Thoughts on soundboards...you out there Ron?

[btrout@desupernet.net]

Hi Ron,

Ron Nossaman wrote:

> * Good thinking. Then you have the chain jump off the hoist and land smack
> among the hitch pins of octave six when you go to install it. I'll put the
> last coat on it... again... I hope, tomorrow. There's definitely something
> evil about octave six. %-) And yes, I did finally make a sort of guard for
> the chain. Hope you have better luck.
>
> Actually, I don't use a chain for lifting plates in and out.  I use a block and
> tackle type setup for the lifting, but it's all done from a single point... I'll
> try to explain.  Attached to the plate I use straps, kind of like what you'd use
> to strap a piano to a skid board if you were moving it.  (About 2 inches wide,
> flat...)  Usually, I use two of them, one from side to side in the front near the
> pinblock area, and one from side to side in the back, somewhere around the nose,
> it's not that critical.  Both straps go through a metal ring (aprox. 3" in diam.),
> and the hook on the end of the block and tackle gets put through the ring to lift
> and lower.  Sounds like a pretty big juggling act, but once you've done a couple,
> it gets pretty easy to guestimate where the bugger will likely balance.  I've done
> it several times all by myself, but it feels better having a helper. Anyway, no
> chain.  The worst thing that happens for me is when I forget myself and take the
> ring off of the hook and accidentally drop it.  It ALWAYS lands smack in the
> center of the soundboard and leaves me a nice little dent (which usually I'm the
> only one who knows it's there, but it'll bug me!).
>
> * That's about it, except I use a belt sander with boulder grit (40).
>
> Kind of reminds me of a show on PBS.  The Furniture Guys.  I don't know if you've
> seen them, they're a riot.  They were doing a show on furniture distressing one
> time and one of their 'tools' was a big sort of square shaped rock, maybe 4 or 5
> in. square... they called it #1 grit sandpaper.  Ha, ha.  Anyway I got a kick out
> of it...

> * Hmmm, that would probably be #2 shmutz. Really, I don't know. Some folks
> habitually fit the plate with epoxy, but others think that's wrong. I
> normally don't, but I have when the fitting process wasn't getting me there
> well enough because of some weird plate configuration.

I don't have any #2 shmutz.  (or any #1 or #3 shmutz either, for that matter.)  I
just keep workin' on that thing till it fits.  Sometimes it's just a couple of
hours, sometimes it's most all day.  Some go well, some don't go so well.

During those hours of fitting, I sometimes dream of ways to build some kind of jig
(for a router, maybe) to make the pinblock to fit the plate Exactly and precisely.
Perhaps with a CNC router...  Well, needless to say, I always get done fitting the
pinblock before I work out the details... and don't think about it again till the
next pinblock, at which time the thought process starts all over again, at the
beginning...)

Good to talk to you, Ron.

Have a good weekend.

Brian