Really interested in this brittleness aspect and am wondering what material is a good synthetic wheel made of? Does it get brittle over time as it ages? Do all builders use the same material or what?
Thanks Mel --- On Tue, 3/30/10, Arle <[email protected]> wrote: From: Arle <[email protected]> Subject: [HG-new] Re: synthetic wheel maintenance To: "hurdygurdy" <[email protected]> Date: Tuesday, March 30, 2010, 12:22 PM Jason, the sonority of the product should not be affected in any way if you can get the surface sufficiently smooth where you patch the wheel. The wheel itself isn't what makes the strings sound, but rather the rosin coating on the wheel. The wheel does matter to the extent that it holds its shape and has a sufficiently smooth surface that it doesn't poke though the rosin anywhere and contact the strings directly, but as long as the wheel holds rosin and meets those criteria, it'll work just fine. That's why there are so many wheel materials out there in use on good instruments, and all of them work. So while the wheel is one of the most critical parts of the instrument (if it's not made precisely to spec it'll ruin the whole thing), it's also one the most forgiving parts in other ways. So if I were you, I'd try exactly what you're talking about and then, if it doesn't work, you can always scrape past your patch (you might have to work on the bridge too if your strings didn't require much shimming before). I've never patched a surface with Smooth-On before, but I wonder what the long-term adhesion will be. Since I don't know if you've done scraping before, I'll just add that if you do scrape the wheel, remember to be slow and steady and don't get aggressive at all. Scraping the wheel for your kind of repair should take the tiniest fraction of material off until you're taking the tiniest amount off around the entire wheel (i.e, you're past your divot). If you've not scraped before, make sure that you understand how to secure your scraper as well: it's easy to have a scraper that starts following the contours of the wheel, which doesn't help. Hope that helps. On Mar 30, 12:11 pm, jason <[email protected]> wrote: > Have any of you had experience with synthetic wheels showing signs of > brittleness? I'm curious if this is one of the undocumented features > of this type of wheel. > > Recently while tuning my instrument, one of my drones slipped out of > its notch (a recurring problem I need to fix, whether it be my > technique or a shallow groove) taking a 1/32" deep, yet 1/8" wide chip > out of the keybox side of my synthetic wheel. I've since cleaned the > wheel of all rosin in preparation for scraping, but I wonder if I > could just mix up a batch of Smooth-On casting resin (which is what > the wheel surface appears to be made of) and fill the chip, then > scrape that down to the original surface instead of trying to scrape > past the chip. > > I have seen permanent repairs to polyester resins done using various > epoxies, but I'm pretty sure those users weren't concerned about the > sonority of their final product. > > If I can't find consensus here, I'll start experimenting and will > report back with my results. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hurdygurdy" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy The rules of posting, courtesy, and other list information may be found at http://hurdygurdy.com/mailinglist/index.htm. To reduce spam, posts from new subscribers are held pending approval by the webmaster. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to hurdygurdy+unsubscribegooglegroups.com or reply to this email with the words "REMOVE ME" as the subject. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hurdygurdy" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy The rules of posting, courtesy, and other list information may be found at http://hurdygurdy.com/mailinglist/index.htm. To reduce spam, posts from new subscribers are held pending approval by the webmaster. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to hurdygurdy+unsubscribegooglegroups.com or reply to this email with the words "REMOVE ME" as the subject.
