Making Dulcimers In A Small Shop

My shop used to be a bedroom, a small bedroom. It is what a realtor would describe as being “cozy and intimate.”

I work primarily with hand tools so most of my time is spent standing or sitting by the bench.

I tend to multitask so there are several things in the works in this picture; I am prepping a cherry dulcimer for the final coat of finish and sharpening a few tools.

Here you can see a bunch of planes, tonewood waiting to become dulcimers, some bent sides, bending forms and some other stuff. That $5 halogen light has made working at night much easier.

There is a wall I haven’t shown that is also covered with tools and a closet filled with supplies; glues, finishes, sandpaper, more wood, a small drill press, etc.

I am very comfortable working in my shop. In the future I may move it to a larger room so that I can work on a few more instruments at a time but for now this setup works well.

I have a bandsaw in the garage and a small tablesaw in the basement that are used primarily for resawing and preparing a few parts of a dulcimer. I don’t use them much in my day-to-day work so it is not much of an inconvenience to go to the machines as needed.

On the other hand, I think I might try the following method of making my machines portable someday.