8/21/2013 - Banjo Boys - Chapter 22

Monty cuts his new hooks to the correct length

 This week Clint advised me he couldn't make it to the shop.  He and Sarah have the same birthday, August 13th, and they were going to her parents' house Saturday for a birthday celebration.  But then Monty called and said he'd like to come up.

Monty's original spoon-hooks

If you recall, he made his tension hooks out of vintage silverware and drilled and tapped a hole in the bent-over lower end.  Well, a few of these holes had stripped their threads when Monty put tension on them.  So it was "back to the drawing board."  He had decided to re-make the hooks out of 3/32" brass rod, threading the end of the rod where it passes through the bracket, and bending a hook on the top end to engage the tension hoop.  He had gotten the raw brass stock last week and wanted to come up to fabricate the 16 hooks.

The cut brass pieces

We met at Hardee's in Meridianville at 8:15 for breakfast and "philosophizin'.  Then we headed to the shop on a very cloudy, rain-threatening, but mild day.  

The hooks, after heating and bending

We started by getting Monty set up at the metal brake where his plan was to heat the brass rod and then bend it incrementally, reheating it frequently, until it reached the acute angle that he needed.  As Monty started cutting his brass rod into shorter lengths, I got ready to do some gluing.

Got enough clamps?

I had purchased a pre-slotted fingerboard to use on my maple banjo neck.  As you may recall, we built a simple jig to cut our fret slots on the Dynaflow banjos, but I decided on the lazy man's approach for this banjo.  The scale length of the slotted fretboard will be very close to the 25-1/2" length we made before.  I glued and clamped my fingerboard, being careful to center it and position it so I have an appropriate width groove for the nut.

Monty carefully heated and bent his new hooks, interrupted by the occasional "%*&)*#" as some of them broke while being bent.  Fortunately, he had plenty of brass stock, so he finished the day with a few extras.  While this was taking place, I cleaned up around the shop and took a couple trash can loads to our dumpster.

Cutting the neck profile

Once my glue was dry, I was ready to cut the side profile of the neck.  I taped a full-size pattern to the fingerboard and scribed a line on each side of the pattern using a sharp tool.  I then rubbed white chalk into the line and wiped it off using a rag.  This leaves a distinct white line visible against the ebony background.  Using the bandsaw, I cut just outside the line so I could then sand the neck precisely to the line.  I finished shaping my neck at about the same time Monty finished bending his last hook.  Mission accomplished for the day.

We then had lunch at the Chuck Wagon Diner and adjourned for the day.

Late Breaking News 8-29-2013:

Monty has finished threading his handmade tension hooks!  He has one minor problem.  One of his old spoon-based hooks is so happy where it is that it won't let go!  The threads are absolutely locked up on one of the old tension hooks.  He's going to cut it loose using a cutting blade on the Dremel tool, and then he'll install these new hooks.  We should have a "finished" picture any day!