dulcimer thing update

dulcimer thing is lots of fun.  My finger's been hurting a lot lately, so I haven't been playing much, but I did finally get around to fabricating a machine tuner after a big bass string torqued one of my wood tuning pegs apart.  

It's pretty crude, but it almost works.  It needs a bit of help tuning up, but does fine coming down.  It definitely makes fine tuning easier.
The screw was turned using auto feed on a SB heavy 10 lathe.  The aluminum chunks and the gear were milled on a bridgeport using an end mill and a slitting saw respectively.  The gear was supposed to be press-fit, but it was loose even after epoxy.  I cut a slit in the shaft with a hacksaw and drove a wedge in while hot.  Now it holds.  Also, I got lazy about making a knob on the tuner, so I just heated and flattened the end of the screw shaft with a hammer.  You'll see in a later picture that the steel peg slides through a brass sleeve in the peghead so that it doesn't damage the wood.
Hopefully I'll turn out more, perhaps more functional versions of this in future.

I like this thing a lot.  There are more in the works