tackle the case moldings.
We're now one month into this project and I've submitted 10 parts (out of 450 - just kidding, I hope). In case anyone would like to refer back to a previous part, I will include links to the various part of the project at the end of each post.
Thanks for staying with me and I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Ernie
Part 1 - The Keyboard Part 2 -Keyboard con't. Part 3 - Keyboard con't. Part 4 - The Case (Bentside) Part 5 - Case Bottom Part 6 - Case Sides Part 7 - The Lower Braces Part 8 - Case Finished Part 9 - Building the Registers Part 10 - The Stand Part 11 - Jackrail & Moldings
Part 12 - The Music Desk Part 13 - Building the Benchhttp://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/f101/harpsichord-project-part-12-music-desk-18962/
It’s time to build the harpsichord’s stand so I can get it off my assembly table. Since this is a rather small instrument, we’ll build a simple, 4 leg trestle stand for it. This type of stand can be taken apart quite easily and increases the portability of the instrument. Since this harpsichord will be painted, and the stand has only 4 legs, we’ll glue up some poplar for the leg blanks. Last year I built an instrument that had 14 legs (counting the bench). For this instrument I got some nice 12/4 poplar from Roger at East Wake Hardwoods. Here’s what the finished instrument looked like.
Here are the 4 leg blanks which have been glued up and milled to 3” square and cut to 22 7/8” in length.
Next, the blanks are put on the lathe and turned into leg-like objects.
While we’re at the lathe we can turn the four feet that will be glued onto the bottom of each leg. Here’s a photo of the four feet being formed on the lathe.
These are the finished legs (minus the feet) – rough sanded to 80 grit.
Next, we flip the harpsichord upside down and place the legs into their proper positions. Once there, we draw the plan for the stretchers directly onto the harpsichord bottom.
The next photo is a close-up of the rear legs and the drawn stretcher plan. We’ll take the dimensions and angles directly from this plan.
Next, we cut tenons onto the ends of the front and rear stretchers and mortises into the square sections at the top and bottom of each leg. Here is a mortise being cut on the dedicated mortiser.
Next, we prepare the upper and lower main stretchers, getting the dimensions and angles from the plan drawn on the Bottom. The stretchers are made from ¾” stock, 1 ½” in height. The top and bottom main stretchers have a piece of 5/6” threaded steel rod epoxied into their ends. This rod will pass through a hole in the front and rear stretchers and will connect the front and rear leg assemblies. The next photo shows all of the legs and stretchers.
We will add caps to the tops and bottoms of all stretchers in order to stiffen them. In addition to their decorative function, the caps also help the stretchers to resist warping. The caps are 1 ¼” wide and ¼” thick with a ¾” wide dado 1/8” deep routed into their bottom surfaces. The stretchers which are ¾” thick will slip into these dados. Here’s a photo of the caps.
Next step is to glue the caps onto the stretchers. The next photo shows caps being glued onto the tops of the upper and lower main stretchers.
The next photo shows the completed stand (minus the feet) sitting on top of the case bottom.
The knobs used to secure the bolts are simple wooden cabinet knobs I bought at the local borg. I drilled out the hole and epoxied a 5/16” brass insert into it to secure the bolts. The next photo shows the knob screwed down onto the bolt. Above is an extra knob showing the brass insert.
Now we have to secure the harpsichord body to the stand. We will accomplish this by gluing a dowel into the top surface of each of the four legs. Matching (I hope) holes will be drilled into the case bottom. The instrument is placed in position on the stand and the dowels slip into their holes in the case bottom. No mechanical fasteners are necessary. All we have to do is make certain that the holes and dowels line up. First step is to place the stand in position (upside down, of course) onto the case Bottom and retrace the top of each leg onto the Bottom. Of course, we already did that when we drew the stretcher plan onto the case Bottom but the plan and the execution are never quite the same. The holes for the stretcher bolts have to be drilled at 90 degrees to the front and rear stretchers but the stretchers themselves angle at 78 degrees. I’ve never found a good way to do this and rely on my eyes to hit the angle correctly. This time I got lucky and hit the angle correctly but the stretchers ended up about 1/8” short for some reason. Not a problem as the distance between the front and rear leg assemblies is not crucial. The next photo shows the redrawn position of a rear leg with a cross mark to show the middle of the square.
Next a small hole is drilled all the way thru the Bottom so it can be seen from the top when the harpsichord is turned upright. I use blue painters tape to outline each drawn square to make it easier to check if the legs are in their proper position. The case is flipped right-side up and placed in position on the stand. The case is moved on the stand until the legs are all centered between the tape indicators.
Then, using the four holes we already drilled as guides we drill from the inside of the case through those holes into the top of each leg. Now we have a drilled center mark on the top of each leg and a corresponding hole in the Bottom of the case. We then drill a 1” diameter hole in each leg top and a corresponding set of 1” holes in the case Bottom. The following photo shows two of these holes in the rear of the case Bottom.
And the two corresponding holes in the top of the rear legs.
Next, we separate the four feet that we turned earlier and drill a hole for a dowel in the center of each foot top. Here’s the four feet with the dowels installed.
Now that we know everything will fit properly, we disassemble the stand, apply glue to the mortises and tenons in the front and rear leg assemblies, clamp and allow to dry. Here’s the rear leg assembly glued up and clamped.
Now we can reassemble the stand and place the instrument on it. If the various glue-ups dried without moving, the dowels in the leg tops should fit perfectly into the holes in the case Bottom. Here’s a photo of those dowels at the rear of the case. Pretty good fit.
And, finally, here’s the harpsichord sitting on its stand.
And that’s it – all you ever wanted to know (and more, I’m sure) about building a basic harpsichord stand. I’m still waiting for a delivery of Sitka Spruce for the soundboard so next time we’ll tackle the case moldings.
We're now one month into this project and I've submitted 10 parts (out of 450 - just kidding, I hope). In case anyone would like to refer back to a previous part, I will include links to the various part of the project at the end of each post.
Thanks for staying with me and I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Ernie
Part 1 - The Keyboard Part 2 -Keyboard con't. Part 3 - Keyboard con't. Part 4 - The Case (Bentside) Part 5 - Case Bottom Part 6 - Case Sides Part 7 - The Lower Braces Part 8 - Case Finished Part 9 - Building the Registers Part 10 - The Stand Part 11 - Jackrail & Moldings
Part 12 - The Music Desk Part 13 - Building the Benchhttp://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/f101/harpsichord-project-part-12-music-desk-18962/
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