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RWL

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Interests
    Old Time Fiddle, English Concertina, Home Shop Machinist
  • Location
    Near Lewisburg, PA USA

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Chatty concertinist

Chatty concertinist (4/6)

  1. I'm back from the N.E. Squeeze In now and can return to the project. Removing the plate nuts and drilling the wooden holes a little wider was the original plan although some above advised against doing that. I removed the wood screw from two of them and put the thumbscrew in and pulled, but they didn't budge. I didn't want to force things and risk splitting wood or pulling off a little veneer. Running a scalpel around the edge sounds like a good idea. They were in so tight it made me wonder if the installer had glued them in, in addition to the tiny wood screw. I'm not sure what you mean by "wax in". I don't have any accordion wax if that's what you were intending.
  2. Of course with a 100 year old instrument one never knows, but the chrome finish and knurled edges match the larger thumbscrews for the thumb strap so they appear to be from the same manufacturer. Whether they were there when the instrument was constructed or added later, I don't know. I admit that I was surprised that they were 4-48. The instrument was made prior to screw dimension standardization so I was anticipating something proprietary as was the case with a previous Lachenal I owned. That would be a point favoring that they were of a more modern manufacture. This was one of David Cornell's instruments. He was a well known participant of many years at the Northeast Squeeze In and his collection was sold upon his death a few years ago. I believe his custom was to have his instruments serviced at the Button Box in Massachusetts. I had a conversation with the BB's main repair person / restorer several years ago about screw threads and my recollection was that they would retap some nuts to an SAE [American] size. What their criteria were for when to do this and how frequently they would do this I don't remember. My speculation would be that it was done when no original screws were available. I don't believe that the screws are binding in the nuts. I can swap two screws and the side that binds still binds at about the same distance. Hmm. That's an interesting concept though. I think I'll gather up one of my micrometers and measure the proximal and distal ends of the screws and see if there's a substantial difference.
  3. A 3/32" drill bit fits through the threaded hole in the plates/nuts and bottoms out well beyond the length of the screws. It seems the wood is being "form threaded" by the ends of the screws but some pieces of wood are hard and won't allow the screws to thread in very far. The easiest thing to do would be to remove the receiver plates/captive nuts and just drill the holes out a little, but they're so tight in the wood that it wouldn't be an easy job to remove them to do this. The threads on the thumb screws are SAE 4-48, a standard but uncommon size. Not something that I'd find at a local hardware store. If they were 4-40 I have taps that would clean out the wood. The metric M3 taps are larger in diameter than these screws and the thread pitches don't match well, so I can't substitute a metric tap to clean out the wooden holes. I do have some 4-48 screws so I may be able to make a tap good enough to work in wood. I'm off to the N.E. Squeeze In in a couple of days. Time to ponder. I probably won't do anything until I'm back from the event.
  4. Tilting it one flat toward the rear causes the thumb straps to hit the corner blocks and be stressed when the lid is closed. Rotating it one flat the other way makes it harder to get the instrument out of the case.
  5. I did try the wrist straps. To me it made it more difficult to get to the lower notes. Since this is a tenor treble I go down to the C in the bass clef staff and I use the lower notes quite a bit. In the group I'm in, they wanted / needed a bass, so I usually my box to do that and play the chords. It would have been nice if they'd worked because in theory it would make the instrument easier to hold when playing unsupported by a knee. Some day I will make a neck strap and use the upper set of thumbscrews for that. I just haven't needed to play standing so necessity hasn't prodded me.
  6. That's an interesting thought I hadn't considered. The tops of the corner blocks may not be padded and might serve; the rest of the interior is padded. I'll probably go with deepening the holes though because at most I need to go 1/16" [~1 mm] deeper, the brass discs are covered in verdegris and the instrument looks nicer [at least to my eye] with the small chromed thumbscrews or at least I've gotten accustomed to seeing it with those chromed thumbscrews.
  7. They do thread into a brass disk held in place with a small screw. It would not be easy to shorten the screws and make it look professional, and that might make some of them a little short if the next owner wants to use wrist straps.
  8. Greg, does that contact information supersede the previous email address at twc dot com and the phone number ending in 7062 that I have on your business card from a few years ago?
  9. My Wheatstone TT Aeola has protruding thumbscrews for wrist straps. These are rubbing against the case lining when I insert and remove the instrument from its case leading to a hole in the lining. Of course I could just remove them, but then they'd likely get lost, so I'd prefer to just screw them the whole way in a leave them there. Is there any harm in drilling the holes a little deeper to allow the thumbscrews to sit flush? To the best of my knowledge, these should be outside the pressure side of the padboard / reed pan, so I don't see why I couldn't just drill the holes deeper, and possibly the whole way through.
  10. Greg. Glad to hear your advice. It pays to listen to the voice of experience.
  11. I had read Terry McGee's experiments at the time, but had forgotten about that thread. There was one comment by another maker regarding the use of 1 or 1.5 mm felt that was fairly dense.
  12. Is there any particular type of felt that makers and repairers consider the best type for making pads? e.g. hard / medium/ or soft. Wool vs synthetic? Alternatively, what qualities should pad felt have or what function does it serve? Are there any downsides to the 1/8" thick craft felt sheets sold at Michaels / Hobby Lobby / Joann Fabrics, etc? This company http://durofelt.com/products.html gets good press in the black powder antique firearms community. This is the American outlet for a specialty felt manufacturer in India. Does anybody have any experience with their felts?
  13. Do you use the drill press as an arbor press and push the whole way through or just mark the leather?
  14. I'm always interested in hearing what others are using. I used spray on contact adhesive based on some other comments here at C.net
  15. Excellent. Although a small diameter drill bit is less likely to drift in Delrin than in wood when making this, I think this could be done with a piece of wood as well.
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