I am just going to jump into the hand rolling staple and need some advices.
The size of the blank given by the maker is
0.620 at the bottom,0.550 at the eye and the length of 2.125
which is for me
15.748mm at the bottom, 13.97mm at the top and 53.975mm in lenght
Does this mean that I need a tapered rolling mandrel that has the length of at least about 54mm and gradually tapered from 5mm to 4.45mm?
Iām confused because the original reed has staple which the Inner diameter is about 4.6mm at the end ,and the mandrel will go a little larger than this staple.
For making the mandrel,I bought a electric drill, some metal file ,and two size of nail that has the diameter of 4.6mm and 5mm.
The sheet metal does not form perfectly to the mandrel (else you would never be able to get it out ). The measurements you list do not include extra length on the mandrel for a handle. Make your mandrel about 15 cm long and continue the same rate of taper. That will allow you to experiment with different lengths of staples.
You donāt āhaveā to have a tapered mandrel to roll a tapered staple. Iāve only just got around to making one and Iāve been rolling tapered staples for nigh on two years with some success at least. . . . As long as itās roundish and the seam meets pretty well youāll be fine. For a while Peter Hunter made beautiful silver staples soldered up the seam, but never made a great reed with them and went back to forming them on a barbecue skewer with his teeth, as this gave him the ābitingā tone he was after.
Iād be interested to know if other taperers use tapered mandrels, given that the jaws of a vice donāt usually taper? I havenāt tried mine yet but Iām happy with how shiny it is and Iām glad Iāve got a compound slide for the Myford!
Sorry I probably shouldnāt post after whiskey, but Iāve just found a new avatar!!!
" 15.748mm at the bottom, 13.97mm at the top and 53.975mm in lenght"
The circumference of a circle being the diameter times Pi, your blank should form a truncated cone of diameters
15.748/Pi and 13.97/Pi, or about 5.01mm and 4.45mmā¦
The center of this circle lies approximately halfway between inner and outer diameters of the staple, so you must subtract the staple thickness to find the diameters of the corresponding rolling mandrel. Thus the inner diameters of your staple should be (assuming 0.5 thick copper sheet) about
(This is clearly larger than a 4mm inner diameter ātubeā staple, so if this is what your maker recommends, it probably will work a good deal better than such a tube)
I agree that making a longer mandrel is a good idea - not only does it allow you to experiment with larger/smaller/longer staples, but if you make it narrower than the target size at the small end, it can make closing the staple easier.
I almost never bother with a vise - I often press the mandrel into a āslotā in a piece of wood to start the process of forming the staple blank around the mandrel, but a vise is not strictly necessary. A good rawhide mallet is a good idea though - at least, the way I do it.
You can use the vise to achieve the same method as what Billh recommends - just open it up a half cm. If I recall correctly, Seth Gallagher had a wooden jig with a slot cut into it to start pounding the sheet and mandrel into. I use the edge of a bit of scrap metal to drive the mandrel down into the sheet into the crack in the vise to start it. Same difference. I use a ballpeen hammer on copper sheet for my staples. I donāt know if a leather hammer wouldnāt just make that much more hammering to achieve the same effect, but different strokes for different folks, eh?
The center of this circle lies approximately halfway between inner and outer diameters of the staple, so you must subtract the staple thickness to find the diameters of the corresponding rolling mandrel. Thus the inner diameters of your staple should be (assuming 0.5 thick copper sheet) about
Thanks billh! this seems to be the answer,the thickness!! Iāll try to make a taper one from 4.5mm to 4.0mm,with a bit long.
And yes,the maker uses this meajurements. I tried to make with a hobby tubing but couldnāt make the 8ves meet. After using a 5OD/4ID tubing,I tried a 5.5OD/4.5ID tubing,and this brougt the 8ves in balance but the top hand notes of the 2nd 8ve went to high. So I decide to go for rolling myself.
I was watching the NPUDVD today and found that maybe Mr.Wooff is using a non-tapered part of the mandrel(he do the every operation with one rolling-fallttering mandrel?)?
Is it popular to do the rolling and flattering process with one single mandrel?
Geoff Wooffās mandrels are tapered, but only on the top and bottom, not the sides. I donāt know about popular, but I have only ever seen one mandrel used per staple size.
Yes - I also use the vice as a slot just wider than the outside diameter of the staple and tap it down until the staple is U shaped. I then rotate the whole thing to squeeze in the tops of the U and finally tap the seam down gently with a hammer. I also make use of needle nose pliers but my powers of description are now failing me. Iām starting to feel for people who have to write manuals!
When I use 0.5mm annealed copper I have a feeling that itās so soft I could just form it with my fingers and a pair of pliers - however if the metal is too thin/soft, the finished staple can be prone to twisting out of shape.
It can be a good thing to use some shrink wrap on the finished staple so you donāt need to extend the binding all the way down to the bottom to make the reed airtight. By using different colours of shrink-wrap, reeds can be easily identified without writing on the head - i.e. today itās a bit damp, time for the yellow reed. Which reminds me of a story about āgreen reedsā which I havenāt time for now . . . .
Iāve made a tapered rolling mandrel from a Nail. And tried my first rolling.Still lot of things to learn,the seem is not in the center,not closed beautifuly,but has roughly the diameter I wanted to have.
I put the staple in the reed that had a flat second 8ve and flat 2nd 8ve E and, what a surprise!! It all disappered
). The measurements you list do not include extra length on the mandrel for a handle. Make your mandrel about 15 cm long and continue the same rate of taper. That will allow you to experiment with different lengths of staples.
