Homemade Carbon Fiber Violin

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By Sean Michael Ragan
Posted 2011/12/06 @ 6:00 am
Category Craft, Music, Woodworking

Impressive feat from Ken over at Instructables, who writes:

All up it took me 10 months of Sundays, from the time I decided to start to finished product. I had never made a violin before, and my carbon fibre skills were below basic. It was a huge learning curve but between the info on the net and getting your hands dirty and “givin it a go,” anything is possible.

He laid up all the parts himself from loose carbon fiber cloth, into molds of his own manufacture, using a vacuum bag to apply the resin. A large number of his early plates were rejected for poor tone, as judged by a simple “tap” test.

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BY Sean Michael Ragan

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I write for MAKE, serve as Technical Editor for MAKE magazine, and develop original DIY content for Make: Projects.

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0 Responses to Homemade Carbon Fiber Violin

Kenneth Ellis McCall on December 6th, 2011 at 6:12 am said:

I’m thinking next up would be a carbon fiber acoustic guitar.

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- Mike Smith on December 10th, 2011 at 11:31 pm said:
  
  I’m surprised Ovation doesn’t already make one. Then again, they may not feel the need to, since they already use composite materials (glass fiber in resin, rather than carbon).
  
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William Crawford on December 6th, 2011 at 6:20 am said:

I wish he had recorded how it sounds when played. I find it interesting that all the players he handed it to loved it, and wanted to buy it!

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Ben Argyle on December 6th, 2011 at 6:33 am said:

Perfect for a little light music.

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Mingjane Wu on December 6th, 2011 at 12:20 pm said:

I can see something like this as a big hit among parents and teachers who’ve had to replace broken instruments.

That is, among schools that even have a stringed instrument program.

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Milan Balogh on December 7th, 2011 at 3:20 am said:

I’d love to hear it played.. really curious.

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Joey Alvey on December 7th, 2011 at 8:27 am said:

Personally, I just love how he decided to build a violin out of CF with no prior experience of building violins or working with CF. It just goes to show how wonderful the internet can truly be when coupled with an idea.

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Jonathan Katz on December 9th, 2011 at 4:10 pm said:

*mouth waters*

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