Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Hi, All -

 

In spite of my earlier intentions (over the last couple of years), of not publishing "the saga" of making a new instrument, I have now changed my mind. I did a little updating on my site and suddenly found myself adding new stuff to it, starting here.

 

Since I have been working on this on and off since 2010, it will be a sort-of-but not-really chronological order, since making an instrument from scratch involves a lot of parallel work, like "Hmm, when I am waiting for this, I can do this", etc. That's the good thing - always something to do.

 

Making everything also means making a lot of tools, jigs, gizmos and thingies – this is not described in detail, but shown in use, of course (there are no dark secrets hovering in the back).

 

So at the moment I am trying to bring the saga up to the point where I am right now. I will keep adding photos, thoughts and descriptions at regular or irregular intervals.

 

Enough - this room has now reached 26° C, time to get some air.

 

/Henrik

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Your interesting routing machine reminds me of something really cool I saw recently. I visited my friends workplace, he is a product design prototype maker, he had a 'pantograph milling machine' which as soon as I saw it I thought... "THAT COULD MILL A CONCERTINA REEDPAN!!"

 

Sorry if I am telling you about something you are already well acquainted with but.. I just found this machine very interesting. It worked like this animation here:

 

Pantograph_animation.gif

so you have to have a small template (represented by the red heart) and you have a stylus which you trace around it (a laser cut template of the reed slot positions would work) and the end pictured drawing the green heart has a milling head on the end, with a dovetail cutter you could cut a reedpan out quite easily.

 

The machine he had was huge and 1950s so probably not suitable for a home project but... it might be worth investigating

 

 

Edit: though I think the stylus was on the larger image side with his machine

Edited by Jake of Hertford
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Hi, All -

 

As a pre-Christmas thing, I've just added 4-5 more pages to my site, containing the latest developments - reed frames, reed pan, tuning bellows and stuff...

 

For those who have noticed the “new thing” going on, it starts at “Eight Years later (2014)”

 

A Merry Christmas to ya all!

 

/Henrik

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, All -

 

As a pre-Christmas thing, I've just added 4-5 more pages to my site, containing the latest developments - reed frames, reed pan, tuning bellows and stuff...

 

For those who have noticed the “new thing” going on, it starts at “Eight Years later (2014)”

 

A Merry Christmas to ya all!

 

/Henrik

 

It looks great Henrik! Do I see on the laser cut brass, that you've painted the surface black to reduce reflection? If so, does it really make a difference? I always thought wire erosion would be the best way to cut reed frames out, by making a large sandwich of brass plates, then cutting through them in one go. (I have my woodwind keywork cut like that.) But I suppose laser is more cost effective on small batches?

 

Love the linear bearings on your routing set up...

 

Adrian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It looks great Henrik! Do I see on the laser cut brass, that you've painted the surface black to reduce reflection? If so, does it really make a difference? I always thought wire erosion would be the best way to cut reed frames out, by making a large sandwich of brass plates, then cutting through them in one go. (I have my woodwind keywork cut like that.) But I suppose laser is more cost effective on small batches?

One of the big advantages of wire EDM over laser is you'd be able to cut tapered sides and the vent relief, but not if you were cutting a stack of several at once.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, Adrian -

 

- "Do I see on the laser cut brass, that you've painted the surface black to reduce reflection?"

 

Not sure which photo you mean, but it easier to say "No paint anywhere". I left it completely to the laser cutters... a 3kW laser, by the way - it's so big that you can walk into it...

 

The only thing I'll be blackening will be the inside of the slots, when I come to finishing them - after New Year.

 

The linear bearings (and the aluminium blocks that carries pairs of them) are discarded parts from an acute dialysis machine. The bearings themselves are SKF.

 

/Henrik

Edited by Henrik Müller
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Happy Birthday Henrik,

 

Thanks for the update - it looks great and I love the crimping jig! Thanks also for the tip about KP&M - I've been looking for a company like that for ages! Will you be coming back to the German meeting in March?

 

Adrian

Thanks, Adrian -

 

Yes, the crimping jig worked very smoothly. PM me if you have laser cut urges ;-).

 

I was tempted to go to Germany, but I have a deadline ;-) and I'll meet Mary in Ennis, I am sure.

 

/Henrik

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Just a small question about laser cutting in general. I've received a few laser cut brass pieces from the company Henrik uses in Sweden. Comparing the finish to others I've had made by wire erosion, the edge finish is a lot rougher. I was just wondering if this is always the case with laser cut brass, or whether I should have specified a finer cut or so? The price was so cheap in comparison to wire erosion, that I am not surprised the quality is to a lower standard, but I hadn't imagined the pieces would need touching up with a file.

 

Adrian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Adrian,

 

It may be due to the alloy makeup. Like nickel silver, brass has a lot of copper in it and copper is extremely good at ducting heat. For that reason laser cutting places here would not cut anything with copper in it 10 years ago. Now they do and I imagine it is because they have greater power available. Perhaps that greater power/heat leaves more puddling around the cut? Only conjecture, let us know if you get a defiinitive explanation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...