Duplex

[Ron Nossaman]

>Of course, I assumed the holes were straight and of course they are angled.
>(expletive deleted)

Well, that figures, doesn't it?



>Yesterday I went to a store that had a couple of Baldwins with vertical
>hitch pins.  I used my rubber yardstick and were surprised to find the pins
>were .224 dia. and protruded .465 above the plate.  The strings were about
>half way up.   Ron N suggested 5 mm roll pins.  I wasn't having much luck
>finding them locally, but Mcmaster-Carr had them.  I ordered them on line
>and should have them by Tues.  I'll try drilling the angled holes to 5mm and
>if there doesn't seem to be enough bearing surface, I'll redrill to 7/32
>(still less than .224) and go to the larger pin.

I got away with that with the Mason & Hamlin A I did a few years ago.I
originally ended up with the 5mm partially by design, partially by chance.
I wanted something stiff enough that it wouldn't flail around and waste
string energy, but small enough in diameter that I wouldn't have to drill
out much plate, and to keep pins as far apart as possible. The narrow pins
keep string segments more nearly parallel too, but that was a ways down on
the priority list. During the planning stages, I was at my local salvage
yard looking for materials for another project when I decided to swing
through the fastener shed, where I was greeted by a rather large bin of 5mm
pins. They looked just like what I had in mind and as it turned out, they
worked very well. Del is using Groov-Pin type 67, or Drive-Lok type G, I
forget which. They have the benefit of a smaller diameter groove for the
pin to set in, and are driven in to set final string height and bearing. I
have used the roll pins because I didn't want to give up the option of
raising the string again if I went too low. This was a whole new world to
me the first time I did it, and I wanted to leave an escape route. A tip
from my upcoming book, "The Value of Cowardice in The Design Process".



>Now the
>tail length will be about 130mm instead of 30mm.

I expect you'll like that better.

Ron N