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Machine Shop Practice: Making Custom Metal Hardware For Basses
- Thread starter Bruce Johnson
- Start date
It's performance art, attendees are encouraged to bring ear protection, Eye protection, wear full Kevlar body suits as well as face shields.
Sounds like they could open for GWAR, at least you'd be properly attired...
Since many readers of this thread are beginners like me, it may be useful to document how I fared with the moon-shaped control cover plate.
Filing the thing to shape was a mixed experience. On the outside (the convex curve) filing went well. But the inside (the concave curve) was very difficult to file, though I tried many round and half-round files. This is probably due to the fact that you have to hold the file perpendicular to the edge, as opposed to the convex side where you can file parallel to the edge.
In the end, I made a new cover. I wanted to do a better job at sawing the concave curve so I wouldn't need to do so much filing.
Also, I hadn't drilled any holes in the cover. This is easier to do in a bigger plate, before cutting the piece out. So that's another reason for making a new one.
This time I had fewer flying shards because I kept them mostly under a push stick. To illustrate this, here you can see I'm about to cut off a shard:
But instead of doing it like that, I held this push stick (made of multiplex) on top of the shard while cutting:
Here it is in my old heavy vise. The vise has serrated jaws, so I made smooth inserts from multiplex. By the way, this photo shows the nice gold-ish colour rather well:
The cover now looks like this:
Two holes for kill switches, one hole for the jack, and three for screwing it down.
It is far from perfect, but that doesn't bother me. It is rough and unique, and very me. Most things I've made are like that.
I plan to bevel it, with files. I hope that goes well.
Filing the thing to shape was a mixed experience. On the outside (the convex curve) filing went well. But the inside (the concave curve) was very difficult to file, though I tried many round and half-round files. This is probably due to the fact that you have to hold the file perpendicular to the edge, as opposed to the convex side where you can file parallel to the edge.
In the end, I made a new cover. I wanted to do a better job at sawing the concave curve so I wouldn't need to do so much filing.
Also, I hadn't drilled any holes in the cover. This is easier to do in a bigger plate, before cutting the piece out. So that's another reason for making a new one.
This time I had fewer flying shards because I kept them mostly under a push stick. To illustrate this, here you can see I'm about to cut off a shard:
But instead of doing it like that, I held this push stick (made of multiplex) on top of the shard while cutting:
Here it is in my old heavy vise. The vise has serrated jaws, so I made smooth inserts from multiplex. By the way, this photo shows the nice gold-ish colour rather well:
The cover now looks like this:
Two holes for kill switches, one hole for the jack, and three for screwing it down.
It is far from perfect, but that doesn't bother me. It is rough and unique, and very me. Most things I've made are like that.
I plan to bevel it, with files. I hope that goes well.
I would use sand paper and something bigger radius like paint can or similar as sanding block to sand that inside shape. For the outside I would use a wide straight sanding block.
I don't quite understand why you are having trouble filing the perimeter curves. To me, I would probably spend 15 minutes filing the concave and convex curves of that part to shape. I would clamp the plate in a vise with wood blocks, like you are doing. I'd file the jagged parts off and bring the shape to the lines with a fairly large coarse half-round file. In US series, a 10" Bastard Half Round file. In Swiss Pattern, a #00 Series. Then I'd go over it with a 8" Smooth Half-Round file to smooth it out and remove the marks from the Bastard file.
I was going to ask if he had half-rounds, to me that would make the interior curve easier than the exterior, even if the file radius and the desired curve didn't match exactly.... you'd have a bit more contact but still have control of the shaping...
Our friend Jeremy (Mr Freekmagnet) is in my metalworking shop, as I write this, making up a custom horn extender plate from 1/8" aluminum. Here he is, filing the concave side with a 8" Bastard Half-Round file.
Well, part of that was simply inexperience. Not knowing how a file I've only ever used on wood will work on brass . Not knowing what result to expect from, say, ten seconds of filing. And so on.
So I returned to it the next day, and things went better. I'm still a beginner but I'm a bit less of one than I was yesterday.
Still somewhat rough here and there but that doesn't bother me. And I am especially proud of those holes.
So there it is: a piece of self made hardware for my new bass!
It looks good so far, but you still need to finish it. A little more time filing to get those curved lines flowing smoothly. Then, a slight bevel all around the perimeter.
The main thing to learn about filing metal is how much additional muscular force it takes, as compared to filing wood. You have to press down much harder to dig the teeth into the metal, and then it takes much more forward force to peel the metal up. Like, 5 to 10 times as much as for wood. Put a scrap of metal in your vise and practice filing hard. You'll be surprised how quickly it will take metal off when you provide it with some horsepower.
Also, go fairly slow. Like 1 or maybe 2 strokes per second, stroking almost the full length of the file.
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You may be OK with it now, but you will be looking at it forever. As your metal working skills improve, you may regret not having take the time to do a better job smoothing out the curves and adding the bevel the Bruce suggests.
I do understand what you're saying, and I agree with you in principle. And I haven't yet fully dismissed the option of taking the time now to do a better job.
All the same, I don't want to linger on this too much, for several reasons, including the fact I'm building a bass that I want to play in the foreseeable future. And if in a few months or years I find that my skills have improved, no one will stop me from loosening three screws, taking the control cover off the bass, and do that better job.
And then there's this, and it may be the hardest thing to explain: I need to take into account how my learning curves work. I've been reading this thread, picking up a lot of new information, asking questions. I've bought some new tools. I've drilled the six holes in this cover plate, using the Spot Drilling technique as explained, and they came out basically flawless. All this amounts to a lot of info and skills, which I acquired in a short time.
Now I can feel I'm reaching a saturation point, where I cannot process and apply any more info on the subject. As a result, I may easily become careless and botch up my good work. I'm speaking from experience, it has happened to me many times in many areas.
So yes, I agree with you that I will derive more satisfaction from doing a better job, which is why I need to make sure I tackle that better job only when I'm ready for it.
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I think you need to clamp a piece of the scrap cutoff in your vise, and spend a little quality time going at it with a file. Practice taking off material pushing hard, filing down lumps, making a smooth curved surface, etc. Get a feel for how to file metal on some scrap. Practice until you feel comfortable. Then finish up your part.
The diameter of a (half) round file can be increased a bit by angling it relative to the work piece. Varying the angle constantly can prevent accidentally over filing spots that the file naturally "fall" into.
One must, however, be careful so that the edges of the file don't touch the wok piece. That could will create a very deep notch very quickly.
Good advice for everything.
One can learn from reading and seeing and hearing, but you don’t really know it until you have done it wrong a few times before getting it in your hands.
I seem to end up with a steep learning curve with every new tool or process.
My wife wonders why I keep piles of scraps in the garage, but I know. It’s my mistakes pile. Past mistakes or future ones waiting to be made.
Absolutely. When I'm testing out a new machine or tool, I'll always try it out on scrap wood or metal first. Even when I'm doing a complicated router setup on an instrument part, I'll often do a test run on some scrap, just to make sure that all the settings are right. That's an important part of Craftsmanship: Finding the mistakes before they happen.
Funny you say that. I'm planning on trying out my dad's old router* for the first time later this week, and already have a note to scare up some scrapwood to practice on. I've got a barrel of pallet wood handy but don't want to use it in case of stray nails.
*(It's so old that I don't think it was ever used after my siblings and I were born. I've never seen him use it. It might not run! But it's in pretty good condition, considering, so I'm hopeful.)
Just in case anyone was considering a certain shortcut... (fyi shorts don't link like regular YT videos)
https://youtube.com/shorts/op7bt_vLsGM?feature=share
https://youtube.com/shorts/op7bt_vLsGM?feature=share
