[Harp-L] custom brass special 20

[Chris Reynolds <c_reynolds2571@xxxxxxxxx>]

As most of you know by now I like to take big pieces of metal and turn them into smaller pieces of metal and in the end hopefully end up with something that resembles a harmonica. In the last month the most often asked question I get is about making brass combs for the special 20. At one point I had looked at my special 20 and after talking to several others had kind of made up my mind that it wouldn't work well, at least not with the conventional comb. The reason was the reed plates on the special 20's don't have that little slot in them for the front of the cover plate to rest down in, so you would most likely be pinching your lip every time you picked it up to play. Well the more I looked at it the more I thought it would be a fun challenge. Well the machining of the comb for the most part was pretty straight forward, the challenge is in the square holes. I had to machine a special cutter to broach the holes, which worked well until I broke it, but
 the process works so I just need to design a better cutter and work out a better way to round off the edges on the openings to make them smooth. I think once I work out a better cutter for creating the square holes in the comb I'll start offering the special 20 with brass or aluminum comb, probably won't be doing the stainless steel because of the pressure it takes to force the cutter through the comb to create the square hole. But I thought some of you might find it interesting. 

You can see pictures of my prototype comb, they aren't good pictures, but it shows where I'm at with the prototype.
http://www.builderofstuff.com/s20_1.jpg
http://www.builderofstuff.com/s20_2.jpg
 
Chris 

http://www.blowyourbrassoff.com
http://www.builderofstuff.com
http://www.myspace.com/builderofstuff
http://www.myspace.com/builderofbluesharps


Just a man, his shop, and a long list of unfinished projects...