Making flatwork? Steel Rule Dies?

[R.G.]

Great! Thank you.

[David Schwab]

That would be a really great way to have it done, but I would worry about the cost. Stereolithography is neat stuff. We used to proto fancy plastic parts in that.

My partner is an industrial designer, and he has one of those machines at his job. So I'm getting it done for free. He gets things laser cut from time to time also. Wish we had this stuff when we first set up shop in '94.

It would be expensive to do on a regular basis. This pickup is a custom size, so it's a one off. But if it turns out well I'm going to have him print the regular size flats for me, and then I think I'll make a mold for them.

[DoctorX]

10 ton press for cheap money when you can find them.

This is the 10 ton bench press I was referring to in previous posts (see picture) it will cut through thick forbon like a hot knife through butter. Just needs to be bench mounted and have the dies fitted to it. It is not much bigger than an arbor press. Weighs about 90 lbs, give or take. The ones I have cost me $100 and $200 (more attachments came with the second one).

If you get creative, you could probably bend up baseplates with it (22 - 18 gauge)...BUT this is only a guess, as I have not tested this yet. You would probably do better with a bending brake with jigs attached to it.

Come to think of it, you might even be able to punch out the baseplate blank with this and use one of the Harbor Freight or Grizzley bending brakes to finish the bends. Haven't tested this out either, but it should be possible.

DoctorX

[NightWinder]

I seen the brake the other day @H.f. It really looks nice . Pretty big.....There on sale now too

[David Schwab]

Stereolithography flats

Well this was an exciting experience. I fabricated the bobbins for two pickups today using Stereolithography.

I drew the bobbin shape in Adobe Illustrator. My partner then opened that file in Form Z, extruded it to .0625, and generated a file for the printer.

We tried one out and it looked good. So he ganged up 9 more and we printed it.

About a half hour later I was able to snap the parts off of the support piece it lays down first.

I took pictures of the entire process, but for the moment here's the finished bobbins ready to be wound. They are sitting on a piece of cocobolo that's going to be used for the wooden pickup case.

This is a narrower pickup than I usually made, as per the customers specs.

We were so excited by this that we are going to start making other bobbin styles, such as the twin blade Strat size pickups and stuff you can't find anywhere. We have access to the machine on weekends, since it's just sitting idle.

The finished bobbins are white ABS, and have a slight texture to them. In my case that's fine since they will be covered, but for exposed bobbins they can be painted.

[Mystic]

I work with steel rule dies every day at my job. I run a die cut press. The dies for cutting holes can have an outer bevel or the bevel can be on the inside. A One ton press might be a little on the light side, especially trying to punch holes. Here's a picture of the press I run.

[Dave Kerr]

Do you superglue the flatwork to the blades, then wrap with tape? Use a jig to square them up while the glue sets?

[David Schwab]

Do you superglue the flatwork to the blades, then wrap with tape? Use a jig to square them up while the glue sets?

Yes. I use magnets on the bottom to get the spacing for the lower flatwork (my blade extends out the bottom). This particular flatwork fit so well it went on pretty square and just needed a little tweaking.

Previously I used epoxy, but this time I used superglue. I'm going to make a jig to help position everything.

It was the easiest pickup to make so far.



(yeah, my coils bulge a bit in the middle... )

[kevinT]

Well this was an exciting experience. I fabricated the bobbins for two pickups today using Stereolithography.

We were so excited by this that we are going to start making other bobbin styles, such as the twin blade Strat size pickups and stuff you can't find anywhere. We have access to the machine on weekends, since it's just sitting idle.

Nice work David. They look very professional. Maybe that is your calling.....Hard to find/rare/custom pickup parts.

Curious...Where are you getting your blades? What type of metal?

[NightWinder]

I was gonna say....Bulge galore/ Whens the baby due? LOL. (just messin around Dave

[David Schwab]

Nice work David. They look very professional. Maybe that is your calling.....Hard to find/rare/custom pickup parts.

Thanks. I'm real happy how they turned out. Yeah that's what John said... so we are going to make custom parts if anyone needs them. We can't do high volumes, but a small run could work.

We are going to get some black plastic for the machine eventually.

Curious...Where are you getting your blades? What type of metal?

Just plane steel bar stock. I got that particular one from Home Depot! They are cut to length and smoothed on a belt sander.

We are going to make some twin blade Strat and Tele pickups. For that we are using .0625" thick steel, and we are going to machine it with an arch to the blade.

We have our own milling machine which comes in real handy, and access to a model making shop.

I was gonna say....Bulge galore/ Whens the baby due? LOL. (just messin around Dave

I like bulgy coils. Some of my favorite pickups I wound have bulges. I was trying to stay away from the edges, since they are very small bobbins, and the first try got some wire wrapped on the bobbin. I had to sand the edges a bit, since they are made from layers, and they sometimes delaminate a bit. Made for a good place for wire to catch.