A New "Old" Project

Back maybe 20 to 25 years ago, my sister was wandering through a yard sale in Silver Spring, MD. She came across a partially assembled mountain dulcimer in a plastic bag. I think she told me she paid $2 for it. Could have been less, I don't remember, but certainly no more than that. The back was glued to the sides, the top had the fretboard glued to it, but they were not glued together. The end block and peg head were glued to the  back and sides. There were problems with everything lining up correctly. I took it apart sometime in the past, but life became too busy for me to work on. It has been sitting on a shelf under one of my workbenches for all these years. It is a kit that someone started and then ran in to problems with the assembly. I decided to get it out from under the bench and put it back together. My first job is to clean all the pieces. The sides need to be bent back to shape. The top was broken apart and glued back together (before I received it). That repair does not look too bad, but I will put a few small cleats along the crack to make sure it does not separate again. Here are two photos. One is of the pieces and the other one is a close up of the repaired crack.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."