Frames

I have also finished putting legs on the rails.  However, I am now having second thoughts and am about to enact an alternative plan.

Why?  Well, the legs look nice and the instrument is level and light ...but due to the tapering sides of the rails, legs that fold flush to these get narrower on closing and wider at the feet on opening at the wide end, and you get the opposite problem at the other end.  This will not work as lateral support bars are needed between the pairs of legs to give structural integrity to the marimba.  If the feet get closer together or further apart on opening, then fixed lateral supports cannot be fitted.

So the new plan is to deconstruct these rails and build a frame that incorporates legs that are in parallel so that they fold without the above issues.  The new frame will act as support for the resonator rack, and having put the resonators in place I will drop a set of rails, pre-strung with all the keys, on top.  I will secure the rails by either  using clasps or long bolts with butterfly nuts in conjunction with wooden pegs to ensure proper alignment.

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