[Harp-L] Has anyone laser-cut harmonicas?

[Joseph Leone]

Any time you want to manufacture something, the first thing the machine operator will ask is:  What are my tolerances? You ‘may’ answer … plus or minus 1/1,ooo. OR 
the equivalent in metric. The problem has always been that a fat reed will jam in a skinny slot. Whereas a skinny reed will slosh around in a fat slot. THEN there is the 
placement of the rivet (if used). You put the three together and a compromise has to be made somewhere. But where? Solution? Make a general purpose harmonica 
and then get someone to hot rod it. (Or for our European shut in friends… gran-prix it.)  lolol

This has been a perpetually occurring topic on slidemeister for 19 years. 
smokey-joe & the Cafe s

> On Jan 17, 2019, at 6:30 AM, bren at xxxxx wrote:
> 
> Richard's question is an interesting one. 
> 
> 
> 
> My friend Zombor Kovacs and I tried getting specialist reedplates laser cut,
> with the intention of inserting Hohner riveted reeds. We were aiming to get
> very close reed/slot tolerances to eliminate the need for later customising.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On the face of it, laser cutting should work because it produces a beautiful
> sharp-sided slot. However we found that the project didn't succeed, because
> there was some variability in the reed fit. Either the laser tolerances
> varied slightly or the rivet placement in the reeds varied - most likely a
> combination of both. The upshot was that some reeds fit well, but others
> jammed. The only way to go would have been to do what the manufacturers do:
> make the slots slightly bigger than optimum to ensure that even a reed that
> was not perfectly central would still sound. But then we would be back to
> the need for hand customising, which we wanted to avoid. 
> 
> 
> 
> I wasn't ambitions enough to try making our own reeds, but Zombor always had
> that desire. Subsequently he did some work on his own exploring lasercut
> reedplates and reeds, but eventually gave up in frustration. 
> 
> 
> 
> Our experience does not mean the concept is not good. After all, wire EDM is
> used in high-end accordion reeds/reedplates, and Franz Chmel used it in his
> NC64 harmonica, apparently very successfully:
> 
> 
> 
> http://www.chmel.at/nc64/specification.html
> 
> 
> 
> But wire EDM is slow. It's also more accurate than most industrial laser
> cutting machines, and people I've spoken to at different harmonica companies
> feel that reedplate stamping and their traditional reed making methods still
> come out ahead for cost, reliability, speed and accuracy.
> 
> 
> 
> But I personally hope and believe we will see laser cutting used for reeds
> and reedplates as technology improves. As Richard says, it has some very
> attractive advantages.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/harp-l-archives/conversations/topics/13
> 1749;_ylc=X3oDMTJzdHRjZ25sBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzQ1NjMzOTIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNz
> A1MDMyMTk1BG1zZ0lkAzEzMTc0OQRzZWMDZG1zZwRzbGsDdm1zZwRzdGltZQMxNTQ3Njk2MTk1>
> [Harp-L] Has anyone laser-cut harmonicas? 
> 
> 
> Wed Jan 16, 2019 11:37 am (PST) . Posted by: 
> 
> 
> 
> <mailto:richard at xxxxx?subject=Re%3A%20%5BHarp-L%5D%20Has%20anyone
> %20laser-cut%20harmonicas%3F> "Richard Trafford-Owen" 
> 
> 
> Does anyone know what has been tried? With laser cutting and etching I
> imagine it would be possible to:
> - Create reeds and plates that are very closely tolerance-matched
> - Control the thickness profile of the reeds over their length (and width
> for that matter)
> - Mount the reed inset below the surface of the reed plate and maybe
> control the angle between reed plate and reed
> - Explore different reed shapes e.g. trapezium versus rectangle
> 
> Brendan Power
> 
> www.x-reed.com <http://www.x-reed.com> 
> 
> www.brendan-power.com <http://www.brendan-power.com/> 
> 
> www.youtube.com/brendanpowermusic <http://www.youtube.com/brendanpowermusic>
> 
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>