I'm making a batch of keeper bars next weekend

[corduroyew]

Next weekend I'll be making a new batch of keeper bars. They will be milled from the British steel grade En3B which ranges from 1017 to 1022. This batch matches American grade 1018. It is cold rolled and surface ground.

This batch of steel will fall within these specs
Carbon 0.15
Manganese 0.60-1.0
Phosphorous 0.05 max
Sulphur 0.05 max

They were able to tell me the exact carbon content for this batch and the other specs listed are just their standard tolerances.

The steel supplier I’m using has a minimum order so I’m getting enough steel to make around 4,000 keepers. I thought that since I’ve got the materials I might as well make some extra and sell them off. The price will be $1.25 USD (60p if you pay in Pound Sterling). Shipping will be a flat rate of $2.00 USD or 1 quid for the Brits.

If you are interested let me know.

[corduroyew]

one more thing...

my standard dimensions are 2.228" long x 0.196" wide x 0.125" thick with 50mm hole spacing but if you need a different spacing or size let me know and I should be able to do it for you.

[JGundry]

Can you post a photo of one of your finished keeper bars?

[corduroyew]

The steel is scheduled for delivery on Friday so I'll get pics of the finished product on Saturday.

[J S Moore]

If they are milled rather than punched I am definitely interested.

[corduroyew]

They are not punched but I'm not sure if I can technically say they are milled either

They are cut with a bandsaw, ground, then holes are drilled with my drillpress that I modified to to be accurate to .02mm which is about the same accuracy you get from most micro mills.

[corduroyew]

I have some pics now. I'm not good with a camera so this is the best I can do. I put my keeper side by side with one of the Asian punched keepers you get in kits. I'm not going to say who the punched keeper came from but every punched keeper I've ever had my hands on was of a similar quality.

Mine is the one that has flat surfaces and round holes. The punched one has the oval holes and is shaped like a loaf of bread.

http://www.rockmonkeyguitars.com/images/keepers.jpg

http://www.rockmonkeyguitars.com/images/keepers2.jpg

http://www.rockmonkeyguitars.com/images/keepers3.jpg

[Electricdaveyboy]

Hello Chris,
looks nice.
Did you have the chance to hear the keeperbar?
best
david

[corduroyew]

Not yet. Hoping to do that tomorrow.

[Possum]

hole spacing...

how are you doing the drill hole spacing? I'm drilling holes on a mill and made a drill hole guide which is kind of slow and clunky to use but works sort of.

[corduroyew]

I have an X Y table with a vice on it. I replaced one of the metal plates with a piece of wood so that it'll compress around the keepers when I close the jaws. This makes it so I can clamp multiple keepers at once without having any slip. If you leave 2 metal jaws in there then you are stuck only being able to clamp 1 keeper at a time. I clamp 2 keepers at once. 1 is already drilled and is used to keep the bit from wandering the other is the keep I actually want to drill. The table that I'm using is in mm increments and 1 full turn equals 1mm so I just have to turn the handle the correct number of turns to get the spacing right.

To speed things up a little I sometime shape a block of metal that is tall enough to cut 5 keepers from. I'll drill that, then slice the keepers off. It's a lot faster that way but I use up more bits too so I tend to stick with 1 at a time.

[Possum]

thanks.....

thanks for the tips, now I'll have to figure out spacing for gibson stuff, I think its 49.2mm but my mill is in inches decimal so will have to figure out this stuff on paper, this should speed this up for me if I can stumble through the math right :-)

[Possum]

stupid math help....

Uh, I'm a little bit heavy right brainer here. the hole centers I need to drill are .19375" apart , that part I could figure out. What I'm confused about is my mill indicators on the table are .001" per small mark. There are 50 marks per turn. HOw many turns do I need to do and how many marks after that to hit this measurement? Same thing I need to know for the skip in the middle where the holes are .3875" apart. Any math whiz types here? Embarrassed thanks.....

[corduroyew]

.001” per mark
50 marks per turn
That means .05” per turn.
.19375/.05=3.875 turns

If 1 turn is 50marks and we need .875 turns I think that means we multiply 50 by .875 to find out the number of marks you need.

50x.875=43.75

So I think you need 3 turns and 43.75 marks but I could be completely off. I’m not one that’s good at working it out on paper. I just kinda set it up so that it looks right. Do it, and then check my measurements afterwards and see if it lines up.

[EtLa]

Here is what I figured out

0.19375 /.001 = 193.75 marks
193.75 / 50 marks = 3.875 turns
0.875 turns x 50 marks = 43.75 marks
3 turns + 43.75 marks

0.3875 / .001 = 387.5 marks
387.5 / 50 marks = 7.75 turns
0.75 tuns x 50 marks = 37.5marks
7 tunns + 37.5 marks