Thread: violin from scratch

SDS,

See here for discussion on use of CF in violins.

Joseph Curtin Studios | Articles of Interest

Cheers Martin

Excellent.

Looks like the shine is starting to show on the mold now.

This is a very interesting build. I've played a cf fiddle and quite liked it but very exey. How thick will the plates, ribs and tone bar be ?

Cheers, Bill

been plodding along and have cast some moulds
the back plate is complete too 100grit (pic 1) and using the refection of a light to find the "cellulite" on the polished mold ,making high and low points (pic2)
took a cast of the finished back ,used carving wax to carve out an end rest and glued it on , will take a cast of that for the top plate mould (pic 3 )

bill im looking for experience violin players to test run my attempts for feed back , need critical feed back like ( how did you get that screaming cat in there ) , ( the wolf howls at E#) ,
will use the audio plotter program to make it as clean a sound as possible ,but its all trial and error to begin with

plan on making the top and bottom plates as thin as possible on the first build 3 sheets should make it 0.9mm thick , will stuff around with different types of epoxy and different grading of thickness to get the sound right ,a few non carbon fiber layers will be tried as well
from my tests with flat carbon fiber ( rulers vibrating on a table ) the sound output is 2x that of maple or spruce so will have to tone it down some way

Did you receive the articles I posted you?

yes thanks very much , have been out of town , that's a hard way to draw a violin but the f hole drawings ill use also how to draw a scroll is useful but planed on loosing the scroll to make it easy to cast , would need to make 2 moulds to cast a scroll then still would have to carve it so it would release easily from the mould

Sawdust ,You'll Find better fiddlers than me much closer to home . Try the C. & W. club or an Irish sessin at a pub.
I'm thinking a way of controlling the vol./tone is to start with an oversize tone bar and start creeping up on it .

I'v been thinking since my last post .Ideally the inst .has strings and is at pitich to adjust the tonebar .A plate with a slot above the tonebar to allow for a bit of paring could be replaced later .The slot will be a factor with the tone but this could get you close .I'm just guessing .

thanks for the input ball peen
plan on using epoxy with a low heat breakdown to glue the bottom plate on so will be mucking with the base bar a lot , carbon fiber violins do have a problem being low in bass , (well , louder in the high frequencies ,really) , so will also look at absorbing the high frequencies , thanks for the input

thought i would just post my progress

the back mould is finished (pic 1 ) 2 coats of PVA sealer / release on just have to cast a solid backing to the mould ( plaster )

the Top mould has had its last coat of fiberglass epoxy and needs to be sanded right back and polished ( pic 2 ) the blue wax "end rest" will come out once its polished

started on the "rib" moulds , the gross looking thing in pic 3 is the inside edge of the ribs , just has a first coat of epoxy heavy in microsphere's for a high build filler , will sand it back place a top and bottom plate over each side and cast the rib moulds from there , 3 moulds , top bout , bottom bout and between the bouts , the other side will just be flipped peaces from the same moulds
this template has a 2mm pitch to the small end
i have the top and bottom plates turned up at the bouts 1mm so i can reinforce the bout joins on the inside in this area

the full length rib mould popped from its form , was expecting to have to make 3 moulds for the different parts and join them up after , then though if i make the mold flexible enough i might get away with 1 mold for the full length side
the rib side of the mould is carbon fiber 50% with fiberglass used a epoxy mix with heaps of air bubbles mixed in to get it flexible , the sides are 2-3 lays of fiberglass with aerated epoxy again

though the mold had laminated its self to the form but came away with a bit of twisting
still have to clean up the mold and polish

now ill make the Neck of the violin , still undecided if a scroll will go on the end , will sketch some necks up and think

and the madness has bitten yet another one.

Go for your life mate, love the line drawings and your approach to new-school materials. There is a whack of good information out there, Roy's book being one of the many resources.

Sidebar: bought a violin in LA in 2001, made the thing sound like a sick cat. 28 days later it was shipped out to an eBay customer. there is a very talented young violinist here in our little tourist/fishing town, she gives lessons. had my first lesson last week and there was not an ill feline in sight. years of playing fretless helped a little. the fact that this person is charming and attractive helped in the inspiration department a bit, too... but i digress.

Classics and Flamencos are the call to action these days, but you bowed guys are a hoot. bloody little tiny pieces of timber or CF as the case may be... maybe someday. depends on how the "lessons" go.

post us some more pics as you move forward, ay?

knocked up a neck , spent all yesterday drawing different necks and went for just a plain no frills neck to start with
was quite surprised how quick it came together , lol , 3 hours from a turning blank ( silky oak)

Sawdust you are very facile with this mouldmaking caper , are you a boatbuilder ?