So now that the tail block is set, last night I put the sides into the head block. While the sides were "pre-bent" according to the kit description, it took a surprising amount of tension to get them into the block. I was a little nervous, but it seemed to work. I also drilled a hole into the the side for the crank, which was surprisingly hard. 5/8 of an inch is a bit bigger than it sounds! Here's how it looked once the head block was glued and the hole drilled. (Sorry about the night-vision setting. That was an accident.)
The next step was to make sure the body was symmetrical. I traced an outline of the form onto a piece of cardboard, and then flipped the instrument-to-be over and compared the lines. It was definitely NOT symmetrical. The hurdy gurdy is supposed to be egg-shaped, but the head block was about two centimeters off center, which was noticeable to the naked eye. This has been a game of sixteenths of inches so far, so two centimeters was pretty substantial.
The instructions said, if the sides are mis-shapen, to use strong tape to pull the instruments sides into the proper shape. But the masking tape I tried was not strong enough, and I didn't have any other options. So I took some time and built a simple rig that held the tail block in place, while pulling the head block two centimeters over to the left. It looks like this:
It's not pretty, but it should work...fingers crossed. Then I laid in some support strips along the inside top (I can't do the strips on the bottom while it is in the straightening rig). Since I didn't have more than a few clothespins, I used chip-clips and clamps. Yikes.
I'm going to leave it in this rig overnight and see if it comes out straight by tomorrow. Cross your fingers.
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