Projects Then and Now
My violins. Here are all my children sitting on the couch. I make these for the enjoyment and because I am curious how they are made and what happens when you make it differently. I do not sell them and I make no pretention of quality save to say i enjoy making and playing them. All have labels in German (because Dulmage comes from Dolmetsch, an old German family still in existance) but indicating their being built here in Canada in Ameliasburgh Ontario
My favourite
This one is made by me from Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada (my Home) wood. The unusual top is made from what we call Red Cedar which is they tell me actually a type of Juniper.
The bottom is made from Black Cherry given to me by Gilles Sabourin of Albury area of Pr Ed
The neck is also Black Cherry given to me by my cousins Frank and Jeff Dulmage. They said it came from the Hagerman farm near Picton .
The provided link is lowest quality video and audio but you can still here it playing that old Hymn that was my Moms favourite, "Into a Tent" It has a soft pleasing sound in real life and reminds me of Werthers Original candy. http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=196948&cdate=20050327
Famous fiddler Kelli Trottier test plays my Pr Ed Cty fiddle .Friend and fellow fiddler Grant Broomfield took my fiddle and gave it to her to try. it was wonderful to see her play my home made fiddle. She told me to give it to master fiddler Gordon Stobbe to try as well as he was there with her so they both tryed my favourite fiddle. I was thrilled!
Gordon Stobbe gives Don's Red cedar fiddle a good work out.
An excellant Fiddle resource link here. http://www.fiddle.on.ca/
MY LATEST CREATION
I often give talks and sometimes spend a day at the museum showing how violins are or maybe more acturately "were" made in the early days of our country. This is one i have been working on and dislaying the parts of at these talks and demonstrations. Finally this Christmas i decided to finish it. I made a different neck than I had planned originally because i came into some very unusual wood from a Honeysuckle bush. I made the neck longer than is normal to maintain a 44 length for my big hands despite the narrower body of the instrument. Since i make them only for fun and for myself I sometimes try things just for the learning experience. Violins when first strung and played are like newborn babies. At first they don't have their voice but within a few minutes they start to develop their own distinct sound. It usually improves and strengthens the more the violin is played. After about a week the voice is well establish . It changes as the violin ages but mostly it just mellows rather then changes sound. This one has a nice sound and I am pleased with it. I believe it is going to be one of my favourites.
Church Bass Fiddle.
I was poking around the web one day and came accross a Church bass fiddle picture on a website. This three stringed instrument was used in churches that didnt have an organ in the 1600 and 1700s especially in New England. As near as anyone can tell its design originates in Clingenthal Germany by one particular maker but I have been told by those who have owned or seen them that they came in all shapes and sizes and materials, What is most different about them other than the 3 strings is that they are built almost exactly like a violin. My wife had expressed an interest i learning the bas but was discouraged by someone who plays who told her is was very hard. Also the normal stand up bass would be pretty big for my wife but here this church bass I found was not that big. I decided to ake one just for fun. I took my biggest violin which is just a hair shorter than a full size viola and doubled all the measurements. I have the form built and the sides bent and glued in. I am currently working at installing the linings to the sides. I also have made the neck and work at it between jobs so it will bedone when i am ready for it. The first picture is the partially lined sides still on one half of the form. (I dont remove the complete form on my imstruments till one side is glued to either a top or bottom. because I can control the final shape and fit much better that way.) The second picture is with my cutout pattern just sitting on top of sides so I can get an idea of the finished product.
Slant Six Mopar Turbocharged Project built by Stu Denyes and me 1976
Years ago (1970s) Stu Denyes and I put a turbo on a slant 6. Car was VERY successful and fun while inexpensive. Actually it paid for itself.
The foundry experiment http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=196948&cdate=20061118
For my first pour I cast ad machined this small piston
Cylinder Modeler
Visual aid for studying intake valve closing vrs cylinder pressure. (effective compression ratio vrs caculated or theoretical compression ratio.) copyrighted BTW, may produce a hard plastic version if there is suffucient demand. This was first off prototype. Can also be used to study and visualize effects of different strokes and different rod lengths. A picture really is worth 1000 words!
Solar window heater. I invented these several years ago. Made from an opened stove pipe and set on a simple pine stand these heaters will heat the room and area any day you have good sun regardless of temp. They just sit on the floor in front the patio doors. They have now saved us $1000s. I also have a clip on window model for the bedrooms. You may copy it for personal use (only) if you write "Dolmetsch" on it
Update Dec 2007. Often I was asked "How hot do they get? I got an inspiration after seeing a lab at a NB univserity doing experiments on glass and using an normal inside/ outside thermeter. I realized since the measurements were huge and not just a few degrees it was very practical. I went to Canadian Tire and found a small version with a magnet for attachment. I clipped one on the solar heaters back side just before sunrise. Indicated temp was 18C which would be of course room temp. With in four minutes of full sun after sunrise it read 30C. After the sun had risen fully and was shining on the panel directly it read a peak of just over 42 C !! That is around 104 to 108 degrees fahrenheit! The indicating thermometer was on the back side away from the sunlight so it was a true reading taken from the shade side of the panel. I was quite surprised so see that kind of temp. On average conditions either side of the peak times it ran around 29 to 30C which is still over 80 degrees fahrenheit. No wonder these things work so well. Peak times by the way lasted about 4 hours today.
I have seven in daily operation providing we have sunlight. I checked the house temp today. When the panel was indicating 42+C The house with other heat shut off was a balmy 73 degrees F.
One day I mispoke out loud saying one could make a playable violin from a pair of 6 qt apple baskets. I was immedaitely challenged and two baskets were put in my hand. I rose to the challenge and here it is, The Apple Basket Violin. Everything but the neck came from two six quart baskets.The neck was made from a slat of a 5 peck apple crate and yes, it does play.
Crystal set. Ever since I was a child I have been interested in crystal sets. I always have at least one around. This one is called "The White Swan Special" because the coil is wound on a discarded White Swan toilet paper roll. It works very well and uses a capacitor from a junk transistor radio and a low power LED for the diode which blinks in sync with the signal. For those who dont know it, these little radios run off only the power of the signal in the antenna and require no batteries or other outside electrical sources.
Sick of damaging teflon valve seals with poor installing tools, long before a famous cam company made them (I did mine in the last century), I made up 20 of these from hardwood. I gave two to local machine shops who gave them a thumbs up (not one seal ruined ever). I took them to Carlise (Chryslers at Carlisle) sold the only one to a tool designer and still have the rest despite their flawless perfomance. I used hardwood because it is very forgiving to the seal material. The dimensions are mine as is the design and I did make record of it and the date. The fact that the aluminum ones being sold are identical in design and dimensions is, well, what do you think? Coincidence ??? Be that as it may, i made them, designed them, tested them and couldn't market them so it doesnt make much difference to me I guess
During the Old Reliable flog I tried a version of the Wiend superstock 6 pack 440 manifold. The bottom is one of the most pefect designs ever but the lids were all for six packs. I never had the lid anyway and wanted to put two 4s on it so I made a test manifold top plenum out of plywood. Sealed it with garage floor paint (oil and fuel prof) and installed it. My friend Gary Wager drove it and it ran 11.49 right off of the trailer. That was the best run ever on the car. MPH was up signifiacantly as well. Ina 4150 pound racecar (driver included) the gain added up to a signifcant amount of power. Paul Amado in BC has the manifold now and has been trying different carbs to see what happens. Here is is after i had it cast in aluminum once we knew it was a successful idea.
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