It is my harmonica teachers 70th birthday in April and I thought I would have a go at a harmonica case to fit a Seydel Saxony harmonica.
The oak cost me £7.50 for an 8ft length of 3" x 1".
The first try ended up showing me that my MD machine was not cutting square, so I spent a day with a large engineers square (the large engineer wants it back !) and a dial gauge to find out where the skew was. I found it and corrected it, but it is a design weakness, so I have to be wary that it could skew again !!!!
I used most of the oak to make firewood, and when I got the first good cuts I changed the design. So none left really.
After skimming the top, cutting the cavity and outside profile for both the bottom and the top, I cut a jig in softwood and put the pieces in it with some double sided tape and skimmed the faces with my new Chinese bottom cleaner (£2.08) before cutting the recess for the brass plate.
I attacked it with sandpaper and gave it a coat of sanding sealer before bringing it up to a finish with wire wool and wax. There was a slight disaster when one of the hinge screws broke and I had to drill it out, but it taught me to lubricate the screws to make them go in more easily (ooh err missus !). Inside I lined it with strips of adhesive foam and a top layer of black self adhesive felt. I CNC cut a perspex template and used a scalpel with a new blade to cut them out. My experiments with a drag knife were a failure !
The brass plate was engraved with code generated with Vcarve, but the woodwork was drawn with AutoCAD and converted toGcode with EstlCAM V8.
There were a few fails and bodges, but otherwise I am pleased with the end result.
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