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Thread: Steel Instrument School Project
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7th Oct 2010, 05:15 PM #1New Member
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Steel Instrument School Project
Hello everyone,
I am an art student in South Lake Tahoe, CA. I am graduating this year, and am going to continue on and seek an education in instrument building. With this being my last year at this school, I've been trying to incorporate music into more of my work.
In my metals class I was assigned to make a box out of steel and then do something with it. I want to make a ukulele (the box dimensions are about that size). I am not expecting it to sound amazing, this is a project to build something fun and interesting, and the entire thing (except for maybe some hardware if my instructor is okay with it) will be made of steel.
Anyone have any experience with something in this realm? Technical challenges, thoughts, ideas? I'm just trying to research the idea a bit before I get started.
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7th Oct 2010, 07:16 PM #2Senior Member
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sounds interesting say what sort of skills and machines do you expect to use or have access to? is it going to be mostly sheet metal and hand tools? how much work have you done on lathes and mills?
take some inspiration from this guy Frank Ford his stuff is amazing! the stuff i have read of him is that he is a skilled guitar maker and has really gone to town with his metal work recently making all sorts of tools and parts for guitars and banjoshappy turning
Patrick
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8th Oct 2010, 09:27 AM #3New Member
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We have a pretty good shop. Its got acetylene, mig, tig, arc welders. We have all kinds of presses, bandsaws, etc. Not sure about lathes and mills, but there is a whole other section of the shop I haven't been in. I don't have too much skill, this is my first opportunity to work with this kind of stuff.
Thank you for the link it is an awesome resource!
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8th Oct 2010, 09:32 AM #4
Well, they make steel guitars so I don't see why a steel uke would be a complete failure. Sounds like an interesting project.
anne-maria.
Tea Lady
(White with none)
Follow my little workshop/gallery on facebook. things of clay and wood.
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8th Oct 2010, 12:53 PM #5Most Valued Member
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Hey Nord
You do realise that if you have any sort of aptitude for metal working, you will probably be afflicted with it for the rest of your life, don't you?
There is no cure.
Good to see a young person showing an interest. We will expect progress pics of your instrument progress.
regards
bollie7
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8th Oct 2010, 07:57 PM #6Senior Member
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thats a good point right now you can save yourself from life long financial strain and social awkwardness by forgetting all about manual arts and you must never EVER learn what lathes, mills, shapers and grinders do......
lol once you learn what you can do and things you can make it gets addictive just a word of warning form a suffering addicthappy turning
Patrick
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8th Oct 2010, 08:44 PM #7Distracted Member
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Nord, are there constraints on how the box is to be constructed? What thickness material? And how much you can then modify it? Like, could you add different materials, say a timber neck?
Edit: I just read your post again. So disregard the last question.
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9th Oct 2010, 08:25 PM #8Distracted Member
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Nord, I'm trying to imagine how you could make a neck, tuning head and fretboard out of steel.
I don't think carving it from solid is viable. The weight and cost would be prohibitive, even if you had the machining skills and equipment.
You could make a pattern and fold it out of sheet steel, with riveted or soldered joints. That's a big challenge for a novice, and could take a lot of time. Maybe some 'sheeties' can advise you better on this.
You could fabricate one, maybe from rectangular tube, and weld on some brackets for tuning pegs. Solder wire on for frets. That could work. If you only weld the minimum necessary, you may avoid distortion problems.
On the other hand, if you're allowed to bolt on a neck from an existing instrument, it becomes much easier.
There's still the issue of attaching the neck to the body. If the body is flimsy you may need some bracing to take the strain of the strings.
How you join things depends on what methods you have available and feel comfortable with. But you will have to think carefully about the order of assembly. Hope this ramble is some help.
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10th Oct 2010, 10:43 AM #9
Go all out men! It doesn't really have to LOOK like a uke. I have a recollection of a metal violin that Larie Anderson used in a concert I saw. I thought it have a neck made out of zig zag bits like roof trusses. But I can't find the image in a google search. Found this though. A pretty rad violin that nearly isn't there. I know it doesn't have a box. Which was the project's point. But anyway. Think laterally that's all I'm saying.
Google Image Result for http://news.thinkns.com/wp-content/uploads/img1992-300x199.jpg
anne-maria.
Tea Lady
(White with none)
Follow my little workshop/gallery on facebook. things of clay and wood.
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11th Oct 2010, 12:48 PM #10Member
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Hi Nord,
When I lived in Adelaide I got to see one of this guy's guitars:
Donmo Resonator Guitars
They're called resonator guitars. As you can see on the site, he makes them out of brass or galvanized steel.
If you look on the site he also makes Mandolins. You could make the ukulele equivalent.
The resonator is a spun aluminium cone that is attached to a bridge. The neck is wood. Maybe you can get these parts online from a site like http://www.stewmac.com then just work on the sheet metal body.
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12th Oct 2010, 08:49 AM #11New Member
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Wow, there are a lot of good ideas and resources here. Thanks for all the feedback!
I finished the cube part of my project earlier today. I have to treat it as a found object, so the shape of the instrument will be somewhat abstract (possibly a diamond shape, depending on what I can do, I'm going to be asking a lot of questions tonight). It was made out of steel sheets that are pretty thin, but strong (one student was throwing his box off of bridges for his project, and it held up really well!) I can do whatever I want with the project, and I can use foreign objects, though the teacher wants to see as much metal fabrication as possible.
As for hardware I picked up some old broken basses and a guitar for almost nothing. There are all kinds of little things I might be able to use from them.
I'll definitely be looking into the resonator guitars and mandolins. The spun aluminum cone sounds like a very cool idea.
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13th Oct 2010, 04:17 AM #12Senior Member
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13th Oct 2010, 08:13 AM #13Most Valued Member
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13th Oct 2010, 11:02 AM #14Member
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Sounds like you're 90% of the way there. Could you show us some photos of your finished product when you're done?
If you are doing well with the steel sheet, perhaps instead of a spun cone you could try making a bowl shape out of sheet.
Eskimo,
If you want to check out a guitar, Don used to play a bit at the 3D radio Folk show every Monday night. 48 Nelson St Stepney. It's just out on the front yard and you just stroll up and check out a free folk concert as well.
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19th Oct 2010, 05:04 PM #15New Member
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I'll start posting pictures soon. I have a lot of different projects going on right now and am bit scattered.
I've been reading into resonators a bit and feel that it might be the best way to go. It looks like I can just use a tin can.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRkxyEtd5Yc]YouTube - Tin Can Reso Ukulele![/ame]
Looks pretty cool, and fairly easy to do. What I'm curious about is if the can would have to go all the way through the body, or just a bit of it. Also, because of the diamond shape of the body I'm making, I'm wondering if the bridge can be offset. I'll have a lot more can options if the bridge doesn't have to be directly in the center of the can.
Other than that I need to figure out how to make the frets. My teacher suggested tacking on welding rods. Fretwire is cheap though, but I don't know how difficult it would be to slot a metal fretboard.