Hmmmmmmmm

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Boxed up and Delivered

I guess it about time I stopped living in the past and admitted I am finished and now hove to look for another project to stop the night terrors from creeping in.

Back of the box

Front of the box

The white panel says:
WHEN IN DANGER OF A FALL
FROM GREATHEIGHT
IN AIRSHIP ACCIDENT
OR DIRIGIBLE DISASTER
THROW FORCIBLY
TOWARDS GROUND WITH
INTENT TO MISS

and look every thing fits

Box Tease

Had to make a carry case for the jolly thing, not ready to reveal all but here is a tease..

Also whoever invented self adhesive felt that you can buy by the meter needs to be given a medal, I suggest one made from self adhesive felt because its worth more then gold!! Another tease.

Almost Done

OK OK I got more excited about finishing the thing off than by taking bunches of pics but here is the thing, like here literally, done, playable, sitting on my lap as I type this…

Painted unglazed with bits just hanging off the sides to quell my paranoia over my colour choice.

Ta Da!!

Headshot

Tailshot

Hornshot

Whatsitshot

Backshot

It still needs a bit of fiddle with the bridge, a couple of touch ups, a strap and a box.

This is what I’m turning into a strap

And here is a sound test

Opening a can of paint worms

A shelf of bits all polished and ready for fitting

Arm rest fitted, might zinc plate the screws and see how it looks.

String guide fitted.

Body sanded, and all masked up.

Look its an advert for the new Hunger Games film.

and……

……Chromatic underpainting!

Revisiting the end, and the other bit

Not wanting to waste the other half of the precious tea infuser ball, I decided it use it construct and interesting rear strap button exhaust assembly.

Looks good, but the Kraken needs more space. This was the first bit of brass I cut, so worth revisiting now that I know how nice it is to work with. So out comes the cardboard to play around with.

And here is one I prepared earlier.

Back to the gauge and the platters near the horns. First I added a bit of copper pipe.

Platters and levers all drilled.

I decided I did need the full thickness of copper on the bottom layer.

Spaces added

The second layer has the levers connected via wooden dowels, these will be painted like copper.

The gauge is screw to the top layer, the copper pipe lines up with the light gizmo on the other side. The levers will be electro plated with zinc to brake up all that brass, and will be connected to the spacers (apoxy or solder haven’t decided yet). They will also be fitted with compression springs so that they will be able to manipulated as if they have function.

Brass Shim Origami

Time to drill a few holes in the brass for the headstock.

All marked up and centre punched.

Drilled, note the different sized holes for the string holes I only mention it because it took me an hour of hunting to find the perfect drill that then decided to brake on the last hole.

Now featuring period correct slotted brass screws.

Mock up of what it will look like when connected to the neck.

Hmm something is missing, need some kind of guard for the string holes, they look exposed. So I mock up one in cardboard that I’m happy with.

The 1.7mm Brass plate I’ve been using is way to thick for tinsy little bends without more sophisticated tools. I decided on brass shim roughly the thickness of drink can aluminium, folding it in on itself along the edges will provide more than enough strength for a cosmetic element.

Marked out on brass, (only three lines are mistakes)

Cut out with regular scissors (I hope I don’t smudge any of the lines I need to fold along)

All origami’d up!

All together I think it looks rather neat, I’m thinking I still need to trim back the pointy corners though.

Brassing About

Starting with the head stock, to work out the geometry of the brass bits and pieces, I first experimented with some cardboard.

As with all things edges are tricky. The path the strings will take and the their transition into a mechanical tuning device whats it was becoming convoluted, putting small levers and cogs every where was becoming cumbersome. The idea is that the mechanics are not meant distract you into thinking too hard about how that would actually work but imply functionality. So being a little more subtle, I’ll have the strings seem to enter the mechanics through the holes in which they terminate and have only the edge of the cogs showing, with a little bit of decoration thrown in. like so. (Oh and a electronic tuner should still be able to be clipped in when needed, it came ion handy holding the carboard)

So grab a sheet of 1.7mm brass plate and attack it with a Dremel cut off wheel and you get.

hmm needs a polish and a file.

Same cardboard method with the section near the horns. (you can see the glass of the gauge used for sizing things up)

On the side you can see two paddles which will connect to faux valves that connect to the horn pipes. Implying they would affect the sound like valves on a clarinet or paddle shift levers on a formula 1 car. Here is a better view.

The paddles cut out, they will be electro plated with nickel so too look shiny and silverish. (who knew you could get a home kit to do that kinda thing?)

I only cut two plates out for the platers the bottom one I’ll just use thin brass shim and glue it to the timber.

And hopefully after a little more trimming and a hole drilled here and there it should come up looking like this.

If I was actually this far progressed, with every thing bolted together and shiny, I might be painting a tree by now, back to the Brasso I guess.

Gauging Progress

When the week starts with a desperate search for a yoyo, its time find an new ironic simile.

I decided I needed a proper kind of looking steampunkish gauge whats it, and the internets told me that a cheap plastic yoyo was the place to start, but could I find one, no the kids are all loom bands these days. The other method I investigated was to find something tinish and use epoxy resin to approximate a glass fronted dial. I find in my piles an old travel size shoe nugget, download an excellent graphic designed by one Herbert West, for the face from http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=35732.0 and had a bash.

Not totally enamored of the results, the needle I used is too small, the epoxy slumped a little and has a few too many air bubbles. All problems that I could overcome with a little more care, but the main issue for me is the lack of depth. The dial is only 5mm from the surface, it works on first pass but at a second glance it is just wrong. So after much gnashing and gnawing of teeth I hunted down a very cheap and nasty tire pressure gauge with a circular dial but it was only the top bit I was after, twas the perfect size, copperised up a disk of plywood to fit it, stuck down another dial, ripped out the second hand of a horrible plastic clock I had laying around, and tada Steampunk gauge!