Re: Re: [Harp-L] Re: Embossing



The socket I use is a 7/16", 3/8" drive. It is 19mm in diameter, and 28mm long. I try had to avoid doing the two sides independently, as that seems to cause mis-shaping of the reed slot, getting the two sides out of parallel, and out of parallel with the edges of the reed.

-tim

At 07:40 PM 11/3/2005, Blunt White wrote:
I have recently used the tip of needle nose pliers. They are easy to grasp and the outside of the tip has a nice round shape and is very hard. It also permits working each side independently of the other. I smoothed the plier tip with crocus cloth. I have also found that one or two light passes on the edge of the reed slot before starting with 320 on a sanding stick removes the burrs that often drag and catch during the embossing process.

Tim what size socket head do you use?

Blunt White
Banker by day, bluesman by night


From: "Tim Moyer" <wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re:  Re: [Harp-L] Re: Embossing
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 13:17:02 -0000

Vern Smith wrote:
> If I were to make an embossing tool, I would chuck a 6-inch length
> of 1/4" diameter steel rod in my drill press. While it was
> spinning, I would file the end into a hemispherical shape, then
> polish it with 600-grit sandpaper and then crocus cloth.

I personally prefer a cylindrical, rather than spheroid (or
hemispherical) shape for embossing.  A cylinder, with a slightly
smoothed edge, will allow the embossing to work closer to the tip of
the slot.  Embossing with a sphere can only get so close to the tip
before the ball starts to contact the tip of the slot.  I use a
stainless steel socket.  Of course, a cylinder has to aligned
properly with the slot.

I also prefer something somewhat larger than 3x the slot width.  The
socket I use is probably 10x the slot width.  I use fairly subtle
embossing on the harps I customize, having found that extremely
tight tolerances can result in an extremely bright and brassy tone.

-tim






_______________________________________________ Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l








This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail 0.09 (Mailman edition) and MHonArc 2.6.8.