Please tell Lynn to give me a call, there are a fair number around that can be bought for really good prices if you are patient.  I just bought an almost new, rarely played  25 year old McSpadden for $150.00. and that included case, noters, strings, picks and all sorts of stuff.

So far as the crack is concerned I wouldn't worry too much about it right now if it is holding. , though folk like KenH and KenL can tell you more than I.  Anyway, tell Lynn to give me a call before he decides to buy one any time soon.  If its a local deal, I'll check it out with or for you if you wish.

I'll have to try tomorrow when I can put it out in the daylight.  It barely shows.  However, we tried Ken Hulme's suggestion with the thin superglue.  My husband held it in position for about 15 minutes.  And it seems to be holding.  It is one of the rounded edges of the f sound holes.  It did not break all  the way through.

Lynn has gotten interested  and is eyeing a cheap one on eBay.  I have warned him of our Moderator/owner's post about cheap knock-offs on another site.....

Can you post a picture of it?  

How did you make out with this?

I just cracked one of my f shaped sound holes yesterday while practicing.  My crack sounds much like yours--except that it is much smaller, and I'm  broken-hearted over it.

updated by @angelinacat: 01/20/20 02:32:54PM

You need to open the crack a bit, by pushing down on one side or the other, then as suggested, wick in a bead of thin, not thick, superglue and stop pushing so the two halves come back together properly before the superglue sets. Quickly wipe up any excess. If it's an open crack, a small hole drilled at each end of the split will prevent the crack from continuing to "run".

If your dulcimer has a hard finish - urethane, varnish, lacquer or anything other than oil, and you have a messy glue patch, you'll have to either ignore it, or sand the old varnish (and glue smear) off and refinish the back.

My friend Ed Weiss recently restored my uke, which has been in the family for exactly 90 years. It had a wicked crack in the back. He ran a bead of the thick kind of superglue into the seam, smoothed it out, scraped the excess with a razor blade, and applied a new coat of tung oil. That part of the operation only took about 5 minutes. (He also replaced the tuners, but retained the 60 year old strings). You can still see the crack, but it is a very solid repair and the issue is much less visible than before. Now, to learn to play the thing!

How big are the sound holes and what is the possibility of working on the crack from the inside. There are epoxys that could possibly be applied to a thin slat, eased into place through a soundhole and pressed down with a piece of dowel. The dowel would only be used to position the gluey strip and press it down firmly onto the crack, it is not part of the repair. There are very good epoxys that would make a permanent repair without clamping.


--
The Dulcimer. If you want to preserve it, jam it!

My granddaughter dropped a steel ball on the back of my favorite dulcimer and put a big crack in it. Is there any way to repair a crack? It's along the wood grain, and barely noticeable to the eye, but I'm afraid it'll crack even more if I don't do something about it. Any suggestions?

updated by @molly-mccurdy: 06/08/16 09:24:05PM