Clavichord Day 13 - Lid Work

Today, we planned to continue the Tortoiseshell decoration, but we discovered that it will take two coats of enamel primer to get a smooth enough surface.

Setting that aside to dry, we moved on to finishing up the lid work. This involved gluing on the music desk (where sheet music will rest), and gluing up 3 sides of the lid frame.

First, using the schematic drawing as a guide, the placement for the music desk was measured and drawn onto the inside surface of the BACK length of the lid (the same piece with the hinge marks).



Then, glue was put on the back side of the desk piece.



The music desk glued onto the lid frame:



When the lid is all assembled, the center panel (the piece being decorated with tortoiseshell) will not be glued into the frame. Rather, it will be free to float around in the groove so that it may move with changes of climate. So, the groove in each piece of the lid frame had to be sanded to make sure the center panel will have an easy time sliding around.



Moving on, the side splines of the lid frame had to be glued into the front piece (the back will be glued on later, after the whole case is varnished and waxed),


The front and two sides glued together, forming 3 sides of the lid:


That's all for today. More tortoiseshell work on the next day.