And now for something completely different

[J.F. Custom]

Gobsmacking stuff Nick...

... or is that flabbergasting ??

You make it look and sound easy but that is stunning work. Thanks for the effort of posting.

Jeremy.

[charangohabsburg]

(again apologies to anybody that's familiar with clocking up but just to explain it to people that aren't)

I'm waiting for the day you apologise to those who are familiar with building these vibraphones...

I hope there's not too much info for you guys & you are getting bored, as I say, when you do this all the time it's hard to know what others might find interesting.

Don't worry Nick. If the bored ones keep on reading in spite of not wanting to read it, it's really their own problem I think. Ages ago I have done similar things during a too short period (on a lower quality level, of course), but I am enjoying every description you have posted so far! Keep on posting like this. Thanks for bothering to take all those photos and explaining everything!

[...] But I will eventually get to "the business end" of the project & actually make some sound producing bits of ally!

I'm curious about how you'll tune the bars which must be tricky when trying to get at the same time a nice sound quality, I believe. I'm waiting patiently, don't skip anything please.

[kiwigeo]

I'm worried. Once Nick's finished the vibraphone he's going to let the success go to his head and he's going to start work on a thermonuclear device.

[Lillian]

I'm worried. Once Nick's finished the vibraphone he's going to let the success go to his head and he's going to start work on a thermonuclear device.

Thanks Martin! The world was safe until you planted the idea in Nick's noggin.

[matthew]

tis another world, all that metal and not a splinter of wood or a gob of HHG to be seen!

we had a mech workshop once at work and i had great fun in there till we had to dismantle it to make way for work stuff.

i think you should rename this thread with "vibraphone build" in the title so folks can find it.

[Clancy]

I think I'll just retire to the veranda and wittle some wood.......

And if Nick & Markus joined forces they could take over the world!

[Kim]

Hey Nick,

Thanks for sharing the detail mate, in all honesty I am picking up some great nuggets out of this thread. Great link to VXB for linear bearings etc (have already ordered some stuff from them....I just LOVE stuff ). Use kero to lube ali when tapping....Well thanks for that one too, very helpfull. Sure it may well be common knowledge to metal workers, but to a wood worker like me its pure gold.

Same deal with the Recoil thread liners, I'll be on to some of those, in fact I see a couple to suite M8 and at least half a dozen to suite 1/4" 20's in my immediate future and I just love the idea of putting a centre in the back of the tap handle...Just wish they came like that stock standard or I had a metal lathe to play with..and a mill..and, and a rotary table, and, and, and a boring head.....Oh wait, all most forgot, I 'do' have ready access to one of those

(Good info on Recoil products on this pdf. : http://www.alcoa.com/fastening_systems/ ... atalog.pdf )

Cheers

Kim

[Nick]

Sorry people, no plans of world domination at this stage Who would want it anyway?!
Glad you are getting some valuable links out of the thread Kim, I know what you mean about loving STUFF When I found that site I spent ages just browsing the massive stock range they carry, even looked through the remote control car bearings & I've never even owned one! There's some really tiny bearings on there with ID's of 1mm! The Recoils are great too, like I say, cheaper than the American equivalent Helicoil (Who, I think were the originators of stainless inserts) & a hell of a lot easier to install.

[Nick]

Well due to the long weekend we had with the 'official' regal birthday & various other matters I haven't progressed much with this project over the past couple of weeks so it's slim pickens (not the star of Blazin' Saddles either!) in this post but was getting into 'making the pedal' stage when things were curtailed by mother nature again & the uni's been shut until the engineers can get around to inspect the buildings! So I thought I'd take the opportunity to update this build to where I'm at.
I had done the feet so it's fully mobile now. I bushed the 50X50 box section ally so the wheels had something 'substantial' to screw into, I used recoils on the threads again just so the mountings were strong & didn't rip the bolts out if ever the wheels were to hit anything (such as a small step or ledge), I also radiused & capped the ends just to make them look more a bit prettier

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Once the bushes were welded in I dressed the welds to make them invisible once the paint goes on. I wanted to design the whole instrument so that it could be taken apart & become a 'flat pack' similar to Bunning's DIY kitchens! So that meant making the feet removeable but be able to be easily re-assembled & located in the correct position each time. To do this I used the two things I had available at the bottom of each frame, the down tube & the cross rail. I put a tube that was the right size to fit inside the downtube, right through the square box section (putting it in double shear & therefore stronger than just welding it to one face), that took care of the 'fore & aft' location then I cut some 'lugs' from the 12mm plate I'd got for the bars & sundry items such as these lugs & the foot pedal. These lugs took care of the positioning of the feet in a 'rotary' axis, they also act as clamps to hold the whole thing on by threading & recoiling the rear lug so a bolt (or clamping handle I have for the finished item) could go through the whole assembly & clamp the lugs to the crossbar.

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Down tube hasn't been welded in this shot.

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And here's a picture of the feet back on the frame, the top frame supports (which will eventually locate & support the bar frames) have just been sat on the top to get the idea of what the main frame will look like.

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Next up I had to move onto the foot pedal in order to complete the main frame. I decided early on that with the ability to alter the height adjustment I needed an easy way to alter the link between the pedal & the damper bar. Commercial units have a rod inside a tube which is clamped in place via a wing nut, but rather than fiddling around on the floor doing up wing nuts everytime it's either assembled or adjusted, it would be easier just to use a Bowden cable as my link (think car's throttle cable with a wire running inside a sleeve). This way it can stay 'as it is' & just move up & down with the frame & also caters for the other design hankering I had for making the footpedal adjustable along the length of the bottom cross bar. That way if ever a left footer had a go on it, it's just a matter of loosening off a clamp handle & sliding the pedal over to the left side of the instrument, or even if the same player wanted to adjust where the footpedal felt 'most comfortable'.
With a rough length of cable that I wanted, in my head, it was off down to the local motorcycle spares shop & after rummaging through his collection I found a Honda XR250 throttle cable that fit the bill nicely I've cut some more plate up that will go to make the various components to the footpedal.

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I started with the main bracket that will hold the pedal & clamp everything together. I've welded on a piece that forms the top plate & decided to do a bit of shaping to lighten things up a bit & also give it a more interesting shape than just a rectangle! I rough cut a radius in the sides with the bandsaw then used the boring head clean up the cut.

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And the finished article

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The various holes & slots will become apparent as I go so I won't get all tied up describing them at this stage!(thank goodness I here you say )

I was halfway through making the clamping part of the pedal when the earthquake hit & we had to evacuate so that's where I'm currently at until we can get back into the building, which will hopefully be tomorrow.

[Kim]

Thanks for the progress update Nick, I really look forward to then.

[Clancy]

Nice (and clever) work there Nick.
Maybe mother nature wanted to test out the vibraphone and just got a bit impatient!

[Nick]

Maybe mother nature wanted to test out the vibraphone and just got a bit impatient!

Maybe, but she could have been a little more 'subtle' in her approach!

[Lillian]

Mother Nature has never been know to be subtle when doing something out of the ordinary. All about the drama and presentation.

[kiwigeo]

Must have sounded like 'hells Bells" in that lab on monday

[Nick]

Well I've been getting tied up with the 'fiddly' bits of the pedal/damper assembly & it's still ongoing but thought I'd nail a few more pictures to the wall just to let you know this is still a work in progress!
Here are the various parts of the pedal mount machined up.

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The black bits are just inserts are acetyl inserts that sit in the pockets & are slightly proud of their respective aluminium homes so that when the clamping handle is tightened it's the plastic that does the clamping & thus avoids any damage to the paint. The bearings run either side of the 50x25 box section which makes sliding the pedal along much easier. I also added a couple of pockets in the larger bracket's top piece for springs so that when the clamp handle is undone the two clamps release straight away. I added these after the photo was taken, like most things I design it's always a 'fluid' design (I make it up as I go along ) as I encounter different problems or just suddenly think of improvements I can make.
And a photo with the clamping head assembled.

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then placed on the box section

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The lower block with bearings in it is for the pedal to swing off.
The pedal itself was very much a fluid design, ended up looking very little like the picture I had in my head initially Anyway here it is mounted onto the rest of the assembly

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I've since made the cable mounting system for this end of the damper system & I'm working on mounting the other end currently so I'll put a few more pictures up of the completed system as soon as it's done.

[Nick]

Woo hoo! Got things finished a lot quicker than I had anticipated so the damper system is now completed, I'll put some pics in this post so it helps with the continuity.
I made a Stainless roller to change the direction of the cable from a horizontal mount to a vertical pull. Fortunately the bearings were that cheap that I ordered 20 of the suckers so I have plenty for things like this!

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The bracket in the background was again using a bit of the 12mm plate (I've been keeping all the 'useful' sized offcuts from my other brackets for things such as this). I machined it so that the roller mounted on it & it also held the cable.

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The cable, being a ready made motorcycle part came with the little cast 'drums' on the ends, I was originally going to cut these off & silver solder some fittings directly onto the cable to fit with the clevis's at each end but I got to thinking that if I just made some of the "claw" type of fittings these things usually fit into on the bike, if the cable ever broke or stretched beyond adjustment range, it could be easily replaced with another unit. so I machined the clevis that fits to the damper bar to suit this method.

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I also made a Stainless rod with a similar "claw" fitting and gave it plenty of thread so it allows for more adjustment if required.

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Cable mounted into the bracket

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And with the roller installed (axle needs trimming & circlips mounted at each end so we don't loose the pin , a job for tomorrow!) & clevis mounted & fixed to the damper bar.

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The system at the other end & pedal in it's operational position. With the pedal in this position & with the clevis pivoting where it is gives me about 8mm of movement at the damper bar so I'm assuming this is enough!

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And finally just a couple of completed shots of the frame to show how easy the cable system adapts to different bar heights. No adjustments are required when changing heights the cable just moves with it. First in the position the customer will be playing it in (the tube wedged in between the two rails in the centre is just a packer to give me the correct height).

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and then in the lowest & 'normal' position.

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So apart from a little 'tweaking' this part of the frame is completed, next it will be onto the upper part of the frame where the bar frames & resonators & motor mount to.

[Kim]

Bugger playing the bloody thing, its becoming much like a Brevetti Robbiati 'Atomic' coffee machine.....a functional sculpture yes, but the objet d’art factor stealing the show with design and shine

Cheers

Kim

[Nick]

An atomic coffee machine More curves than a beauty pagent in that one!

A good weekend (well saturday really) spent in the shed (or work in this case) and have started on the upper section of this monster. I wanted to see how the drive & it's controller were all going to fit/sit as this was the one part of the design that I hadn't come up with yet . I'm not very good at picturing possible layouts & such in 3D cad programmes, I have to see 'details' up close & personal so I ripped into the top cross bars & bar frames.
I made up some spigots that go right through the cross rails & fit into the clamps at the top of the downtubes, I stepped them so the cross rails had a shoulder to sit against. I also drilled & tapped a hole that a cap screw goes into, this gives me the positive location for these rails.

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and the 'slot' they locate in in the downtubes

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While these rails are still 'in the raw' & there is more machining to be done on them I only tack welded the spigots in so they can be taken out if need be if they get in the way of any machining operations.

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So they were all done so I set about cutting the bits of 25x50 box section for the bar frames. These are tapered to allow for the different bar lengths that get mounted to them.

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As soon as I had everything to this point the motor mounting & connection methods to the resonator 'butterfly' shaft all became clear so this will be the next stage of the build but first I've got to make some little 'detent' pins so that the bar frames drop onto the cross rails in the same spot everytime. I've managed to find some little rubber "top hats" that will sit on pins mounted into the cross rails then I'll drill some clearance holes in the frames, this should locate them, I'm not sure if I'll need to positively hold them (the frames) down to the cross rails yet, or whether their own weight will do this once all the bars are mounted. But I've made provision for this if I find it a nessesity later down the track.

To be continued....

[charangohabsburg]

Now it starts to look a bit like a vibraphone. So the bigger project will have to wait I guess.

[Nick]

Now it starts to look a bit like a vibraphone. So the bigger project will have to wait I guess.

Can't get your gif image to open Markus Just comes up as a tiny icon in the corner of a grey page.

[charangohabsburg]

Sorry Nick, my mistake.

i just wanted to link to my earlier posting (with the airship) but copied the URL of the post icon () instead...

[Nick]

Yeah an airship will be further down the track, will have to build an extension on the shed first to fit one of them babies in!

[charangohabsburg]

Great!
Until you'll have completed you shed extention you can make some of these:

[Nick]

Great!
Until you'll have completed you shed extention you can make some of these:

They'll fit!

[kiwigeo]

Yeah an airship will be further down the track, will have to build an extension on the shed first to fit one of them babies in!

You know where to come for plenty of hot air to fill that baby