Welcome to Tortuga Early Instruments Worldwide Headquarters!

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My shop is my sacred space. When I cross the threshold into its confines, something changes within me. I move from a work-a-day wage slave to a creator. When I transform wood, it transforms me. Because I have to maintain a day job, I move at a turtle’s pace, hence the name of my company: Tortuga Early Instruments. My motto is “Tardus et stabilis…” or “Slow and steady…”

I am currently working on two projects. The first is a single manual Flemish harpsichord I’m building from scratch; it’s based on a 1640 instrument by Andreaus Ruckers.

The first stage of building such an instrument is to create the keyboard. I’m building the instrument in the Craftsman/Arts & Crafts style, which is non-traditional, but I’m keeping this one and I want it to match the rest of our home’s furniture. Thus, I’m using African blackwood and quarter-sawn oak for the visible parts and pieces; the rest is made from poplar and non-knotty pine.

I’m also working on an electric cello for my youngest son’s birthday in April. I don’t have much time, so I’m sourcing some of the parts from the Interwebs.

I will be shaping and bending these maple pieces into something resembling the skeleton of a traditional cello. So far, I have the body blank, the faux body strip, and the bridge, bow, and pre-amp. The best is yet to come – the next project will be a Baroque guitar!

In my little shop, which is really just a two-car garage, I have the following:

  • Foremost 18" Band Saw (Big Bertha) – hosts a 1" Timberwolf blade for resawing
  • Delta 12" Band Saw (Little Buddy) – for detail work
  • Riyobi BT3000 Table Saw – completely refurbished with new tilt gear and various other parts
  • Grizzly 6" Jointer (Smooth Operator) – has a 48" bed for jointing some of the larger harpsichord parts
  • HSC 40"/14" Lathe – for turning tuning pegs, case and bench legs, etc.
  • Chicago Electric 12" Compound Sliding Miter Saw – yeah, it’s HF, but I put a Freud 80-tooth blade on it and it works great
  • Rockwell 18" Drill Press (The Terminator) – this allows me to freely drill keyboard balance rail holes based on its enormous throat depth
  • Ridgid Oscillating Spindle Sander – an amazing tool that provides the ultimate sanding flexibility
  • Central Machinery 12" Planer – another HF product and arguably my favorite machine
  • Central Machinery 4″ × 36″ Stationary Belt Sander – love it
  • Delta 18" Scroll Saw – use this for stuff too small for the 12" band saw
  • Workbench – mounted to the shop wall
  • Various gouges, chisels, hand planes, etc.

The only machine in this list I purchased new was the Central Machinery 4″ × 36″ sander because I needed it pronto. The rest all came from Craigslist. I’ve stripped, refurbished, fixed and repainted many of them and they’re all now close friends. Of course, I didn’t start out with this group; they came to me over time and I’m glad they’re here.

Here they are as they take their respective places in the shop:

I hope you enjoyed this tour of my sacred space.

Onward! Darin

Darin R. Molnar

Great write up and a spacious place. I can’t wait to see this harpsichord.

Losing fingers since 1969

Great place to create new things! Thanks for sharing!

-- Michal, http://WoodworkingWeb.com

Thank you very much for sharing. It’s always great to get a glimpse into other woodworkers spaces and thoughts. I lover the harpsy so far, can you please post more pics as you build? I sure wish we had items on Craig’s list in my area, but, not enough population to have any tools on it. You do great work from what I can see so far, thanks for sharing.

CHRIS, Charlottetown PEI Canada. Anytime you can repurpose, reuse, or recycle, everyone wins!

Thank you all for your encouraging comments. While I’d like to continue to update this blog with additional posts, I already maintain both Facebook pages and blogs for both of the projects and keeping this one up-to-date would be a bit much for me – I need to be in the shop!

My harpsichord project can be found at

https://www.Facebook.com/MolnarOpus1
and
http://MolnarOpus1.blogspot.com

and the cello is at

http://MolnarOpus1Cello.blogspot.com

Onward! Darin

Darin R. Molnar

Very nice. Yeah, I love my grizzly too. I’m impressed with your talent in making instruments. Thank you for your tour.

Jeff Vandenberg aka "Woodsconsin"