The Steel Guitar Forum

I don't know what they're called but I need some of the little things the pull rod attaches to the bell crank with on my Marlen. I want to add a pull and not sure what those are called they have an allen screw in them and made from brass and round of course. I would like to buy some of them if possible so if you got some let me know... I asked Lenny about them He doesn't know what they are called so a picture would help?? if you have one??
Thank You

Those little parts are called locking collars or just "collars". Not sure if Lenny has any more, but I'll check. I think Michael Yahl was making them, and I may have even seen them in the small parts drawers at the hardware store. For Marlen's, the 1/8" ones are correct.

sometimes you can find little things like these at hobby shops that have radio control planes and stuff.

Chris,
Good lead, but as I thought about it, there are two types of collars:

Bill,
You are looking for some of the brass collars that go inside the bellcranks, not next to them. They are the newer type, usually seen on all-pull guitars with the slotted bellcranks.

The older type have the set screw on the side of the cylinder and were nickel plated. The newer type have the set screw on the end of the cylinder and are made of brass.

If these are what you're looking for they are made from 1/8" solid brass rod I bought from a hobby shop (here in Australia), and they are drilled with a no. 29 drill, then threaded 8-32. Buy a pack of 100 8-32 set-screws and you have all you need. The hole for the rod to pass through is 2.5mm because I used 2.4mm stainless-steel welding-rods as pull-rods.

I made these for a Marlen when I rationalised the rodding on a restored pull-release a year or so ago.

Any backyard hobbyist with a small lathe could churn out a few dozen for you. (The white units are rod-guides made from white Delrin to support a pull-rod where it ran through the middle of another bellcrank).

McMasterCarr.com has these, you have to drill for the pull rod, also have hex standoffs that can be used for pedal rod extenders when you need to raise your guitar. Do a search at their website for a lot of misc. hard to find thingies if there isn't a hobby shop nearby...Bill

http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-threa ... fs/=gtvmpg

Guys, I have them in both 5/16" & 3/8" long.

http://www.psgparts.com/Barrel-Locking- ... BL-250.htm

Michael are they really $12.30 per on your website, or some freakish typo??
Ricky

Yes Ricky, that's for a package of 6 pieces.

Hey Cool; that's not a bad deal at all Michael...

Thanks Ricky.

It's occurred to me that the Marlens may use a 5/16" diameter barrel and mine are 1/4" diameter.

Glen, could you clarify this?

The barrel locks are may be 1/4" in DIAMETER X 5/16 or 3/8 LONG I will ck on my steel and post it is an All Pull

Ned's right, guys. There is a third type; the white delrin sliding barrel. I'll have to check the sizes, too.

Glenn or anyone else,

Send me dimensions as I was totally unaware of the Delrin/Acetal barrels. However, Ned is showing some in his picture.

Are the rod clearance holes supposed to be offset from centerline?

Mike,
The acetal barrels are the same dimensions as the brass barrels. There is no locking set screw in the "top" of the acetal barrel though. It's just used to support the pulling rod as it passes through a bellcrank, on its way from the pulling crank to the changer.

There is a 1/8" hole through the centerline of the side of each of these barrels.

Just a note from recent personal experience: My Marlen (early 80s S10 pull-release) uses those little plastic "bullets" along with set-screw shaft collars on strings with more than one raise or lower. I bought some 1/8" TIG rod to replace the coathangers a previous owner had used, but found that it wouldn't go through the cross-hole of that plastic piece. It seems mine were originally sized for smaller rods. (Maybe 7/64" music wire? Hobby stores sell that for r/c model control rods.)

I redrilled mine with a 3.3mm bit to get an easy sliding fit on the new rods. A 1/8" bit was too snug. It only takes a second.

Thanks Guys. I'll try and get those in stock.

I drill all of them with a #30 drill which is Ø.1285.

This gives .0035" to .0045" of clearance which is usually more than enough to allow set screw 'impressions' on the rod slide through.

Located my dial caliper and my round tuit... My puller barrels, both plastic and the brass set-screw ones, are all 1/4" diameter and 3/8" long--in case that helps.

Oh, and in reply to Michael's earlier question, the rod clearance holes look like they're more or less supposed to be centered. They vary a bit from piece to piece, some closer to the middle than others. "Custom guitars" after all...

The Delrin rod-guides I made were supposed to have the holes for the pull-rod straight through the middle. Most did, some did not, as you see in the photo in my previous post above. Provided they fit the holes in the bellcrank and don't move sideways, even a slightly off-centre rod-guide works just fine. The pull-rod just has to slide through it. Delrin needs no lubrication, but if you want to put oil on it there is no harm done.

Ideally the pull-rod hole goes straight through the middle.

A similar situation existed with the brass rod-clamps; most were drilled on-centre, some were slightly offset. (The threading was all on-centre because it was done in the lathe chuck)
Unless you were dealing with two bellcranks hard up against each other on a cross-shaft, it made little difference.

I do advise using a drop of oil where the rod-clamp goes into the bellcrank, especially if the bellcranks are aluminium. When you put brass and aluminium together you have built a small battery - the oil prevents electrolytic corrosion if any moisture is present.

Good information fellas, Thanks.

I wonder if Delrin or metal would work better if I wanted to use a Sho-Bud rod and barrel for a string on an MSA (if I load the universal I may end up with the way I'm thinking, it looks like I want 4 raises on the 4th string)