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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Speaking of custom harmonicas,,,
Speaking of custom harmonicas,,,
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TahoeMike00
3 posts
Jun 19, 2010
1:33 AM
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Anyone know of source of CADD drawings for combs? I have a CNC mill and CNC laser cutter. I would love to be able to take a crack at making a comb or two.
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Buddha
2102 posts
Jun 19, 2010
6:02 AM
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I doubt any one would give you one for free.
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"Musicians are the architects of heaven"
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Buddha
2104 posts
Jun 19, 2010
8:37 AM
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what do you think something like that is worth?
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"Musicians are the architects of heaven"
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TahoeMike00
5 posts
Jun 19, 2010
10:23 AM
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Good question. Not really sure what to expect - if there is even anyone willing to sell cadd drawings.
Just feeling the situation out. I am in the process of drawing one up now. I have all of the dimensions, I am just not very efficient in AutoCad. So at my hourly rate, by the time I am finished, it will probably be a $300+ drawing ;-)
This was strictly from a hobby perspective, not commercial. If it were something commercial, I probably would not even have asked something like this in a public forum.
I've done other hobby projects where I ended up bartering finished product for their engineering contributions.
Anyways, as for the "feeling the situation out" aspect, you could draw a parallel situation where let's say someone were post a question in a user forum asking where they could get an office suite for their PC. One reply maybe that Micro$oft Office Suite... available for $279.95. Another reply may say openoffice.org. A complete comparable/compatible suite $0.00.
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nacoran
2203 posts
Jun 19, 2010
11:26 AM
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Buddha, that's a good question. Unless you have a strict agreement that they don't share you'd have to get all your money up front, or you could go the other route and make it cheap enough so lots of people buy it. Ah, marketing. Personally, I'd make it free, but only downloadable from one place. Use them to drive traffic to that site.
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Nate
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Buddha
2106 posts
Jun 19, 2010
11:37 AM
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I've been thinking about which is why I asked. I know what it took for me to get me combs designed and then get G-code produced.
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"Musicians are the architects of heaven"
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TahoeMike00
6 posts
Jun 19, 2010
12:09 PM
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arzajac - my angle was I was looking for a cadd drawing of a comb so that I could run a few test pieces on my laser cutter.
CNC machine shop equipment can be common, but expensive. Real expensive. $100's of thousands. Especially modern machining centers.
Laser cutters, depending on power can get up there too, but the one I have was *only* $25k.
So cnc laser cutters and cnc machines are different but the same as far as being able to be controled with a computer.
I have a laser engraver in my garage shop (which I do commercial business) but hobby stuff is fun too.
Typical cost? There is no such thing IMO. You take a cadd drawing to 10 different machine shops and you will get 20 different quotes ;-)
I've seen an item with similar dimensions as a harmonica comb (machined from 6061 solid billet aluminum) go for as much as $700 and more for a prototype. Production? Depends on quantity per order or per run. And in which country you have then run in. (won't go there)But who knows, in enough quantity you get get them down to $10-20 a piece? Just guessing.
Besides, I doubt there is a mass market appeal for a custom machined harmonica comb. Enter: niche market.
Anyways, my intention was not marketing nor per unit machining costs, as stated custom combs was something that piqued my curiosity.
I thought to myself "self, if I could snag a cadd comb drawing, I would see if I could blast a few out on my laser, see it it worked"
Hell, I'd even be willing to send a few out, just have the shipping and possibly material costs covered.
I also have access to a cnc mill and lathe, and limited access to a waterjet.
Materials you ask? My laser can only cut wood and plastic. (and rubber, paper, fiberboard etc. i.e. NOT metal)
The only reason I even thought of this was because of this post:
http://www.modernbluesharmonica.com/board/board_topic/5560960/593436.htm
I have no intentions on stepping on anyone's toes who might be trying to make a profit from custom harp combs.
So I am not even sure my laser could cut through (cleanly) on the the thickness required for a comb. But again, depends on the material. Acrylics I can cut to almost .400" thick. Wood, depends on the type and density. Hence why I wanted a quick and dirty access to a drawing to test.
Hope this makes sense.
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Greg Heumann
558 posts
Jun 19, 2010
2:43 PM
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TahoeMike - as a CNC machininst, I honestly have to wonder why would you need someone elses' drawings to start.. I mean, basically It's just a piece of rectangular stock with rectangular slots and some holes. Anything beyond that is up to you, and specific to the reed plates you want to work with. If you own a harmonica, measure it. You could write the GCODE by hand in a few lines.
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/Greg
Last Edited by on Jun 19, 2010 2:45 PM
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Micha
115 posts
Jun 19, 2010
2:58 PM
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Would a CAD-drawing in SolidWorks fulfill your needs? I'm an engineering student (graduating next week) and I've designed a prototype Stirling engine this year with SolidWorks, so a comb will not need much effort :-).
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TahoeMike00
7 posts
Jun 19, 2010
3:03 PM
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Greg - you are absolutely right. But as mentioned I have a comb all dimensioned out, and was trying to draw it out in AutoCad. (and make sexy of course... 3D rendering in SolidWorks? Never mind) lol.
So I was simply exploring a path of least resistance to see if there might be a source for ready made drawings. (read: lazy) ;-)
I guess you can call it clip art syndrome. Yeah, I suppose you could sit there for hours on end, designing artwork for your graphics project, but why do that when you can right click and 'save-as'?
And FWIW my laser speaks PCL5 - you can send a WYSIWYG (at 1:1) vector-based drawing as a print job directly to the laser. Weeeee!
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