What’s on *YOUR* workbench?

The Frenchie that refused to wave the white flag!

Vitus 979 frame from France. Besides having a considerably racing pedigree, the frame was also the first to use all aluminum in place of steel. Frames go for $400-500 but I got mine for $60. Why? The previous owner decided to file out the dropouts on the rear to make it a fixed gear bike.

In addition to being a total hack job, the bike was unusable. The rear wheel would move forward and the tire rub against the back of the seat tube.

I could take it to a welder to tig weld material to restore the shape but that would be a $300 job. So I plugged the gaps with small metal discs and used JB to fix them into place. Once dried I used files to restore the shape of the dropouts.

I used photoshop to redesign the logo and had them made into vinyl die cut transfer stickers.

She is holding up!

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Always been curious to try this. What plans are you using?
None!.. I drew it myself and cut out the parts at work with ideas from several different commercial types... Guy I play with has the Randall iso cab and a lot of it comes from the idea of that one except Overbuilt like crazy... I used 1 1/2" MDF to build all of it. The base weights 100lbs... the top will be a little heavier... I bought 3" rockwool blankets to line it with. Putting black carpet on it this week. Bought a bunch of hardware to trim it out so it doesn't look Homespun.. have a jack plate for the XLR and 1/4" jacks.. some metal corner protectors.. a mic mounting flange, goose neck for mic.. Bought an E906 to keep in there to stay mic'd up. Speaker is a new Celestion Hempback 8ohm 50 watt. Once I get it finished out it will likely stay beside the stage and never move. They have a good size iso box next to the stage I put my amp in but it gets insanely hot in there and my amp has overheated after being in the box a few hours...
 
None!.. I drew it myself and cut out the parts at work with ideas from several different commercial types... Guy I play with has the Randall iso cab and a lot of it comes from the idea of that one except Overbuilt like crazy... I used 1 1/2" MDF to build all of it. The base weights 100lbs... the top will be a little heavier... I bought 3" rockwool blankets to line it with. Putting black carpet on it this week. Bought a bunch of hardware to trim it out so it doesn't look Homespun.. have a jack plate for the XLR and 1/4" jacks.. some metal corner protectors.. a mic mounting flange, goose neck for mic.. Bought an E906 to keep in there to stay mic'd up. Speaker is a new Celestion Hempback 8ohm 50 watt. Once I get it finished out it will likely stay beside the stage and never move. They have a good size iso box next to the stage I put my amp in but it gets insanely hot in there and my amp has overheated after being in the box a few hours...
Carpet?????????
 
This really cool tascam 302 mkii with a cool auto reverse mechanism
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Awesome!

Can you tell me why mine doesn’t work? 🤣

Only thing wrong with it is the b deck doesn’t do the auto reverse trick and only plays in reverse.

I’ve made zero attempt to troubleshoot, but I did just recreate your video, and the head twitches like it wants to rotate, but stays put.

That was a fun excuse to dig it out. Maybe I’ll poke at it some more.

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Awesome!

Can you tell me why mine doesn’t work? 🤣

Only thing wrong with it is the b deck doesn’t do the auto reverse trick and only plays in reverse.

I’ve made zero attempt to troubleshoot, but I did just recreate your video, and the head twitches like it wants to rotate, but stays put.

That was a fun excuse to dig it out. Maybe I’ll poke at it some more.

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I don't know for sure but my guess is dried lubricant. The one I'm working on had the dirtiest capstans I've ever seen. 30 minutes with cotton swabs and heptane and they're not totally clean
 
Ahh the joys of archtop guitar carving.. tap test, and Chladni patterns ahoy!
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So a standard classical guitar is flat with stiffness controlled by wood modulus, top area thickness, bracing and bracing shape... an archtop guitar has stiffness controlled by the wood modulus, arch shape, the area thickness, and the arch thickness profile and finally the bracing and bracing thickness.

The above is the plate simply tapped at multiple rotations and hold points. It will change with the bracing and again when the 'box' is closed.
 
Carpet?????????
I could absolutely veneer it with some flame maple veneer we have laying around and make it pretty.., but it will get dinged up eventually.., Really just needs to be blacked out so it doesn’t stand out to bad…. If it were to be something I kept at home I would have built the outside layer with quartered walnut in MDF and made it look nice… We have tons of it here at the shop already laid up..
 
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