Steel Guitar Builder

Here's some photos of my prototype cone (interestingly enough when I clamped it onto my lapsteel (electric) it made the sound a bit louder without plugging it in).

Eldon, is there anything you can't make there? If I send you over an old cookie tin will you make me a snow mobile please?


Amazing!!!

Regards, Allan.....

Allan, I've been trying my darndest to figure out your snowmobile but it's not coming yet ............
Seriously, the inspiration for my acoustic was from Roy Thompson in Nova Scotia. He had it featured as an article in te now defunct Steel Guitar World Magazine. We emailed a bit while I was building it and he was most gracious with his help.

Here's a photo of Roy's acoustic steel.

Eldon, you "spun" that one yourself? Quite a trick to that ain't it? I seen it on How It's Made, how they spin the cone for a trumpet and that don't look easy at all!
Details, if you have the time, please...

Bent, I have to sit down and think about the process and post details ASAP. Our group is a bit busy with christmas gigs for now plus all the fooflaw te season brings. I don't have an more photos but there was a website that I found where a guy was also spinning his own.

Well,
I'm impressed!
I'd love to hear that thing sing.

How I DId It.

My “acoustic steel” was pretty much made from items I had on hand.
I based everything around a 12 inch aluminum pulley it became a 11.5 inch spider.

Cone Spinning Steps to go with diagram

1.) Glue up a piece of white birch 2.5 inches thick 12.5 inches in diameter.
2.) Attach to faceplate, true up outside diameter and face or work piece.
3.) Turn out 3/8 * 1/8 inch space for rim of cone.
4.) Hollow out profile of cone
5.) Attach 14 gauge aluminum flashing flat to the face of the form spaces every every 1.5 inches
6.) Adjust lathe speed to slowest you have (you can do a lot of things safely if you take it cool and go slow.
7.) Use a ¼ inch piece of hardwood and gently start pushing the flashing to conform to the shape of the form
8.) For the large surface areas I used a ½ in hardwood dowel rounded on the end to do the shaping
9.) Once the cone is spun gently score the cone to mark it @ 11.25 inches in diam
10.) Remove the spun cone and trim the excess with a sharp box cutter.
11.)Hollow out the rest of the form and you have a ¼ inch birch sound well for the project.

Much of this is from memory, I trust this serves the purpose.

The keywords are slowly and carefully – you want to play the thing once it’s done.

If there are any questions or comments – fire away.

I had just listened to Roy Thompson playing his "chicken song" on a simular guitar.
They sound great,great work in building your own.
Regards
PELEKONA