Steel Guitar Builder

I'm a little confused....which piece bent, the red one or the blue one. I just put a 3-1/2" piece of steel rod in my vise. I couldn't bend it at all with my 30" wrecking bar in the center of it. I ain't too strong, but I pushed down with quite a lot of force. I expected it to pop out of the vise but...

Hi Bent: I've looked a few times at your setup for making the tapered springs but still haven't figured out how you actually do it. What are you using for the wire? Is it music wire? I don't know where you would get anything like that around here though, maybe in Ottawa somewhere. What is the gauge ...

I don't have endplates on my guitars, it's a 3/4" maple open bottom box. the ends are 3/4" maple and screwed and glued to the aprons all around. The aluminum ends are 1/8" aluminum plate and mostly cosmetic.I really don't have cabinet drop problems at all.....maybe a cent, not much more.
Cheers,
Mac

Hey!.....I figured out something new (to me) today. We've discussed before how to fasten an adjustment bolt to the spring end....wing nuts, tapered springs etc. I have been using a regular 8-32 nut and cutting a kind of hook into one of the flats. It works but looks kind of dopey. I don't know if yo...

I'm scared to death of my table saw.....especially if wanted to run some aluminum through it. Bent did though I think, making some bellcranks. The idea is good though, I even dragged out my biscuit joiner after reading your response. That might work also but the cutter is 3/16" wide so I don't know....

Georg....You may be entirely right in finding that the changer axle was indeed bending on your Dekley, I don't know. The one thing I do know is that a piece of steel rod supported at both ends and only about 3" or 3-1/2" between the ends takes a heck of a lot to bend it in the center since the dista...

Good day all! Hope I didn't upset anyone with my comments on the changer axle thread earlier. When I read it over online I thought perhaps I was a little too "smart" about my observations. Sorry! Anyway, roller nuts. One of the worst things I do when I make a guitar is figuring out how to make a slo...

No bushings for sure. I've thought some about the wall thickness. Probably 1/8" is good, but thicker likely won't make a difference either. I can never get too excited about the axle diameter. If you support a 4" piece of 3/8" regular steel rod on the ends and see how much force in the center it tak...

Yeah.....now I get what all this is about. I'd totally forgot that the ZBs used the flat plates! I still think that idea has a lot of merit. I have a whole bag of plates that I made one time thinking I would make a crossover double neck steel. Never actually got to do much more than play with the id...

Looks like a pretty regular all/pull system to me, except that most of the bellcranks pull from underneath as opposed to being on top. The LKL and the RKL pull from on top but that's to be expected when they're going that direction. What's on the end, does it have regular tuning nuts?
Mac