case handle ideas

[Silvan]

I'm going to build a ridiculously ornate walnut and brass case for my trumpet. I'm looking for handles. I've found a few here and there, but they're all pretty crappy looking.

Sooooooooo... Why don't I just make one? I could use some ideas how to engineer it so that it will hold up well. I'll make it out of walnut and brass, I expect. I can't do any complicated brass fabrication, so I guess I'll have to make the bulk of it out of wood, maybe with brass pins.

I can get brass rod locally, but not brass tubing. My first inclination would be to run the rods in tight fitting bushings press fitted into suitable holes in the wood. I would have to go to some trouble to procure the materials for this. is it worth it? Would brass pins running straight in walnut probably hold up well enough? (It's not going to see hard use, just getting carried around the house, and in an out of my truck once every other week or so.)

What about grain orientation issues? If I scroll saw a handle shape out of a board, it seems it will have weak grain. I should probably either laminate something and make up some hand made walnut ply, or else bend it. I've never bent anything more complicated than a popsicle stick, and I didn't have a lot of success with that. I'd probably be better off to avoid bending if I can.

I guess another plan is to make it out of any ol' plywood I have laying around (which is plenty) and cover it with something pretty. Leather maybe. That could be interesting, but I don't have any idea where to come into some suitable leather, or now to sew or wrap or otherwise attach it.

[Charlie Self]

Silvan notes:

Use flat brass as an inlay, oly use an entire layer or two or three, between layers of the wood you choose. Fasten with epoxy, but use brass doweling, too.

Brass works pretty easily. Your scroll saw with a fine toothed blade should deal with 1/8" thick brass pretty well (unless you pick the totally wrong alloy).

Charlie Self "Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure." Ambrose Bierce

[Lobby Dosser]

Try this place -

- they have some pretty interesting stuff in cabinet hardware. An instrument case is a cabinet for an instrument.

LD

[patriarch]

Silvan wrote in news: [e-mail]:

My local hardware store has a display of all sizes of brass rod and tube. The manufacturer sells the display, and may even keep it stocked, for all I know. I cannot imagine that a man, whose office moves about the country side as yours does, couldn't find something similar in the great commonwealth of Virginia.

I used it for a sliding pin locking mechanism for the entertainment center, as well as for a hinge on a jewelry box, which was otherwise spectacularly unsuccessful.

Life is like that sometimes. ;-)

Patriarch, who enjoys your writing style as well, but is not QUITE as effusive as Mark...

[Silvan]

Ooooooooh. Me likey! This is a great idea!

I have a metal cutting bandsaw too, so no problems there.

Well, I gotta come up with the brass. Did I mention I have no budget for this project? :) (Probably won't until the first of next year, but that's OK, it's almost next year.)

I think with brass and walnut both being as expensive as they are, it's worth building a prototype out of some of that birch plywood I have laying around. That's what I plan to do. I can do a prototype walnut/brass handle out of oak and aluminum. (I have aluminum bar in stock, and they work about the same.)

I need to swing by your place one of these days and pick up that oak too! I've been tied up with this that and the other forever. Today I finally have a bit of time to just sit back and not worry about what I need to do today, but I don't feel like getting in the car.

The car.

Damn.

I need to look at what's squeaking in my engine.

[Silvan]

My office doesn't stop anywhere but furniture stores and home though.

In all seriousness, I could rant about this a long time. My schedule is so tight that if I stop for fuel in the middle of the day it creates problems getting to the last stop before they close.

[Rick]

instead of brass rod, try some brass screws ... peen the end down, file both to flush, and there you go.

[mac davis]

Any hobby shop that caters to model airplane buffs will have a good stock of brass and alum. rod and tubing, at least in the smaller sizes..

[Silvan]

What's a hobby shop?

Oh wait a minute! A hobby shop! Yeah, I remember those. They used to be all over the place until online shopping and Wal-Mart put them all out of business.

I found some online hobby shops to sell me brass stuff, but that just feels fundamentally wrong.

[Tom Watson]

Could you find a trumpet at a garage sale - cut off a curved section, plus a bit on each end - pound the straight sections flat, etc. - and thus use a trumpet as a trumpet case handle?

Of course, it would be slick to cut the valves off and use them in such a way as to work the lock for the case.

Regards, Tom.

"People funny. Life a funny thing." Sonny Liston

Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.) tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

[Andy Dingley]

A banjo, surely !

How about making the whole case out of an accordion ?

Now I'm thinking about a three-legged collapsible stool, made from a set of bagpipes.

[Mike Marlow]

Best use I've ever heard for a set of bagpipes

[Larry Jaques]

On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 02:37:27 +0000, Andy Dingley calmly ranted:

There ya go. (But poor old Myron Florin is rolling over in his grave at the thought.) Old full-sized organ frames can be ground up to make smaller instrument cases, too.

That would certainly be safer for the public.

[bridger]

I've made rivets from bronze welding rod. cheap, high quality stock.