i have a couple of questions for ya ll

[azureskys]

Bent i listen to your guitar and its fantastic sounding as well as beautiful , Im humbled by your work friend. the changer fingers no i didnt make but it wouldnt be a problem for me , Ill keep you posted as to my work and im open to comments thanks again Russ

[Bent]

Russ, I went back and read your introduction. I see that you do machining as well as casting. I think maybe it is I who should be asking questions and learning from you. Do you have a mill in your shop?
The foundry sounds intriguing. Is it possible to have a small home-shop foundry? Down the road I would like to ask you many questions about this.

In the meantime, your project is coming along just fine!

[Pat Comeau]

That is nice work there, like Bent said you can get alot of info here , i made all my bellcranks and almost all my undercarriage with the bandsaw cause i found it easyer ,safer and faster than the table saw for me, but everyone has it's own method and i'm sure the're all good , with all good blade you can make pretty much everything the a bandsaw, keep the pics coming as you go.

Pat C.

[azureskys]

thank you Bent and Pat for the comments yes i do have a lathe mill combo for me its good enough however this summer ill get a larger mill , as far as casting goes yes you can have a small foundry at home i worked in a foundry when i was a kid and always enjoyed casting thing at home for myself it is very enteresting and a great way to make things , here is a pic of my lathe combo .ill get you some foundry pic s it dosent take much as you ll see . Russ

[azureskys]

your a ceative genious Bent , the pedels are fantastic, im still looking at your parts there ,is that a bearing on the changer fingers?The jig you made to round the tops of the changer fingers , i like that i have a similar idea but i like yours better its safer lol can i steal some idea s? also are the fingers all aluminum? ill post some ideas that i have if you d like to see them , i have a really good bandsaw id better get the same blade you have though ive been cutting wood with it as of right now, ( i make other instruments out of wood) but with another blade i can do aluminum also . keep steelin friend talk later and thank you so much for your generosity. Russ

[Bent]

Thanks so much for the praise, Russ. Really, I am not so sure about the genius part but it sure do feel good to see it in writing!

As for pictures, ideas, anything that I write, it is yours to use.

Well, I do admit I am a bit proud of the pedals. They were the second set I made. The first set was scrap. I cut those out of 1X1" square aluminum bar.
Just a wee bit of table saw was used here..the dado set trimming away the top of the pedal arm. The rest was some band saw work and then the hacksaw cutting out the actual underside of pedal part. Top of pedal was made by rough cutting on band saw and then grinding on the disk sander to make it smooth. It was sanded with 220/320/400/600/800 grits and then polished on the buffer wheel to a chrome-like shine. The pivot hole was bored out to 3/8" and a 1/4" ID oilite bushing was tightly inserted.

Please, post ideas. I love to see fresh ideas and putting them to use. If we don't, we'll stagnate. Looking forward to see what you've got!

[azureskys]

Im going to fab a gearless tuner from this block first ill have to square it off in my vice and with the milling bit,one photo im touching each corner with the endmill to make sure they are even distances , once im satisfied with that ill trim one end to make it square ,once the end is trimmed and square ill color it with some red magic marker it dosent cost like dyk does and it works just fine , with it colored i can make my lines as to where i want to cut everything will be layed out right on top , i do need to get a small shop light to mount over the mill so i can see better , .Ill post more as i progress, thanks for looking and please do comment , i need all the help i can get lol thanks again Russ

[azureskys]

had to make another reply i could only do three pic s so here is the block with color on it

[azureskys]

The small peice with the block is a roller nut that i made just needs a bar in it and the rollers its going on the guitar in the pic it was made from a small square bar , Ill make the bar from brass and the rollers will be brass also

[Bent]

Russ, remarks and questions:
The permanent magic marker thingy is good. I seen the price of the real dye stuff and it was quite pricey. So compared to the $1 I pay for a marker at the dollar store, it just might work out cheaper. Face it, we are not high production so it just might suffice.

About squaring off the work piece... there is a thing called a center finder and edge finder, a wobbly shaft thingy you put in the chuck. Is it worth it to get one of those or is your way just as close you think?

Do you square off the top of the block with a fly cutter or the like? I have heard say this is a must..an extrusion is never 100% square. Of course a big end mill would work as well.

Your roller nut looks like solid stuff. I like it. Do you have a special reason for making the roller shaft in brass as opposed to stainless steel?
Do you use coolant or some kind of lubricant while cutting?
An engineer told me that WD40 is the best thing to use on aluminum. It gets smelly and smoky but works great. I haven't tried yet.

Nice setup there Russ. Looking forward to seeing the progression of the gearless tuner.