Ebony bridge caps/ Titanium bridge pins

[Ron Nossaman]

> Ron N, that Permali looks as if it wouldn't be much different to maple 
> impregnated with West System. The base material they're using, European 
> Beech, isn't quite as dense as Canadian Maple (but that's probably 
> unimportant), and they're forming it up using a vacuum press. As I've 
> mentioned previously, we're using our vacuum press to form up bridge 
> capping from quarter cut sliced 0.5 thick maple veneer glued with West 
> System in the vacuum press.

Hi Ron,
That's what I'm using too, only clamped lightly between flat cauls. 
Nice stuff, isn't it? They don't say vacuum "press" for the Permali, 
they say "impregnated under vacuum". I take this to mean the veneers 
are immersed in resin, placed under a fairly substantial vacuum to 
remove as much air as possible, and the vacuum released to suck the 
resin into every void in the wood. Perhaps not, but that's how 
vacuum impregnation is done, and that's how I read it. I've got an 
email in to them for information, availability, and pricing. Samples 
too, if I can get them. If I do, I'll post my impressions.


> When we glue our caps the glue comes right through the veneers to the 
> unglued outer surfaces. 

Same here, but I'm not altogether convinced that's equivalent to 
vacuum impregnation.


>Since wood fibre has a specific density of 
> around 1.5 grams/cc regardless of species, it probably doesn't matter a 
> great deal which species is chosen for the basic material to be added to 
> the West System cap.
> 
> Ron O

I'd say you're correct, at least within a range of hardwoods of high 
fiber tensile strength.
Ron N