Clavichord Day 19 - Balance Pins, Backrail Cloth, Punchings

Continuing on with the keyboard, we started out the day getting the balance pins into the balance rail. First, they were lightly tapped in.


Each pin should only stick out 5/8", so we made a small block at that height and drilled a hole in it. With this block set over each pin, it was easy to hammer them down to the right depth.




Here's a look from the front with the nameboard in place. The 5/8" height of each balance pin is perfect for sitting just below the nameboard without touching.


Here's an illustration of the "see-saw" point I made yesterday about the keys. Notice the key sitting around a balance pin in the center. The thumbnail we previously glued onto the back of the key sits in its respective slot in the guide rack.


The backs of the keys, as seen above, will constantly be swinging up and down when the instrument is being played. Thus, the backs of the keys will be landing on that backrail quite often. To soften that blow, we now cut to size and nailed in place a length of black wool along the top ledge of the backrail, where the backs of the keys rest.




The keys will also get a lot of action at the balance pin, so to protect the centers of the keys we put on each balance pin a small red felt punching.


Here's a look at the case with the black wool on the backrail and the red punchings on the balance pins. Looks neat!

Clavichord Day 4 - Balance Rail and Cheeks

The beginning of the day was a real chore. We had to assemble a dry run of the rest of the case, and test the highest and lowest keys on the keyboard to make sure that everything would line up ok. The idea was to find the exact location for the balance rail, which will be glued and screwed into the bottom.

The balance rail will have all the pins on which the keys balance, each one like a little see-saw.

After sanding off a bit here, and gluing a shim there, we were finally able to make a pencil marking for the balance rail and mark for the screws.



The next step was to drill through the bottom with the tapered bit.



Then, the balance rail was temporarily glued in place, so we could flip it all over and drill through the same holes into the rail. Finally, we turned it back over, re-glued, and fed in the screws through both pieces from the bottom up.



The balance rail, glued in (before cleanup).



Now that all the adjustments had been made, the cheeks went in square and easy with glue and clamps. These cheeks will create the side walls of the keywell, where the keyboard will ultimately lie.



End of Day 4--balance rail and cheeks added to our case.