Cutting a Scroll Head

Page 2

This is where we left off at on the previous page. We have a pretty much completed scroll head but we still need a way to attach the sides. Since all of my dulcimers have the hour glass shape, the sides come in at an angle. We need to provide an angled slot to recieve the sides.

I cut this slot using the table saw with the blade set at the proper angle and the scroll head being fed through the saw while being held with a tenoning jig. I use a saw blade with the same ferf as the thickness of my sides.

Caution!!!!

Use some mechanical means to hold the scroll head while doing this operation. Any time you cut an angled slot on a table saw, the blade is a lot more prone to being pinched and the wood kicking out. NO NOT use the saw fence as a guide as you create a double pinch possibility with the additional possibilty of the wood also being pinched between the blade and the fence. This poceedure got me once and I'll probably never be able to finger pick again as a result of it. Use something such as a tenoning jig to hold the wood.

Now that our scroll head is slotted, we can either quit now or do a little decorating. As long as you don't do anything to either weaken the scroll head, make it difficult for the sides or fret board to fit or make it difficult to install the tuners, you can pretty much do as you please. A lot of people do a little carving or maybe some wood burning and that's all fine. On most of my dulcimers, I just put a slight taper on the end of the scroll head.

As I did with the side slot, I use the table saw and the tenoning jig to cut the taper except this time, I tilt the face of the tenoning jig instead of the saw blade.

A little final sanding to smooth the taper and we're through.

And this is the final product compared with one yet to be cut.