Well, much to my suprise, it does work. It's accurate too. Of course any suggestions for improvements or modifications are welcome as long as they don't contain words or phrases like "from a tall building" "axe" "chainsaw" etc.
I reckon you could cut 20 combs an hour quite easily. Pete
Last Edited by on May 22, 2012 4:39 AM
Nice combs.A couple suggestions, feed your stock from the opposite end of the fence allowing the bit to pull your work into the fence. Use a push block/coping sled to keep your tootsies out of harms way and give you a more controlled controlled cut. They do look nice!!
OT: you know, i never thought about cutting a reed to size till i saw a vid of yours. at first i thought it was too much work, but once i got good at it i discovered an advantage. if you cut the reed too long you can file it to fit where it just clears the end of the reed slot. this saves you the trouble of embossing the tip end of the slot. also, it give you a hell of a lot more donor reeds to work with. as a result, i've never been forced to buy reeds from Hohner- so, thank you!
more OT-sorry to hear about your chemo treatment. nasty stuff. best wishes.
and more OT stuff, you know, that inked in one draw that leaks is the elephant in the room that no one talks about. to my knowledge, your vid here is the first to mention this very common problem. i've taken apart quite a few MBs and sometimes the leak extends up to the 3 hole draw. my early attempts at flat sanding pear wood combs were often frustrated by this almost ubiquitous leakage problem.
great vid! your audio seems improved. i can actually hear and therefore understand everything you say.
beautiful combs! perhaps in a future video you could display your combs prior to assembly? cheers, mark ---------- MP affordable reed replacement and repairs.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
OT: "don't take laxatives and sleeping pills on the same night"....good Lord! Takes me back to my several months on antibiotics and tylenol 3's when I smashed my finger in two. Different outcome but totally similarly crossed purposes in the regularity department. :)
@ Silvertone. I tried feeding in from the other end when trimming the back edge of a comb. The comb went 20 feet and corian ain't polycarbonate (lexan to you if your from accross the pond) it don't bounce, it breaks. Thanks anyway.
@MP I thought it was just me, the short slots seal up o.k. it's the long slots that are the problem. I think that if you flat that back edge it's the straw that breaks the camels back, it just makes it too thin behind the one hole. You don't get a problem under the blow plate but there again there's no cut out for the rivet on top of the comb. Some body else has mentioned this problem on the forum but I can't remember who.
Maybe it's not a Bb harp in it's heart? Were the reeds out of tune in the same direction? You could have just turned it into an Ab!
I had an acrylic comb that cracked at that spot where the 1 reed slot nearly goes through the comb. I've been wondering about ways to make that spot stronger. Since the top reeds anchor at that end they don't need to swing much down there. The bottom reed, as it swings, should be getting farther away from the end of the reed slot the closer you get to the top- like a kid getting higher off the ground as he swings on a swing. The reed doesn't swing through as many degrees of the arc as a swing, but you might have a little space near the top of the comb where the slot is longer than it needs to be. What would happen if you angled the cut at the end of the slot?
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Would it make that spot a little stronger? Just a thought since you were focusing on that spot. It would have to be a pretty slight angle, but that area is so thin any amount might help. A more complicated option might be to make a comb that bowed out a bit in the back. That would make the reed plate/comb line look wonky in the back though, unless you made it look like a feature instead of a flaw. You could round the reed plate with the same arc, but shorter than the slightly extended comb, or maybe even make a small ridge along the back of the comb, effectively making the comb recessed, but only in the back.
Nice looking harps!!! Flatsanding the drawplate makes the rivets flush with the reedplate and also makes the plate surface more flat, which it isn't at all OTB. Then that area of the comb can be left as it is. Same applies with screw fastened reeds. Carefully sanding the comb on à really flat surface, like a thicker peace of glas than from à window ... with almost no pressure ... I find very possible to make the comb flat in that area. It can also help to build up that spot with some type of hard sealer before sanding. ---------- The tone, the tone ... and the tone.
Last Edited by on May 26, 2012 6:02 PM
