A Whole Lot Of Hot Air
Good Morning, Y'all - Happy Friday!
Another one of the joys of setting up our new shop (I mentioned electricity last week) was air. Compressed air, specifically. We use compressed air all over the building.
Compressed Air - It's Everywhere!
Our belt sander needs compressed air to keep the sanding belt centered on the rollers. Our laser cutter uses compressed air to keep the focusing lens clean. Our side benders (the new ones made by David Marks in the 1990s) use compressed air to bend sides into the cool hourglass dulcimer shape. Our older, 1970's side benders, made by Howard Rugg don't require compressed air. But they do require a fair amount of muscle!
Lots of compressed air lines to power the two side benders pictured above. See the gray tubes - three of them - on the top of each side bender? Those are pneumatic cylinders. Put air in one side, they extend (and push our side sets into the correct shape). Put air in the other side? The cylinders contract, and release the pressure on the sides. It is an ingenious system!
The Lacquer Room Needs Air, Too
Our lacquer room also uses compressed air - to mix the lacquer. We have a cool, non-electric mixing paddle for each of our lacquer pots, which avoids the danger of having a potential spark/explosion/fire/bad situation near the highly flammable lacquer and lacquer fumes. Our lacquer room uses compressed air to aerosolize the liquid lacquer into a mist. The aerosolized mist is what we use to protect the bare wood of your dulcimers.
We have multiple pots of lacquer going, so the compressed air setup in the lacquer room is more complex than many of our other work areas. Here's a photo of one wall of the lacquer room - the pots hook up on the right side, and they weren't done when this photo was taken:
And we use compressed air at all of our workbenches. Not so much for tools as for keeping parts clean for glue-ups, or finished instruments clean for lacquer application.
All in all, it is a LOT of little parts. We start with one output from the air compressor, and split it into a bunch of outputs. We made a splitter (called a manifold) that gives us the equivalent of six outputs from one. Aly compared our manifold to a power strip - one input, a series of matching outputs. Just from the compressor to the manifold, we have "T" connections, ball valves, a union fitting, and a drain. From the manifold to each tool, we have the various connectors, the hose or pipe, then (right before the tool) another drain, a shut-off valve, and of course, another filter/regulator combination. The filters remove any oil and water that made it into the air, while the regulators allow us to have the correct pressure of air. Some tools require a LOT of pressure, some can't take much at all.
A Lot Of Time & Effort
Dad and I spent days setting up our compressed air system, from the air compressor itself to the hoses and fittings connecting everything, to the filters at each point of use. It was a lot of trips to the hardware store, spread out over several weeks. The hardware store is over 30 miles from our shop, so we combined hardware store trips with other errands as much as we could.
It's a lot. Kind of like an Erector set, but only all the parts are round instead of flat.
I was asked to remind you that "Play Music On The Porch Day" is coming up in a couple more weeks - Saturday, August 29. Consider yourself reminded!
Now I'm heading back to the shop. Gotta make some more fretboard blanks today.
Thank you for reading, all of you. I do appreciate having the chance to share our shop endeavors with you.
Sincerely,
Richard Ash, luthier-who-works-with-a-lot-of-hot-air-some-of-which-isn't-actually-his-own-hot-air
P.S. Which might make more sense if you knew that air, when compressed, gets hot.
FOLKCRAFT® DULCIMER PLAYER OF THE WEEK: JACQUIE CARAVELLO
Folkcraft: How long have you been playing the dulcimer?
Jacquie: I started playing about 12 years ago, but life got in the way. Then, during the pandemic, I dusted off my old dulcimer and decided to get serious about it.
Folkcraft: When did you get your first Folkcraft dulcimer?
Jacquie: Three years ago I ordered my first Folkcraft in walnut with a butternut top, ebony fretboard and 25" VSL. A couple years ago my husband made me the walnut chromatic dulcimer from a Folkcraft kit. He has since made 15 more dulcimers and learned to play!
Folkcraft: Where do you enjoy playing your dulcimer?
Jacquie: I play weekly with our group, Sugar River Dulcimers, at the local library. I also enjoy playing at home, at...
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF JACQUIE'S INTERVIEW AND READ ABOUT OTHER FOLKCRAFT PLAYERS LIKE JACQUIE & YOU
FOLKCRAFT® PLAYERS - WE LOVE HEARING FROM YOU!
No new player (Oh, dear...) to add to our online dulcimer community today, but we are happy to re-feature Jacquie Caravello, who first joined the Folkcraft family in November of 2024. Hey Jacquie - Are you still playing weekly with the Sugar River Dulcimers?
There's still plenty of room for more of you, folks! Maybe we could feature you and your Folkcraft dulcimer(s) next week?
Who's Going To Write In Next? Keep The Family Growing?
It really is super-easy to join our online dulcimer community. Just three easy steps:
1) Send an email to: newsletter@folkcraft.com
2) With the answers to the four questions below
3) Attach a photo of yourself with your Folkcraft dulcimer(s)
We look forward to receiving your submission & featuring you in our newsletter real soon!
1. How long have you been playing the dulcimer?
2. When did you get your first Folkcraft dulcimer?
3. Where do you enjoy playing your dulcimer?
4. What other hobbies, or interests, do you have besides playing dulcimer?
WE'RE OFFERING A $25 FOLKCRAFT GIFT CARD TO ANYONE WHO ANSWERS THE FOUR EASY QUESTIONS LISTED ABOVE, AND SENDS IN A PHOTO (OF YOU WITH YOUR FOLKCRAFT DULCIMER). IT'S REALLY SO EASY TO DO!
WE JUST LOVE HEARING FROM Y'ALL!
This Week's Featured YouTube Video:
This week we’ll take the song "London Bridge" and learn it two ways. (Tablature is included below). We will play it first on the melody line, then we will move onto those other two strings and get them involved! Try and take any song you have learned and pick it out somewhere else. Have fun! Click on the image below to listen & learn.
To download a PDF of this handout, go to our Video Instruction page on our website, Folkcraft.com, and scroll down to the video titled "A Bridge Exercise."
We have a slew (that's a fancy luthier word for "bunch") of videos for you to watch on our YouTube channel. Click here to see the full list. Be sure to comment on a video, and subscribe to the channel - either action helps us a LOT with YouTube's suggestion algorithms.
Let's dig a little deeper today, shall we? Elaine Conger has written a book containing 100 bass lines of common jam tunes, which would give you a great roadmap for the bass side of your new MaxDAD. We're also shining a spotlight on one of Larry Conger's single-song solo arrangements (one of many!) created for standard dulcimer. Which would give the standard side of your new MaxDAD something fun to do. So, whether you're wanting to enhance the sound of the dulcimer group you're playing with, or if you'd like to focus on working up a nice solo arrangement, we've got you covered. (Just click on either cover to download.)
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BASS DULCIMER!
by Elaine Conger
Contains bass line patterns for 100 of the most played jam tunes. It is the perfect tool for jam sessions and/or adding a part to an existing arrangement.
The tabs are arranged in DAD tuning and closely follow what you would expect a bassist to play. These are not solo arrangements. Instead, they are single note, accompaniment style arrangements. (59 pages)
HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN
by Larry Conger
Larry Conger (renowned teacher, performer, and arranger) has created this arrangement for mountain dulcimer solo. We're offering it here as a PDF format download, so you can enjoy the song right away.
You can't go wrong with anything that Larry makes available, and we're sure that you'll enjoy this dulcimer tab solo. (3 pages)
These books are published by Fingers Of Steel, and are made available here as an authorized, licensed download.
ONLY AVAILABLE AS A DOWNLOAD