[Harp-L] Vern Smith's Solder method

[Vern]

Those difficulties are exactly the ones that motivated my experiments with soldering.  

With screws, you can eventually arrive at a proper reed alignment.  If the holes closely fit the screw, then any error in hole position prevents proper alignment.  Oversize holes allow the freedom to align the reed in the slot, but the act of tightening the screw often spoils the alignment.

I had even more trouble with rivets.  In most cases, the rivet is softer than the parts being fastened and can be easily expanded to fit the holes.  In the harmonica, the steel rivet is harder than the brass reed and plate.  In Seydel harps, the plates are especially soft.  I found that an off-center hammer blow would knock the rivet awry and damage the plate.  I acknowledge that many can use rivets successfully and swear by them….just not fumble-fisted me.

Reed angle (adjustable with a reed wrench) is not the only mode of misalignment.  Displacements across and along the long dimension of the slot can also be troublesome and are more difficult to fix.

Using a .001” sheet of plastic (such as Scotch tape) to align the reed derives from the use of cigarette paper that Joe told me about. 

Vern

> On Nov 1, 2017, at 8:13 AM, David Pearce via Harp-L <harp-l at xxxxx> wrote:
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> The reason that I became intrigued with Vern's solder method is because of problems I've had replacing reeds in my Seydel chromatic plates using screws and nuts.  I find that I spend a lot of time using the reed wrench when a reed goes out of alignment.  Another problem with screw and nut is that the nut will sometimes move the reed towards the rivet end when it's tightened and leave a gap near the non-rivet end of the reed.  I recently had to get rid of the nut and use only a screw in order to eliminate the gap near the end of the reed slot.  My chromatics are half-valved for interactive note bending so eliminating any gaps is crucial.
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> I've ordered some parts to build my own soldering station and I'll let everyone know how it goes.  
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> David Pearce  
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