TECHNIQUE FOR SETTING PEGS IN VIOLINS

One of the single most frustrating problems a violin builder has is setting pegs in the peg box so that they turn easily but when tuned, will stay tuned without slipping. The technique I am about to elaborate on was taught to me by Ed Campbell of Chimney’s Violin Workshop of Boiling Springs PA. I have found it to be very successful in eliminating a great deal of that frustration.

First of all, ream the hole of your pegbox to the diameter you intend to fit the pegs to. It is wise to keep the holes a little smaller than what you think is just right as these hole expand while fitting the pegs or with very little use. Mark a spot on your reamer and ream your holes to about one quarter inch from the spot on the reamer. Reverse the reamer and compress the hole opening until the spot on the reamer is reached. These peg holes should be consistently the same size. This now should be a solid and round foundation for the peg to seat to.

Take a piece of plywood about 10″ by 14″ to place on your lap or work bench and hang the knob of the peg over the end of the board. Using a knife, place the blade at the collar rings of the peg on the shaft and roll the peg away from you to make a stop cut to keep from splitting the collar rings out or off when shaving the pegs. Shave the pegs slowly and smoothly to the stop cut and down to the size necessary to put the collar rings 16 to 18 mm from the outside of the pegbox when the peg is placed in the hole. Using a fine sandpaper or steelwool, smooth the surface of the peg. Using black Liquid shoe polish stain or ebonizer (which I believe to be black shoe polish), stain the shank of the pegs, let dry and polish with a soft cloth.

Now comes the crucial part. Using peg dope to lubricate the peg, place the peg in the hole and twist the peg until it begins to show a shiny surface where it is riding in the hole. You will notice, because the peg is not truly round that parts of the shiny ring will not be shiny. This is the primary cause for pegs to stick or slip in the holes. Scrape down the shiny parts a little and put back in the hole and twist to create the shiny ring again. If there still appears to be dull spots on the ring continue scraping and fitting until there is an even shiny ring around the peg. You will note the length of the peg is getting closer to the pegbox. You should have approximately 15 to 16 mm length from collar rings to the pegbox when finished.

At this point I will take a knife, laying it flat against the peg box at the small end of the peg, twist the peg with the knife edge cutting into the peg. This will create a mark to cut the away excess. Saw away the excess about 1 mm inside the mark or at least to the inside of the line cut with the knife. By doing this you will insure the peg will not hang out of the pegbox when finally seated. Using a fine file or rough sandpaper smooth and slightly round off the end of the peg, then fmish with at least a 600 grit polishing sand paper. To get the sheen to come up on the end of the peg, rub it briskly against your jeans. Drill the holes about one quarter inch to 3/8″ fium the small end of the peg for stringing the instrument. These hole should be no bigger than 1/32″ in diameter. If much larger, they have a tendency to lose the string. Place in the hole, twist a couple of times to locate the shiny ring and lubricate with the peg dope. Twist the peg in the hole to lubricate the hole until you feel comfortable with how the peg turns in the hole. You should note the ease with which the peg will turn in the hole but will stay in place with the pressure of the tuned string against it. Wallah!!!! Hopefully you have achieved that frustating goal of pegs that turn but stay put in the hole when tuned.

 

LUTHIER’S BENDING IRONPlease take into considerations some of the thoughts I will present here. To increase the life of your iron, I would suggest that once the iron has reached bending temperature, usually no more than 15 to 18 minutes, that the knob be turned counter-clockwise to reduce the amount of electricity that generates the heat. Experiment with this adjustment to get the right setting then mark it on the box. I have cut a small notch in the knob that will allow you to set the knob and know where it will work best. Mark on the box the range where it will heat the best temperature for what you are bending. The optimum temperature for bending most ribs should be around 170* to 200*. Do not allow it to get so hot it will burn the rib. For lead centered cores on some bending irons, if left to heat at maximum temperature, the lead could possibly melt. I don’t really anticipate that happening as the element is only forty or sixty watts and it would take quite a lot more to really melt the lead as there is a pretty good sized heat sink in the amount of the lead used. When bending, use a backing support for the ribs. For violin ribs, I use a very thin piece of aluminum about 1 3/8″ wide by 20″ long and about 24 ga. You will need larger backing for wider ribs you may be bending. This is about the gauge most aluminum flashing or gutter material would be and can be acquired at any major hardware store and is easily scored with a knife, folded and broken along the scored line or cut with scissors. Place the dampened rib between the aluminum strap and the iron, then put it against the backside of the hot iron and pull the aluminum and rib toward you around the iron. You will determine the speed and amount of bend you can achieve along the rib by experiment and experience. It might be wise to use a couple of practice pieces just to learn how the iron will work. The more heavily the rib is figured, the more easily it will break so be very careful and make your bending very slow. For the long rib pieces, once the ‘C’ bout end has been bent, turn the rib over and place on the other side of the strap and bend the long graceful curve. I like to make single piece bottom ribs for most violins. Saves having to make a joint at the endpin. Rib length to do this is about 17 1/2 inches and saves a lot of time. Always bend your longest bouts first, as if you plan to use the single piece for the bottom bout, you may break it when bending the ends or even in the middle somewhere. This should allow you to use this rib somewhere else and still have a long rib to bend for the long bout. This bending iron is warranted for my lifetime (71+ but still going strong) against element burn out. It is a very simple design. The dimmer switch knob either twists clockwise to ‘on’ or pushes ‘on’ and ‘off’, then varying the heat by twisting the knob. I will include a replacement element with your purchase of any bending iron, but if a dimmer switch goes out, I will be happy to replace it. On the first iron I built, it lasted ten years and was still working when I replaced the total bending iron.So, there it is. I wish you much happy bending.

BOW REHAIRING TECHNIQUE

The technique I use in rehairing bows now makes more sense that what I had previously used. Dismantle the frog from the bow by twisting the adjusting screw completely out of the bow. Remove the frog from the bow then lifting the hair away from the tip, dig out the plug that holds the hair in the tip of the bow. Remove the hair from the frog by removing the wedge between the hair and the frog, then slip the ferrule from the frog. Carefully remove the slide from the frog, then the plug that holds the hair in the frog. Clean up the frog, frog parts, bow, and tip of the bow. A good furniture cleaner/polish will work fine. If the bow is badly scarred, the varnish damaged, this can be scraped off, sanded with very fine sandpaper, or use fine steel wool to smooth the surface. I like to take a high content carnuba wax compound and wax the cleaned bow stick. It puts a nice protective coat on the stick that can be shined up and easily recoated if further damage occurs. Make any other repairs to the wrapping or leather.

Place the bow in the bow rehair jig if you have one. Secure the bow with rubber bands over the bow. (See illustration below). This will hold the bow solidly and make the rehair job much easier to manipulate.

Using hair that has already been bound and is ready to secure to the frog, place the bound end of the hair in the frog and replace the plug. If the plug was ruined in removing it, cut a new one from spruce,or willow, if available. Replace the slide very carefully as all hair should be between the inside edges of the frog and beneath the slide and the slide should come even with the end of the ferrule position. Replace the ferrule by straightening a paper clip, run it through the ferrule while catching the hair to be drawn through the ferrule. Slip the ferrule in place. If the wedge was salvaged, replace it between the hair and the frog making sure the hair is evenly distributed across the ferrule. If the wedge was not salvaged cut another from spruce in the same shape as the one that came out.

Replace the frog in the bow stick inserting the screw and turning the screw in to a point where the frog is about one-third of the way out from its completely relaxed position from the tip end of the stick. (This position of the frog allows some slack if the hair goes in too tight when the hair is put in the tip.) Comb the hair using a regular comb, until all strands are parallel with each other. Stretch the hair down over the tip of the bowstick across the tip opening. Mark the hair with a pencil on top at the point where the hair crosses the end of the opening most distant from the frog. Wrap the wire tightly around the hair 1/4″ to 3/8″ from this mark toward the loose ends of the hair with eight revolution, then twist the wire together to tie. Cut excess hair off 1/16″ from the wire, flatten hair with pliers, and glue using super glue. Allow the glue to fully setup before attempting to put into the hole. We want no hair glued into the bowstick anywhere.

Remove the frog from the bow stick again, then making sure the pencil mark is facing the tip of the bow, slip the hair in place and replace the plug or cut a new plug to hold the hair in the tip. Take care in forcing the plug in place as it must fit tight but not so tight as to break out the tip. The hair should be evenly distributed across the tip of the bow. Moisten the hair or even wet it with water, and replace the frog in the bow as before. Tighten the bowhair. You will notice a number of hairs that are loose. These can be tightened by using a hairdryer on low heat to heat the loose hairs and shrink them to the same tautness of the other hair. Take care not to burn the hair. If you seem to have a great number of hairs that are loose, it may be wise to separate the taut hair from the loose hair by putting an piece of writing paper in between. By moving the hair dryer up and down the length of the hair. there is less likelyhood of burning the hair. Wal—la!! You have successfully rehaired your bow if when you have brought the hair to full tension and the tip plug stays in place.

PS

Recently I heard from a lady who was having trouble getting the rosin to adhere to the new bowhair.  I suggested she get a soft cloth and douse it with alcohol and rub it across her rosin cake a few times, then rub this rosin laced cloth along the surface of the bowhair.  It works like a champ as I did try this myself.   Get away from the frustration of trying to get rosin on the bowhair by priming it with this technique.  I think you will like it.

BUSHING PEGBOX HOLES WITH SPIRAL BUSHINGS AND FITTING PEGS

I enjoy getting people out of fixes. Unfortunately, some violin builders do not take the time to shave pegs. The peg is put in the peg box at near the size it come to you. That being the case, with very little wear, the peg will soon be down against the collar rings of the peg. You can bush the peg holes yourself. It is a relatively simple project and will take a couple of attempts to make it right, but once you have it, you will find it quite easy to do and satisfying. Get a piece of straight grained figure-less maple at least 6 inches long, and about 1/4 inch thick. Using a block plane shave off a number of shaving that will be the full 6 inches long. They should be relatively thin. Using one of the shav-ings, put glue on the outside of the strip, wrap it around a small paint brush handle, round on top of round. Your total diameter of the bushing should fit into the hole you are to bush. Glue the bushing into place by forcing it in tight to the peg box. Make sure the handle of the paint brush will come out but leave it in until the glue is dry. Once the glue is dry, shave off the outside and inside excess of the bushing, and reream the holes keeping them smaller than the small end of the peg. Mark the reamer to the depth you intend the hole size to be and run the reamer into the hole to 1/4″ from that mark, then reverse the twisting of the reamer to compress the bushing. When you have compressed to the mark on the reamer, your hole should be finished. Shave the pegs to have the collar rings remain about 18 mm from the pegbox,and try the fit. Twist the pegs in the hole to seat the peg. If you find spots that shine appearing on the peg, scrape them away until the peg becomes shiny all the way around evenly. The distance should be 15 to 17 mm from the collar ring to the pegbox. This process will make the pegs easy to turn but with proper peg dope will allow them to remain in place when the string is tuned.

VIOLIN ‘C’ BOUT FORMING JIG.

This Jig is new to the market as I have never seen one available
for sale. It takes a great deal of the frustration out of bending
those sharp corners in the ‘c’ bout ribs as the rib is formed
around the jig and held in place with an aluminum strap. I soak
my rib stock before bending. Loosen the nut on the bolt, unhook
and straighten the strap, place the rib stock in the jig and pressing
the strap and rib against the bending iron, wrap the rib and strap
around the jig. When you reach the end, trim the length of the rib if
necessary, fasten the strap over the bolt and twist the nut down tight to put pressure on the rib to the jig. If you need a little more strap to fit over the bolt, the hinge end is merely bent over the post and can be rebent to give more roomto fit the other end over the bolt and into the slot. You won’t be disappointed with this jig. If you have other questions, email me.   $19.95, 1 lb shipping weight, $5.00 S/H includes postage to lower US from 98036. International buyers, email for shipping.

 

GLUE JIG FOR TOPS AND BACKS

A simple but most effective gluing jig can be simply made saving a great deal of frustration in dealing with clamps and resulting mis-alignment. Find below the explanation for an easy to build clamping device which can be made in a few minutes. It works well for any size glue jobs you need to make and especially if you intend to make a number of the same size gluings.

For violin and viola, a piece of ¾ inch plywood 14” by 20” for most gluings will work as the base. Splitting a 2 X 4 down the middle then glue and screw the pieces to the long edges of the base, then screw 1” X 2”slats across the top of them at the middle and both ends which will afford stability and strength in the base. Line the inside of the base with thin plastic sheet to keep the glue from adhering the plate to the base.

Make sure your glue joint will be perfect before attempting to glue. This can be checked by placing the fitted joint pieces against a window to check for visible light at the joint. To achieve a perfect vertical joint, affix a plane to a flat piece of plywood clamping it on its side. With another ¼ inch piece of plywood clamped to the plywood base, next to the plane blade, you can run the wood along the plane and shave an accurate straight joint that is perpendicular to make a close joint to glue.

Cut a number of slender ¾” maple wedges ½” tapered to ¼” about 4” long to be used against the plate and the sides of the jig, alternating the angle of the wedge with the next and using a mallet, after positioning the plate and the wedges, tap the wedges into place to force the joint closed. Do not overdo tapping as too tightly together you may force too much glue from the joint leaving a weak glueless joint. If the distance is too much for the wedges between the edge of the jig and the plate, a piece of 1” X 1” or 1” X 2” placed along the edge of the side will take up space quickly. To keep the plate flat, tap a wedge at the joint between the cross member and the top of the plate. The picture below should be pretty self-explanatory.

 INSTALLING PERFLING

Make sure your plates are the exact size you want to fit to the rib harp. If they are off, and you have to adjust the shape of the top or back after the perfling groove is in place, you will have a narrow margin between the outside and the perfling in places. I usually glue the top to the rib harp first and adjust the overhang before cutting the perfling groove as it is easier to fit the neck in and make sure the neck will fit exactly to the back by allowing sanding of the back of the ribs and neck base at the same time.

The tool I use to cut my perfling grooves is the Dremel tool with a number 98 saw. Dremel has two different size round saw blades. For violin, use the smaller one. This saw blade is just exactly the right depth for the groove and pretty well fits the thickness of the perfling. The saw is adapted with a piece of 1/4 inch copper tube about 4 inches long with a 1/8 inch hole drilled near one end to allow the shaft of the saw to go through. Using a small washer between the copper tube and the chuck of the dremel tool, I can set the depth of the saw to cut where I want the groove to be on the top or back. Letting the copper tube ride perpendicularly to the edge of the plate, (I hold it there with my left index finger), I can control the distance from the edge around the plate for this groove. As shaft friction against the copper tube creates consid-erable heat it is well to use a glove or glove fing-er on the index finger to hold the copper in place. The Dremel is held in the left hand, index finger holding the copper tube perpendicular, the right hand thumb pushing the tool against the work. You will note you cannot make the sharp corners with the saw. Start your groove at the straight part of the bout next to the ‘C’ bout curves and then hand cut the ‘C’ bout sharp curves at a later time. When ready to finish the ‘C’ bout groove, cut only the ends of the inside ‘C’ bout curves first and inlay the perfling in the ‘C’ bouts. Then cut the outside curves for the larger bouts as it is to easy to loose the points of the spruce or maple (they can easily break out) with out having the support of ‘C’ bout perfling in place.

 

Before attempting to cut the groove on your plate, cut several smaller pieces of both maple and spruce with curves to do some practice on. It is essential to learn to control this tool before you try on your finished pieces. It is too easy to slip or for the saw to get caught and jump causing damage. I have been very successful using this method and can usually cut all but the ‘C’ bout corners and the back button in about 20 to 30 minutes for both pieces. Set the cutting speed at about 5, as too fast burns the saw, too slow will bog the dremel down. In cutting with this saw you will notice the fuzz being brought up against the grain when sawing. Smooth it toward the center of the groove and cut it away with an exacto knife.

To fit the perfling in the groove, you may find it to fit very tight or not wanting to go into the groove easily. Using the back of a spoon with the perfling laying against a flat smooth surface, compress the edge of the perfling on both side to narrow the thickness of the perfling. Once the glue is on it it will swell into fitting tight.

BUTTON REPLACEMENT ON MAPLE BACK

More than once in cutting out the back of a violin, I have inadvertently cut the button off the back of a very nice piece of maple. This can be replaced using a technique that will allow for no more than tiny joint showing from the outside of the perfling to the edge of the plate. This technique is best achieved after you have finished the back ready to cut the perfling groove. Cut a narrow piece of matching figure maple the width of the button about 1/4 inch thick and 1 1/4 inches long. Cut the perfling groove at the button, make a shallow cut across the small piece of maple about half way and about 3mm deep. Bevel the end from the cut to the end allowing 2mm thickness remaining at the end. Find the center of the plate where the button should go, and mark on the plate either side of the piece to be put in place. Cut away the necessary under side so that the bevel on the plate matches the bevel on the small piece and the piece inserted will be somewhat higher than the finished plate on inside or outside, to be detailed after the glue is dry. the cut on the insert should but up against the cut of the perfling groove, allowing the groove to be opened to the proper groove width at that point. Sanding the inside smooth to the height of the rest of the plate should allow a snug fit for the base of the neck when in place.

This technique may also be used to repair a back that has lost its button through damage. See appropriate graphic below.