Dannis Havlena, of the $20 hurdy-gurdy, has made some other hurdy-gurdies as well. This "fiddle-gurdy" looks interesting. Maybe I'll start with that instead of the $20 hurdy-gurdy so I can figure out how to get the wheel to sound good first, then add a keybox later on.

(from dennishavlena.com)

I've been looking at tools, and I'm hoping to get away with what's available at the student machine shop in Cory Hall. There's a scroll saw there, and I think a lathe. Definitely a drill press. Fortunately, hurdy-gurdies cost thousands of dollars, so I can safely spend a lot on tools before I'm into it-would-have-been-cheaper-to-just-buy-one territory.

The video I posted of Andrey Vinogradov playing the zanfona is amazing, and still blows me away every time I hear it, but there's more going on in the sound there than just the zanfona. I think this is probably a lot closer to what his instrument actually sounds like: