Bell cranks for round cross shafts, Franklin guitars

[Jeremy Moyers]

Hello all,

I am looking to add a few compensators to my D-10 Franklin. Parts for these guitars, namely bell cranks (or rod pullers as Paul Sr. calls them) are hard to impossible to find. Do any of you know what diameter the round cross shafts are in the Franklin guitars? Also, do you have any idea where I could possibly source some bell cranks for my Franklin? Even someone who could fabricate me a bunch of bell cranks just like the Franklin parts?

I noticed that Rittenberry makes some pretty incredible looking bell cranks for round cross shafts. Anyone know if they would work? I really like these because you don’t have to remove the cross shaft to add the bell crank. I will upload a photo of the Rittenberry bell crank here in a bit. For some reason my phone won’t let me do it...

Any info or ideas would be appreciated. Thanks!!

Jeremy

[Tony Rankin]

I would like to add a couple compensators to my Franklin as well. It would be nice to find a couple bell cranks that would work. I’m interested in what you discover Jeremy.

[Bobby D. Jones]

From posts here on the SG Forum.
COVID-19 Virus hit the Franklin family about October 4.
Paul Senior lost his wife Oleda Nov. 9th.
It may be a while before Franklin Steel is back in operation and production. Only time will tell.
May the Lord be with them in their time of mourning.

[Niklas Widen]

Jeff Surratt of Show Pro guitars did some great set-up work on my Franklin guitar a couple of years ago. I wanted some pulls added and Jeff used Show Pro parts, including bell cranks. I don’t know if he used stock parts or if he had to modify them, but they work perfectly. Check with Jeff.

/Niklas

[Jim Palenscar]

The rods are 1/8" aluminum and you could bend one to attach to an existing bellcrank.

[Jack Stoner]

From posts here on the SG Forum.
COVID-19 Virus hit the Franklin family about October 4.
Paul Senior lost his wife Oleda Nov. 9th.
It may be a while before Franklin Steel is back in operation and production. Only time will tell.
May the Lord be with them in their time of mourning.

There are no more Franklins. Production ceased several years ago.

I saw, on this forum, a clamp on that would work on round shafts. Its been a long time and I don't remember if it was just something someone made for themselves or if they were selling them.

The Franklin I had (and Tony has now) has the first and second string raises on the same puller (bell crank). That was the way Paul installed them.

[Franklin]

Dad is still struggling to walk so knocking out a few parts is no longer possible. The guitar he designed never had mass produced parts...If you have those tinkering skills this is exactly what he did to make the parts. Get a local machinist. They can knock these parts out easily.

The cross shafts are 5/16ths zinc covered cold rolled steel...You can get them in three foot pieces at Ace or Tru-Value hardware stores..Cut them to size and grind down a flat side on the otherwise round shaft so the rod pullers can not slip...Use alloy 6061 aluminum (3/4" by 1/4") for cutting out the mounts for the cross shaft.

Rod pullers were made per guitar - starting with 3/4 by 1/4 aluminum bars for shaping. Have him use an existing rod puller from your guitar to recreate the pullers shape...

Happy Holidays!
Paul

[Jeremy Moyers]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I have a friend here in Texas that may be able
To make me some of the rod pullers. I would like to stick with stock parts if at all possible as I know that the tone of the guitar is the sum of the parts, and these Franklin guitars sound absolutely amazing! There is something very special about Franklin guitars...

Thank you as well for the reply Paul. Please pass my best on to your dad! He has been a huge resource and source of encouragement to me throughout the past 20+ years. He and your mom were always incredibly kind and inviting to me. They are special people for sure!

[Derek Puckett]

The rittenberry bellcranks will not work, one the crossshafts are bigger and the pull rods are also bigger so the swivels for the pull rods cant be modified to fit

[Bo Borland]

Here’s a pic of one that slips on round crossrod 3/8”


There appears to be some extra meat that could be hand filed away to fit a slightly larger diameter rod.

[Ross Shafer]

One could file all day on that 3/8" bell crank and it'd still be too big for the Franklin's 5/16" shaft.

[Larry Dering]

Could it be built up with a mig welder then filed to fit or re-drilled to 5/16?

[Ross Shafer]

welded up? Very doubtful, due to the high heat required for aluminum welding, turning the clamp end into an amorphous aluminum ball is pretty likely....even if done with a tig welder which is more precise than mig in general.

Once welded it'd be so soft, it'd probably bend. After welding it you can wait a few weeks for it to age and get somewhat harder, or you can bake it at around 400 deg. for 4-8 hours to artificially age it. Afterward it'd still be softer than T6, but would probably be serviceable.

[Larry Dering]

Ross you are a wealth of information. I hadn't considered the heat since I mostly do automotive work. I seen crankshaft journals built up with weld then machined back to spec by an old German machinest in the 60s. It appears that making a new part is more practical in this case.

[Patrick Fleming]

What about a shim like you would use to shim a 1 1/8 stem on a one inch steer tube bike fork? You could then use any round shaft pulls that are for a larger than 5/16 shaft that you like Of course pulls that are the correct size would be ideal.

[David Ball]

The good thing about round shafts is that it's pretty easy to make bell cranks using nothing but a drill press and a hack saw. As Paul Jr. said earlier in the thread, file a flat spot on the shaft so the bell crank won't shift and you should be good.

Dave

[Charley Bond]

I modified my Sierra Bell Cranks, by drilling from the bottom of the Bell Crank, through the hole & tapping that hole, back thro the cross hole. Then I went inside the legs of the bell cranks & inserted small Soc Hd Cap Screws.

I removed my round cross shafts & inserted Keyed Cross Shafts. When I replaced these parts, I was able to tighten the Bell Cranks two ways, one way was the normal pinch method, the second was to tighten the Soc Hd Screws into the keyway.

When I am done with my copedent changes, I will Loctite all these settings. But, If I ever need to change, a heat gun will get it all undone for me.

[Paddy Long]

I had Jerry Roller build me some bellcranks for my Franklin - it actually had one on the compensator rod which had the bottom part machined out so it just slipped straight on to the existing rod without having to remove the rod. Grub screws front and back secured it in a short time so it was a much simplified process to add extra changes etc... So I sent that to Jerry and he built me 10 of them !
You could have as many slots as you want too. The standard Franklin ones have 5 slots.
Here's the pic:

[Jeremy Moyers]

That is EXACTLY what I need! Thanks brother!

[Larry Dering]

Sadly Jerry Roller has passed away. A prince of a guy. Hopefully you can use the pictures and fabricate your own.

[Paddy Long]

They work great Jeremy ... I realise Jerry passed away recently but the picture will be very helpful if you can find a machinist and perhaps one of your original bell cranks, along with my pic to give them an idea on dimensions etc ... if it works out and you can find a good man to do the job, I will grab some more too :-}

[Bob Snelgrove]

Put me in line if anyone can have these made

bob

[Bob Snelgrove]

Anyone have a pic of the stock Franklin one?

bob

[Manfred Schall]

Hello Bob,
Here you go.

Cheers,
MS

[Bob Snelgrove]

Hello Bob,
Here you go.

Cheers,
MS

Thank you!!

bob