Re: beginning tuner-upperers- reed material remover tool.

[Mark Crowley <Mark.Crowley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

hi,

grab Pat Missin's download text files - you'll be able to get those old stuffed  harmonicas up and running again after a couple of mins reading.

got three 'going' again in 20 mins with just a cheap jeweller's file- though with shocking gouges across the reeds - wasn't really expecting it to work I have to admit,

encouraged me to go out and grab a proper tuner and search for some gentler but inexpensive tools to remove material from the reeds.

Pat mentions a small pen with an abrasive tip - couldn't find that but did find a small plastic tool at a hobby shop called an Amati contour modeller.

Made of four parts 

- - a plastic handle that is as thin but slightly longer than an average pen

- - a plastic cam that fits on the end of the pen handle

- - a very thin piece of emery/sandpaper joined at ends into a belt that loops over the entire assembled cam and handle length

- - a small plastic collar that fits over the end of the handle and you push it up towards the cam - it locks the emery belt into position.

You can 'dab' away at the end of the reed you want to remove stuff from - the cam gives you even distribution of grinding material across the reed width -  if the paper wears away you can loosen the collar and slide the belt around to another section of the belt.

The cam's contours allows for smaller or greater areas of contact removal - even a flat section - it wasn't too thick for the reeds I played around with and didn't interfere with any other reeds - wouldn't be much to reduce its width for more difficult situations i guess.

was originally designed for folk working on those tiny ship models - and comes with another cam of different contours.

about $7:00 us i guess

only two belts of sandpaper - i assume more for wood than metal - but i grabbed some other styles of paper more suited for metal to cut up into strips and join to make copies of the belts - with the collar it probably will work with just strips and not joined as a belt anyway.

had some fun with the tuner - 

now starting my collection of JI LOs -which will make me very happy

Thanks mr missin.

crowley