As I do with all of my projects, I am beginning this one with a plan. I have drawn out a fairly detailed plan of what the dulcimer will look like You can see it in the image below.
The plans will print on a regular USA Letter size sheet of paper, 8 1/2" by 11". Click on the image to view the pdf file of the plan.
The Plan
The design is based on a dulcimer kit that I built 25 years ago. I really like the look and sound of it, so I am adopting most of the design for this project. I have made some changes to the size of some of the parts to take advantage of my Mesquite materials. I am also going to change the hardware for the tuning pegs, and I will make use of a floating bridge instead of a bridge that is cut into the finger board. These details will come out as I progress with the build.
The image below is from a document that has a full size drawing of the peghead. It has the outline of the peghead in two different orientations, flipped horizontally. I will print that out and then paste two drawings directly onto the wood to locate the saw cuts and drilling locations precisely.
Once again, you can click on the image to view the pdf file with the full size peghead plan in it. It will print on a regular 8 1/2" by 11" sheet of paper.
Full Size Peghead Plan
Note
If you print this, make sure that you set up the print
dialog so that it will NOT scale the drawing to fit the page.
Sometimes the software will scale it down for the printer margins,
and if it does that, the drawing will not be the correct size.
After you print. Measure the drawing on the paper to make sure that it is the size indicated on the plan.
