Bamboo Tips - Contraptions Straightening |
|
< Home < Contraptions < Straightening
Here are some pictures and/or drawings of straightening devices from various makers. If the name of the submitter is underlined, you can go to the submitter’s web site.
Moon, Ralph - Tamegi
I know Max Satoh has spoken of Tamegi before, but it was only after his last posting on Yokihiro, that I really began to think about them. Max is utterly fantastic. I have straitened every way you can think of and it is still sort of hit and miss. With the Tamegi, I can get exactly what I want. It is very easy to use, and even easier to make. As Max said take a 1' x 1' x 8-10 inch piece of wood. and saw a 45 degree slot in one end. I put slots at each end. You can use a small chisel to pry out the excess material in the slot. The slot itself is cut with a miter box in seconds. My first one took less than ten minutes. But imagine how nice they would look of pretty wood shaped and finished lovingly. They would be a priceless posession of any rod maker. Thank You Max.
Here is the fixture that I use for straightening sections. I purchase hollow rope at the Hardware store and pull the solid core out and use the braid. You can get rope in 1/8 to 1/2 " sizes. I buy a 250' coil of the three sizes that I use. I have a 7' x 3' x 4' oven that I cure graphite in that I use to cure my rods at 250 degrees for 20 minutes.
Fultz, Jeff - Stretchers
Berg, Ed - Blank Straightening
Larsen, Ron - Strip Straightening Oven
Frank Stetzer’s Rack
One of the universal rodmaking problems is how to get straight sections out of the binder. I use a hard rubber roller (an idea from Jack Howell’s book, The Lovely Reed) and I have a nice straight section lying on the bench, but when I move it to hang it up, it flops around and I’m afraid the strips will get out of position again. So, I combined the roller with an adjustable stretcher made from a 2x4, a door spring and a threaded rod. Once the roller gets the strips nested together so that the strip is straight, the tension of the spring holds it in place. That’s my theory anyway. If I were making it over, I’d use a metal stud instead of a 2x4. The wood ones like to twist and warp as they dry out in the shop.
After checking for any twists, I lash a wire loop to each end of the section and these hook to a ball bearing swivel. Then, I tighten the threaded rod to tension the spring.
Once the rod section is under tension, I go at it with the roller. The rod is rolled, then rotated (that’s what the swivels are for) and rolled some more. Does it work? Well, sometimes. Lots of rodmakers like a slow-setting glue like Epon epoxy or polyurethane, because it gives them lots of time to straighten the rod section. I’d rather use a glue with a high tack and fast setup, so when I get the section the way I want, it will stay that way. If only resorcinol wasn’t purple! That’s a piece of melamine shelf under the rod section. The strip is held the right height by the springs so I can roll it against the melamine.
|
