New Toy 18months Work

[Bob Tedrow]

I designed this reed pan cutter. Rather than eighteen months of work, I should describe it as eighteen months of tinkering and pestering my machinist/musician friend Wallis.

 

Edited February 13, 2007 by Bob Tedrow

[asdormire]

Nice looking jig.

 

Alan

[Henrik Müller]

I designed this reed pan cutter

Allright, Bob!

Now that's something!

You must have a very exact way of controlling the width (if I can use that expression on a tapered, routed track).

 

A few degrees? Adjustable? Trial and error, until the reed shoe fits?

 

(I better hide this hexshaped piece of cardboard, the ruler and the needles before my boss comes )

 

/Henrik

[McIsog]

Very cool Bob!!!

 

Now about those steel reeds - are you Milling the shoes or Casting them? And have you set a price yet for the squeeze boxen which include Concertina reeds?

 

Dan

[Bob Tedrow]

oh yes, the upside of this rig is that it is quite adjustable.

and yes, the downside of this rig is that is quite adjustable.

 

There are a few features that are not evident, there is a "laser pointer" indexing light mounted so that the spindle center projects on the workpiece.

 

I can locate an endpoint and cut a dovetail slot of any angle and width to the located point; split the dovetail slot for the central vent and cut the rails.......

 

all in several slow careful steps.

 

Because of the extremely accurate (thanks Wallis) X,Y,Z and radial axis, repeat cuts, remove and accurately replace the workpiece if need be. There is very very little "slop" in the bearing rails and the digital micrometers allow me to keep track of the cuts as I progress on the reed pan.

 

 

It is no CNC machine.........but I can cut slots for variously angled brass shoes on the fly and adust for their length, width and depth on the fly.

 

 

 

I designed this reed pan cutter

Allright, Bob!

Now that's something!

You must have a very exact way of controlling the width (if I can use that expression on a tapered, routed track).

 

A few degrees? Adjustable? Trial and error, until the reed shoe fits?

 

(I better hide this hexshaped piece of cardboard, the ruler and the needles before my boss comes )

 

/Henrik

[Bob Tedrow]

Very cool Bob!!!

 

Now about those steel reeds - are you Milling the shoes or Casting them? And have you set a price yet for the squeeze boxen which include Concertina reeds?

 

Dan

 

mercy, don't rush me.

[Geoffrey Crabb]

Well done Bob.

 

Geoff

[Dana Johnson]

Nice flexible machine. For the reference of like minded individuals, You can get the basic caliper slide less Jaws for many similar uses. Commonly they are used to give a digital indicator reading on the quill of a vertical milling machine. Even if those are fitted with regular DRO Scales, they usually only put the z axis scale on the knee of the mill not the quill.

Pitty there aren't any plans around for the wheatstone reed pan cutter. That is one slick and still simple machine.

 

Dana

[OLDNICKILBY]

Being an old Luddite(me that is ) would it not have been much quicker and easier to buy a compound table for about £100 or $200? The verniers wont stand up to this sort of application whilst the D R O dust proof scales will.Nice concept though.

It is quite possible to buy C N C machines for quite good prices on the second hand market that would do this job with great ease and accuracy and the programming is not that daunting and good fun. It would be easy to do the fretwork with a single lip cutter or as I have done using a Dental Burr in a machine with a 10hp motor and a speed range up to 6000 rpm

Then there is the use of a pantograph engraving machine that would not only cope with the reed pan but the fret work as well.Copies are cut in 020 acetate sheet at 2:1 ratio and then used to cut an acrylic master as a more permanent fixture.

Great idea though