rwillett Posted May 25 Author Share Posted May 25 1 hour ago, JohnH89 said: Telecaster neck pickup has 6 polepieces under the metal can . The lipstick pickup is essentially a bar magnet wrapped in wire , encased in a tube . Used by Danelectro amongst others . They can be picked up from ebay or similar for £10-£15 . They punch way above their weight to my ears . The hotrail one below it is a strat style pickup and also can be had relatively cheaply . The EMG comes in several flavours , mostly active but they do passive as well . They do run to about £100 though . I've got a few of them I picked up for a few pounds off eBay. I was going to use the magnets inside for my (yet to be completed) automated guitar pickup winder. I'll keep looking as you can pick them up for very little. Focus for this week is checking out finishes on the guitar. Got some sanders, sanding paper, wet and dry, primer, filler, spray paint and epoxy resin to work out whats best or even if anything works. Thanks Rob 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnH89 Posted May 25 Share Posted May 25 They need a bit of work if you are going to do it yourself . Need to alter wiring on one lipstick to get humbucking effect . I reckon it's worth a go . Need something off the wall to go with the 3d printing . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwillett Posted May 25 Author Share Posted May 25 I'll have to look at the wiring for a humbucker, doesn't one go clockwise and one anti clockwise to get rid of the hum? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnH89 Posted May 25 Share Posted May 25 Yeah . Pretty much that . Need to swap ground and feed on one lipstick 👍 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwillett Posted May 29 Author Share Posted May 29 Been away for a few days, so not much progress on finishing. I have been testing out different sanding methods, orbital vs flat vs hand to try and work ouy which is easiest. One of the problems I had was holding some of the pieces, so as I was going away for a few days, I thought I'd load the printers up with work that would take a long time to print. Last year I saw a Fractal Vise (is it Vice or Vise?) on YouTube, well worth watching here It allowed various complex shapes to be held in a vice/vise. I was fascinated by the mechanism (yep I'm easily pleased), and looked at getting one, somebody was making a small version and wanted $150 as a down payment but no idea how much it would cost at the time, I wasn't that interested, so I filed it away in the back of what passes for my memory. Whilst I was trying to sand down the various curved bits of the guitar, I recalled this vice and wondered if anybody made one, the one in the US still doesn't seem to have got off the ground but I then found somebody had designed one for 3d printing https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4904044 I downloaed all the files, spread them across two printers and left them to run for 30+ hours and ended up with two sheets below All this is PLA+, it's in two different colours as thats almost the end of my PLA rolls under I get a new delivery, so I should be grateful it wasn't yellow and pink. I have all of the screws and the bearings, just waiting for a lead screw and some chome rods and I'll assemble that for the weekend and hopefully it'll hold the various parts of the headless bass somewhat better than my fingers. Looks fun. Very impressed with the design, some of the comments from the US are great, they have no idea what M3 screws are, and apparently they pay like a dollar for a screw, now they know how I feel buying a 1/4-20 screw for a astrophotography camera. I have also just found out that my niece now works for a bolt distribution company so I can get stuff from her. Xmas has come early. All of the female basschatters have no idea why this is so good My other half just tells her friends it's a blokes version of having shoes and handbags. Thanks Rob 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamIAm Posted May 29 Share Posted May 29 5 minutes ago, rwillett said: All of the female basschatters have no idea why this is so good Ahem!!! Sam x 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwillett Posted May 29 Author Share Posted May 29 (edited) @SamIAm I was going to write “All of the female basschatters have no idea why this is so good … 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 … duck, incoming” but decided against it 😀 just for you , heres my black countersunk M3 hex bolts and heres the normal M3 nuts I also have the same for M2.5 bolts and M3 button headed bolts. I can send photos if you wish. i can tell you that there is a bit of a shortage of black countersunk 22mm M3 bolts as well. 20mm and 25mm are OK but 22mm are tricky. My supplier in Scotland rang me up to apologise earlier in the week. I've never had that before, I did sit back and wonder if I had been buying too many 😊 Hope this helps Rob Edited May 29 by rwillett Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwillett Posted June 1 Author Share Posted June 1 Finished the fractal vice. I built whilst doing test prints for how to get a good finish on the headless bass. The vice is OK, I wouldn't describe it as a vice, more a holder. Its good enough for holding things for soldering or painting, but its nowhere near strong enough for holding anything that has a load on it. You could use it for small things in a pillar drill but anything bigger than a 3mm hold might put too much load on it. I note that some toerags have this advertised this on Etsy for £150. I'll happily sell you this for £50 It does work, its a novelty and if I don't like it, I can reclaim all the bolts and lead screw and use them elsewhere. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted June 1 Share Posted June 1 7 minutes ago, rwillett said: Finished the fractal vice. I built whilst doing test prints for how to get a good finish on the headless bass. The vice is OK, I wouldn't describe it as a vice, more a holder. Its good enough for holding things for soldering or painting, but its nowhere near strong enough for holding anything that has a load on it. You could use it for small things in a pillar drill but anything bigger than a 3mm hold might put too much load on it. How good do you think it would be if it was metal printed? Just wondering as a friend of mine does (I think) have access to a 3D metal printer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwillett Posted June 1 Author Share Posted June 1 I think it would be ok if it was made in metal. As you tighten it up, the plastic holes are slightly deforming and it slowly rises up in the middle. The 8mm threaded rod is the strongest component and it is forcing deformation in each of the plastic parts. There are a couple of areas that need slight adjustment as well, no big changes but an extra mm would help clearances. I have no experience in metal printing and there are some tiny but vital dovetails that hold each semi circular component in place and allow it to rotate. The design is quite good here and they work. I should have printed in 0.12mm rather than 0.2mm as this wasn't so smooth. If you want to look at it, I'll happily post it down to you. I built it as a fun project but need to focus on finding the right finish for the bass. Rob 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itu Posted June 1 Share Posted June 1 5 hours ago, rwillett said: I have no experience in metal printing and there are some tiny but vital dovetails that hold each semi circular component in place and allow it to rotate. AM (additive manufacturing) requires lots of money or a visit to a shop that has a printer. Last time I made calculations of a machine (250 x 250 x 250 mm printing volume), and the system cost was something like £500 000. This included all premises and a storage as well as other tools needed. [Smallest machines were meant for jewelery, or dentistry (printing area Ø 90 mm), and were under £80 000. Machines I studied were from EOS, SLM, Matsuura and alike.] The big issue with printers few years back was not the price of the printer, but the quality of the result. Every part needed quite a lot of post processing. I suppose this hasn't changed that much in six years. If you can use any other method than AM, like machining, use that. Plastic printing is really different beast compared to AM in terms of a system price, the need for post processing, and cost of materials. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwillett Posted June 2 Author Share Posted June 2 This covers a lot of ground about metal printing https://all3dp.com/2/how-much-does-a-metal-3d-printer-cost/ I think after reading this, I'd say that the most cost effective way to get this type of vice is by buying and restoring an older one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itu Posted June 2 Share Posted June 2 Have to say that although the text is a rough simplification (all details are not too accurate), it gives an idea of what's going on. That plastic printing is probably the easiest to misunderstand: first the plastic of the printed parts is removed. There you have a mesh. Then that mesh is put to a sintering oven. Not your Whirlpool: that requires special atmosphere, and high temp among others. The end result is far more smaller than the printed part. How to get a good, usable part depends on the parametres of design, printing, shapes, and sintering. A note: last time I checked: a set of 600 units was cheaper that a mold, but if more units were needed the mold became cheaper. Here the volume of the part was smaller than a hand. Machining is still a very good choice, if the part is doable with traditional techniques. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwillett Posted June 6 Author Share Posted June 6 (edited) I've done an awful lot of printing these week to see how I can get a good finish. I've also redesigned things so that body is chamfered on both sides. This involves printing the body on the side so its upright, There are two strands of work. Designing and printing a solid body as opposed to the open body previously used. Designing and printing a very open body with large spaces. Both have pro's and con's. A solid body is far, far easier to sand and finish. as there's really only two surfaces, front and back. The open body looks far better but all surfaces need to be finished and thats hard work. printing in 0.2mm or even lower resolution reduces the layer lines but does not eradicate them. I'm going to get some printing resin (not filament), mix it with baby powder and brush it on the parts. This acts as a slurry and *should* make sanding easier. I'll need a UV torch to cure the resin as nobody makes a cheap extra large UV curing system (600mmx600mm) and whilst I can make one (another rabbit hole to pop down), I want to test the idea out first. Other people have shown that it works OK and simplifies sanding, which is good in my book. Here's the solid body design and the (very) open body design Ignore the lines in the model, they are the join lines. Printing time is much the same as I need to print supports and thats time consuming. And here they are being printed. I'm going to move to gray filament as it's so difficult to see the black This should be sprayable so perhaps some new bright colours can be used. Edited June 6 by rwillett 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamIAm Posted June 6 Share Posted June 6 3 hours ago, rwillett said: I've done an awful lot of printing these week to see how I can get a good finish. I've also redesigned things so that body is chamfered on both sides. This involves printing the body on the side so its upright ... I'm following your amazing adventures with great interest! Sam x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwillett Posted June 6 Author Share Posted June 6 (edited) @SamIAm Makes me think of a new book "Famous Five go mad with 3D printing". This is the version of one piece of the body, due to the shape it's full of support. Just no getting around it. The red is the stuff to keep, the blue is the stuff to discard. This took 12 hours to print at 0.3mm layers, the thickest I can get away with. Moving down to 0.15 will give better quality but take 24 hours. I have seven of these types to do for an open body and seven for a closed body So 14 x 12 hours or 14 x 24 hours of non stop printing. So no mater how rough the body is, printing and sanding is a lot quicker than printing high quality. Edited June 6 by rwillett 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwillett Posted June 7 Author Share Posted June 7 Santa has come early this year, FedEx have just dropped off a little surprise I'm doing so much printing that I needed a faster printer and better printer, so my old Prusa MK3 which has been upgraded and upgraded and upgraded is now being donated to the local school. Nothing wrong with it, but its a pain changing nozzles, it's not as fast and I wanted to see if the quality was better in Mk4's. I wanted an Prusa Original XL which has a 360mm x 360mm build plate but a) it was circa £4K and b) its enormous. Its ready to be installed once I read the instrucitons and Prusa 2 finishes it;s last ever job for me. Thanks Rob 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted June 7 Share Posted June 7 Your local school is getting a serious piece of kit. 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwillett Posted June 7 Author Share Posted June 7 So long as they use it, thats great. I don't want to give them something that sits in a corner and isn't used. Thats the only criteria. I've downsized some guitars to them as well. If I don't use it, I'd rather somebody else did. I've seen a few of them in use at concerts which is great. Kids break things as well, so I suspect they go through lots of stuff. Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted June 8 Share Posted June 8 On 07/06/2024 at 14:57, rwillett said: Santa has come early this year, FedEx have just dropped off a little surprise A Rotosound string? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwillett Posted June 8 Author Share Posted June 8 Spot on.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwillett Posted Friday at 12:43 Author Share Posted Friday at 12:43 I'll just leave this here... 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted Friday at 21:40 Share Posted Friday at 21:40 The Millennium Falcon, edge on? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwillett Posted Friday at 22:00 Author Share Posted Friday at 22:00 Close.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted Friday at 22:26 Share Posted Friday at 22:26 I was wondering if it was one of the Culture ships. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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