David Burgess

It makes pretty good sense to me.

I don't know of any way, other than trial and error. A longer (or tighter) post will tend to help instruments which are physically weak in construction. I don't know if that is true for yours, and maybe you don't either.

What is a "precise string"?

Perhaps some enterprising person will set up potassium nitrite vacation packages in the US, sort of like the Birth Tourism industry, where women come here to give birth so their child will automatically be a US citizen. You come over here with a few fiddles, apply the explosive ground, and take them home again.

Who cut the cheese?

I don't recall the OP mentioning the thumbnail at all. The thumb leather can wear that way without any nail contact.

How comfortable would those buttons be for the player, if the bow is used, and not just an exhibition piece? It looks to me like the parts could be made in a conventional fashion, and then carved by CNC.

We used to try to convince people that it was an "orgasmitron", and see if they would offer to pay for a session inside.

I was going for the "Steampunk" fake and overdone industrial appearance.

From the appearance alone, this is obviously a "folk" instrument, and one made by someone with little or no conventional training. As Rue has already said, there is no way to know whether or not it might be an adequate "player" without fixing it and setting it up first, except that measuring the thicknesses from the outside might give some clues.

About 30 inches, large enough for one of my large-model cellos, with a little room to spare. Ugly drying cabinets work better.

One way to look at it is that cheap factory violins can be an opportunity to practice and get better, before you start working on the high-end stuff.

I don't use a rotating device, and all parts of an instrument seem to dry pretty evenly, except for the top and bottom. And like Don said, a rotating device wouldn't change the drying rate in those areas anyway.

I like that!

I normally wind away from the peghead first, then deliberately overlap coming back the other way. How much I wind away from the peghead before coming back will depend on how long the string is. I like to end up with the string close to the pegbox wall, but not jammed up against it.