Technical issue making leather baffles- What if I don’t have a bushing board?

[daviseri]

Hi. 

 

Anyone here made leather baffles?  

I have a technical question-

I am making some leather baffles for a wooden Wheatstone Crane following the article of Robert Gaskins on concertina.net

 

But i’ve Run across a snag.  

 

in Robert’s article he cuts the template so that the leather fails snugly between the edges of the end piece and the bushing board.

(See 2 attached photos of a metal end with bushing board and a leather baffle surrounding the bushing board.)

 

My Wheatstone Crane’s wooden end does not have a bushing board. (Photo of the ebony wooden end.)

 

Can I still make working baffles without a bushing board?  

Do I have to make a bushing board as well?

 

 

Best,

Eric

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2019 by daviseri
Added photo

[Don Taylor]

As long as the baffles are stable enough in place that they do creep and foul the buttons then I don't think that you need a bushing board, at least not for the baffles.  If your baffle does creep then you need to find a way to hold it in place. I used some velcro around the outside edges. You could use some glue, preferably a water-soluable, reversible glue.  Just enough to hold it.

 

 It might not be bad thing to add a bushing board anyway, but that would be another project.

 

I found that if you make a very close fitting baffle then it becomes really hard to work the bellows. At least a little air gap is needed otherwise the reeds will be starved of air.  So don't worry about making your baffle fit to the nearest thousandth of an inch.

 

Before you get too far into this project, make sure that you have enough clearance above the levers to accommodate your baffle.

[daviseri]

Thank you so much for your reply, Don.

 

I’ve gone back into the article and realized he had some text about it that makes sense.  

Basically i’ll Use some 1/8” in. Foam tape to make a kind of bushing board like barrier around the buttons.

 

In the case of a wooden-ended instrument without a bushing board, there is no way to cause the baffle to fit close to the bushing board to create a narrow slit. So for these instruments, more tape is needed. I cut more of the 1/8" by 1/4" bits of tape, and assemble nearly a solid line of these along the strip of wood outside the buttons--the part overlapped by the baffle. These bits don't need to be butted end-to-end, but I close up about 85% of the line around the buttons. This reduces the leakage around the buttons to someplace close to that experienced with a bushing board--much reduced, but far from zero. This may take another 48 bits of tape, for a larger instrument.

[d.elliott]

wooden ended instruments dont have bushing boards because the action box end plate or cover is it's own bushing board. On wooden ended instruments it was usual to glue small cork blocks (approx 4 mm x 2 mm x 1,5 mm) around the inside of the action box cover, and around the  perimeter of the 'key pad' . this provided a stand off for are flow and an aesthetic benefit overall. They then glued the baffles to the cork blocks.Please do not use foam tapes or barriers. The big  question is, why fit baffles to  wooden ended instrument?

 

Happy Christmas

 

Dave

[Don Taylor]

7 hours ago, d.elliott said:

The big  question is, why fit baffles to  wooden ended instrument?

He is playing a duet and perhaps wants to quiet the LHS?

 

However, I found that my usual practice location was a major part of the reason why the LHS seemed so loud. I was sitting with the left end about 3 feet away from a bare wall.  When I play elsewhere then the bass side is nowhere near as dominating and I no longer use a baffle. 

 

FWIW.  I tried various materials.  I felt that leather altered the tone too much although it did a good job at muting the sound.  Thin EVA foam had no noticeable effect to the tone, but it did not reduce volume as much as leather.

[d.elliott]

Hi Don,

 

I was trying not to presume on why the OP wanted to carry out this mod. I can understand baffles on a metal ended instrument more than a wooden ended one. However, if you are right, then to try an attenuate the LH side only presumes a baffle fitted into one side only, which wood be odd.

 

 As far as I know the red 'paper' backing fitted to Lachenals was a cosmetic feature. If you want the cosmetic/ anti dust feature I use gauze, a trip to the local milliners may be in order, lots of colours to play with.

 

Dave

 

Edited December 27, 2019 by d.elliott

[Don Taylor]

The original article by Robert Gaskins which describes making a baffle for the LHS of a Maccann. 

[daviseri]

Quite late to respond to this, but yes, I found that when I was playing the chords on the left side, and melody on the right side, the bass (left side) overpowered the melody too much for me.

 

For me, I found that the leather gave either side a warmer tone.   So the right hand side is just for tone and the left hand side is for tone and volume.

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

Are bushing boards really necessary? I am not criticising just curious.. my anglo has a thin wooden block behind the metal plate ( where buttons slip through).. and I do not see a problem with this.

[d.elliott]

Your thin wooden block is a bushing board. if the board is not bushed then it is still supporting the keys and preventing fouling in the metal end plate.