copper and steel

[solarbird]

Strangely enough, now that I’m not working with epoxies and glues and materials time, this somehow feels less like “making something” and more like “assembling something,” despite the fact that I am shaping metal with hammers and anvil.

My brain is weird.

Today was copper and steel. Copper trim, to protect edges and corners, and steel, as an internal bracing last-ditch protector, to keep the foam wrapped around the instrument, like a net, in the event that the case gets well and truly smashed. Honestly, I’m a little concerned about the copper; it’s a soft metal, and I kind of suspect that I’ll end up replacing it with aluminium. But having finally found spools of copper in usable widths – not easy and not cheap – I had to try. Enjoy some pictures:

Coppertop

Corner Detail

I’m so pleased that I found actual copper tacks. I was so not expecting to find copper tacks. I was expecting brass would be the best I could do. But no! Copper! Damn, I hope this lasts long enough to age a proper green, I really do.

Lid interior corner bracing detail

Protection of last resort; hopefully completely irrelevant. All the wood corners are biscuit joined and glued and glued to the panels which are routed in. If all that fails, I must be flying United. But it can’t hurt to have it there.

Also rehearsed for the show on the 25th at Inner Chapters Bookstore and Cafe, on Fairview, in Seattle. I’m kind of going back and rediscovering new approaches to old trad that I’ll be dropping in with my original material. It’s cool. Yar, revolution, riot, and piracy! \o/

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil.
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Comments

[flit]

That copper is seriously tasty.

[solarbird]

I agree! Here's hoping it holds up!

[mikec1157.livejournal.com]

wow, really cool...AND made from reclaimed wood.

[maellenkleth]

Is pretty, although my very first thought is 'jeez, that looks **heavy**'

[goodconceited.livejournal.com]

This looks great, I am very impressed! Loving the copper look, I've never seen a case that used it before.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Looks gorgeous!

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

Remember, copper will work harden.

[solarbird]

I have! But not in the last, um... three hundred years? Something like that. XD

(Steel or aluminium would be both cheaper and more durable to rough handling. But I had to try it. I just had to!)

[solarbird]

Thanks! I'm starting to worry that I've made it too pretty and I'll start caring about abuse it suffers on the road. But DAMMIT THAT'S WHAT IT'S FOR. I'll just take a bunch of good pictures when it's finished.

[solarbird]

...I am interested in this idea. How does one accomplish this?

[solarbird]

It's not light, but it's lighter than my bouzouki case. That's basically my goal: stay under the larger case's weight, which also means under 50 pounds. It should come in around 30, fully loaded. Not light! But not crushing, either.

(It's actually modelled fairly directly off the zouk case.)

[solarbird]

And some reclaimed metals!

There are a bunch of new items, mostly metal: special latches (see above), piano hinge, fasteners (screws and tacks), steel handle, copper edging, stain, and wood hardener. And I didn't need the wood hardener, turns out - I already had some. Dammit!

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, never done it, but know the theory and history. You just cold work the copper; bend it, beat it, use it. This alters the molecular structure. Ancient cultures and the few people using copper tools today heat copper and let it cool slowly, and it's very soft for sharpening, etc. However, any subsequent working hardens it.

Just the tapping you did to shape it around the edges and corners should have done some of this.

See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_hardening

http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/copperwi.htm

http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showtopic=3771 (mentions peening with light taps to work harden)

[solarbird]

That's really interesting. Thank you!

[sarakate.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's really pretty, and looks like excellent craftsmanship. I predict a _boatload_ of envious comments from other musicians when you start using this!

[phillipalden.livejournal.com]

That is a beautiful case!

[partywhipple.livejournal.com]

How much were the mats for it? And how long did it take to build?

[maellenkleth]

Fair enough, especially considering that bone-dry wood has a low density.

[maellenkleth]

So where **did** you find the flat strip copper, anyway?

[maellenkleth]

Once the copper is formed to the shape you want, run a torch along the inside of any bends (to normalise it), then use a flat-surfaced dead blow hammer or a flat steel block under another sort of hammer, to deliver a series of overlapping light taps to the undersurface of the copper. If it's already installed in place (and hard to remove), you can make many less-energetic and overlapping hammer-blows on the visible face, but they'd need to be very light blows so as to avoid any marking.

Work-hardening (**if taken too far**) does make copper more brittle, though, and you will have an elevated risk of stress-cracking along any bends.

That's all I know on that subject, from making copper jewelry that had to have functional mechanisms within it. A real metallurgist or fabrication engineer would know more than I do.

Edited to add note about 'too far'. Disclaimer: I have never used copper for casework, preferring hard brass instead.

[silussa.livejournal.com]

You're NOT taking it on United. They'd consider it a challenge, and "United Breaks Mandolins" probably wouldn't get the market attention it deserved.

[solarbird]

And this is both ancient and bone-dry, indeed.

[solarbird]

Vetco Electronics! It's ELECTRICAL WIRING! I had to pull it out of insulation and there were other problems/issues as well, but, well, there it is!

[solarbird]

Time and persistence heals many sins of making. ^_^

[solarbird]

Thank you!

[solarbird]

The... mats. Um... what?

I started it last autumn but didn't work on it again until this summer. In work days, including materials time and hunting-for-weird-shit-like-strip-copper time, it'll probably end up being like... three weeks? Maybe a month? I'm not real sure, honestly. There was a lot of experimentation.

[maellenkleth]

dimensions?

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Yep, then you can have a sort of bildungsroman for your case...

[partywhipple.livejournal.com]

Ah. It's pretty cool! Sorry, mats, horrible gamer term... lol

[bjorker.livejournal.com]

Wow. That is *amazing* !

[solarbird]

um... I think it said #10? Does that mean something? About an inch by however long you want it to be by Not Very Thick.

Hammering on it actually does seem to harden it!

[solarbird]

lol

[solarbird]

Thanks! I just hope it holds up.

[solarbird]

I can't use your method (there's adhesive on one side of the copper) but I've been hammering it by hammering a block of wood that I've placed up against it on the case. It seems to be helping! Hopefully that's not just wishful thinking.

[solarbird]

OH, derp. okay.

The wood is all reclaimed, like I said, so zero additional cost. I had glue already. The most expensive single part by far is the copper, that was like $50. The butterfly latches were... geez, I don't even remember, I ordered them last autumn. Like $15 each. The piano hinge was $20ish? I forget, I also bought that Some Time Ago. The handle (not in pictures yet) was $12. Stain was however much stain is and wood hardener the same - cheap. Screws cost between 8c and 12c each. Some bolts+nuts+washers came to like $1 a set!

I keep thinking I've forgot something. Oh, right, the foam won't be cheap - that's special instrument foam and will probably cost $40 or so by itself. So all together it's costing me around $150, which is either a lot, or Damn Near Free.

If I wanted to cost-reduce it I'd ditch the copper and go with either aluminium L-metal (not a lot cheaper, but cheaper), or use hardwood instead of soft wood + metal edging for the sides. Most of the rest can't be meaningfully cost-reduced without substantial hits to durability or quality, but the hardwood solution would probably knock $40 off the cost. But I didn't have any hardwood left over in the right sizes, so.

[silussa.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x50pJe_QvQQ