28.5 scale Lap/Console with Bender project

[Dan Otranto]

Hi
New member
I'm currently building a 28.5 scale baritone 8 string with benders. Thought I might as well make a build thread.
I've been casting hardware for guitars for a bit, I did this head last week which is the largest item I've cast so far.
Cast the Bigsby style cover and bridge chassis, which will have 8 ball bearings through a 1/4 SS rod at the front, 8 holes for the strings on the bottom and another 1/4 SS rod at the rear for the bender levers.

Render




Castings




3D print of bender mechanism prototyping



"Fretboard" is laser cut aluminum, same with the pickup/bridge plate.

[Andy DePaule]

Hi Dan,
Nice casting work.
Now you've cooked your stew!
Everyone will want you to cast parts for them too!
Looks like a fun project.
Best wishes,
Andy

[Chris Clem]

This looks like a nice high quality build which is step in the right direction from what we normally see on the forum. I have never played any steel with benders, but I do wonder how well they will work with that long scale. Have you tried this before?

[Dan Otranto]

Have you tried this before?

No!

I've built about 7 complete guitars, never a lap steel. Doing the design for it has been deceptively difficult, I suppose it's just being a bit unfamiliar with steels but getting all the parts (and accompanying holes, cavities, etc to fit has been trickier than I thought it would be.

I had a Gibson Skylark a couple years ago for a little while and a Sho-Bud Pro One pedal for a while.

[Dan Otranto]

Got the laser cut stuff in today, was able to joint and plane the birdseye I picked up, milled flats on the head for the tuners (the pattern has a 2 degree draft on all sides in order to make it easy to remove from the sand mold). You can see a big defect in the casting where I believe some sand collapsed into the pattern cavity. It'll need a lot of file work and sanding to blend everything.

I'll fill in the "fretboard" with black resin and then sand it flush and inlay that into a rout in the riser board.


Looks like the birdseye I picked has a lot of figure, very difficult to tell what it's gonna look like from the rough sawn stuff at the lumber yard.

[Dennis Saydak]

Wow congratulations! that's an incredible effort from my perspective. I personally don't like working with metal. It doesn't cut very well with a knife.

[Dan Otranto]

okeydokey
some of the routing done, more machining on the cast parts. Was able to fly cut the faces of the head, drill most holes in the parts and milled the pickup blade slot. Cast aluminum aint too nice to machine...very gummy. Wish I had more steel tooling instead of carbide.

Anyone know where to get some legs?

[Andy DePaule]

The one with the cast head sure has nice Birdseye Maple.
Should really pop with a good lacquer finish.

[Dan Otranto]

Yeah the birdseye turned out to have quite a lot of figure, the eyes are small but there are a lot of them, it's sort of difficult to determine how it will look when it is rough sawn at the lumber yard.

I use a makerspace for doing a lot of the work and they got a new powermatic 20" planer with a helical, it did a pretty good job but there was still some minor tear out of the eyes so I need to figure how to fill that pre-spraying. I don't have access to a surface/thickness sander unfortunately.

[Andy DePaule]

Hi Dan,
Yes the planers with a helical cutters do a great job.
I didn't have the cash or space for a large Powermatic so I bought a smaller 13" Wen brand.
I have three of their power tools now and all are very well made and priced very reasonable. Also have the largest bench top drill press and a tool sharpening machine by Wen. All do a great job.

the planer with a helical cutters do a beautiful cut, but the trick with the figured woods is to only crank it about a quarter turn or less with each pass to just shave the wood a little and there should be no tear out.

That peghead casting is a very nice design and it looks like you got no bad spots at all. Your machining is also very nice.
I've thought of getting a small forge to try my hand at it, but not done anything but watch YouTube videos so far.
Best wishes,
Andy
Best wishes,
Andy

[Dan Otranto]

There is a little mess up on the head of the casting but it's not too severe. I use one of those $140 Gongyi propane furnace kits from Amazon for melting the aluminum, it takes about 10 minutes to melt enough aluminum to do something like the head, its pretty easy.

https://www.youtube.com/@olfoundryman8418

This is the best resource for casting I've found on youtube.

I agree the Wen stuff is pretty good for the money, I have one of their oscillating belt sanders and it's been incredibly useful and is still going after 2 years.

[Jack Hanson]

Count me in too as a big fan of the el-cheapo Chinese WEN power tools. I have a bandsaw, drill press, and both large and small belt/disk sanders. None have let me down. Lotsa bang for the buck with WEN.

[Greg Forsyth]

Dan,
Thanks for posting your lap steel build. High quality work! Not too many people take on the job of casting parts, and I commend your endeavor.
Would you please fill us in on the machinery(other than the planer) and tools you have access to in the makerspace?

[Dan Otranto]

Hi Greg,

I use a space in Claremont, Nh.
The spot is very well equipped, woodshop has good quality table saws, 20 inch bandsaw, helical 8 inch long bed jointer, 20 inch helical planer, shopbot CNC gantry router, machine shop has a surface grinder, 14" geared lathe, 2 mills, one is a bit disassembled, the other is a Clausing Kondia that has an ancient ProtoTrak CNC retrofit that requires all manual g-code input...I just use it as manual with the DRO (which is pretty bad functionality wise tbh), there's a manual plasma cutter, CNC plasmacutter, couple MIG welders, some bandsaws for metal (horizontal and vert) they got a Everlast 200amp TIG a couple months ago, 3D printers, pretty decent laser cutter/engraver that can do 1/4 MDF, I use that quite a lot for making templates. Theres other stuff in the place that I don't use, industrial sewing machines/textile stuff, jewelry making stuff.

https://claremontmakerspace.org/tools-equipment/

[Greg Forsyth]

Thanks for the detailed response Dan. I heard of the concept many years ago but the shops weren't all that well equipped. I googled makerspace and found out one of their shops isn't too far from me. Seems like they have about the same setup as the one you're using. I think I may go up and check it out. Are you drafting using Sketchup?

I like your idea of incorporating a string bender, and it looks like you have the strings going thru body. Nice touch. And the birdseye-Wow! As far as tearout goes a good sharp cabinet scraper might help clean those up some.

Please keep us posted with your progress.

[Dan Otranto]

I'm using Fusion 360 for CAD and CAM, it's a pretty powerful program for $500 a year. There was a bit of tear out on the birdseye, I'm trying to figure how to address it, I'm gonna try some spot application of ZPoxy. Unfortunately I don't have access to a thickness sander, which I think it how most people approach dealing with figured wood like this.
Makerspaces are pretty awesome, I've belonged to 3, all had a lot of stuff. I think they get old equipment from pro-shops donated which serve as tax writeoffs, and then there is probably some community development money put into them. There is hardly anyone in the places and the memberships are pretty cheap.

[Greg Forsyth]

Hi Dan,
How are you progressing with your build?