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The tricone is being lacquered and I started this last week. Figured you guys might get a kick out of it.
It's a single cone 'biscuit bridge' model that will have a piezo on the cone and a magnetic at the neck.
This is 22ga. brass sheet, soldered together. Here we have the well that the cone will sit it. I bent a 1.5" wide piece of brass into a 'Z' shape, then used a 'V' notcher to make 'V-shaped' (duh ) notches in the ends so I could wrap it around this 9.5" dia wooden buck. Before I wrap it I place the floor of the well in. It's a 1/2" wide piece of brass.



After soldering it looks like this.


This will later get soldered to the underside of the top.

Next up I made a wooden buck to hold the sides, then wrapped a 2" wide strip all the way 'round, soldering the ends together.
This pic is a little out of order and has the back set in place.



The shape in the back is 'stamped' in by clamping it to a form with a smaller 1/4" form in the center. Then I use another form and a $#itload of clamps to walk around the edge, pressing the shape into it. Unfortunately it's not very deep and is only slightly convex. If I had some cool stuff like an English wheel....or a 50 ton press and steel forms I could make it a true arched shape. But this looks better than the ones I did before with essentially flat backs.


Now we jump over to the top, which is flat, and solder it to the sides. Both the top and back are made in the same way as the well. I leave a little extra brass, notch all the way 'round and use a body hammer to create a flange that slips inside the sides.

Inside the top



Top 'o the top


The solder is regular plumbers lead-free 'silver bearing' solder and I use a hand held torch and MapGas to heat it.


This'll do it for today, got the well on and top cut out. Just a little grinding to clean stuff up and next week I'll get going on the inner structure that will support the top, neck and pickup. After that's done the back can be attached.



These were the first kind of guitars I built, starting about '98 or '99 and I had sworn I wasn't going to build any more metal guitars but I guess it's been long enough that I forgot all about the little cuts and burns you get along the way. One thing I did insist on when I agreed to this build is no more plating. Usually these are polished and nickeled or chromed but that means dealing with platers and after 5 guitars I'd had enough of that. This one will have a Hot Rod theme and will have a chrome cover plate over the well (I can buy those pre-made) and the body will be painted black, either with flames or pinstriped depending on what the customer decides. The neck will be flamed maple, maybe with a metal overlay on the head.

You're really moving right along Mike. It's looking good. Is that the brass back? If so is that yellow brass or GS?

Just regular old brass. From the 4'X8' sheet I bought 10 years ago!

Seasoned Brass.

Looking nice Mike!
Haven't built a resonator but sure have a hankerin' to.
I take it you've got a sheet metal brake to bend the z shape for your well sides, or have you found a low tech way to get there?

Joe

'Vintage' brass Chris.

Yes Joe on the 'Z'ed piece I had relative in the HVAC biz and I used his brake to do the bends. The rest of the stuff you can do with a few simple hand tools. The brass itself cuts pretty easily with an electric or air nibbler, bandsaw, or as Chris noted on the main forum the other day, a tablesaw.

Is the recurve on the back more then it was on the steel? It looks pretty good and well defined in the picture. More importantly are you happy with it?

Surprisingly it's really not more than the steel even though I pressed it to a deeper draw. I think the steel takes a set more easily and the brass just sprung back. Overall it's OK and has a fairly decent overall convex shape that you can't really see in the pic. Also when I add the 'mushrooms' that will add a little more dome to it.

The inside of this one is going to a little different. Because I don't have to worry about getting it plated I'm going to make a permanent wood block for the neck to bolt to (Les Paul-style M&T) and the pickup to screw into. It will incorporate the 'neck stick' part as well.

I got ya. That's basically what I did on my wood reso that had the dovetail joint.

Moving along, here's the system I came up with to mount the neck (bolt on) pickup (surface-mounted GFS Retrotron or sunk P-90, still to be determined) and the neck stick/well support. Since this pic I've gone back and trimmed away some of the unneeded parts of the mahogany.



Now to the neck. The customer wanted flamed maple so I made a run by Home Depot on my way to the gawdaful-priced fancy wood store and found a .75 X 3.5 x 9 FOOT! length of flamed maple for under $30! Lammed up a 3 piece (w/black veneer) blank out of 1/3 of it. Not a bad $9.00 neck!
After fitting the shaft I'll add a small matching heel.



Also talked to the customer today about an idea I had to have some louvers punched in the back under the cone and he's going for it. Found a guy in town that will do 'em for cheap and hope to get that done tomorrow. Can't wait.

Did you epoxy or glue the stick into the neck block?

The stick is TiteBonded into the block and then I'm using a small screw through the top that's hidden under the tailpiece for the other end (shims to follow, etc). I've been having a hell of a time with the block itself. I first epoxied it but it peeled off the brass like I'd used Scotch tape. So I did a little test with vinylester bonding stuff I used during the Cobra build, JB Weld and contact cement (just because I had it). None of them worked very well but the JB Weld seemed to do the best job so I re-bonded it and added a couple small screws that will be ground down and hidden under the fretboard.
After it's all together the block will be captured by the top and back and have the neck, fretboard and pickup screws in it so I'm not worried about the long term, just need it to hold long enough to get the stupid thing together. Soldering the back with all that wood in there should be interesting. Maybe I'll go out and get a mondo soldering iron like yours and skip the torch on the back.

Do they still make the soldering iron tip that goes on the gas torches? You might also be able to make an iron and heat it with the torch to solder it.
Here's mine:
http://www.amazon.com/Hexacon-300w-Stra ... B000N6K2JU
And you'll need this to tin the tip.
http://store.allstainedglass.com/salambloc.html
Pretty expensive for one back.
If you aren't in a big hurry I could send you mine to use and you can send it back when you're done. It should fit fine in a flat rate box and probably be there around Wednesday.
It's also pretty nice for filling the seam at the joint.

Holy cats, I didn't realize they were that much!
That's a tempting offer and I think I'll take you up on it. I'm going to need to shim the ends etc. before I put the back on and I'm worried about charring the wood bits and softening the epoxy. I'm having an extra back louvered along with this one so I think I'll end up making one for myself eventually. If I like the iron enough I'll go ahead and get one of my own when I do that guitar.

Thanks Chris!

I'm following along Mike, nice to have you and Chris going over the obstacles for me!

Thanks,
Joe

ps. great score on the maple!

OK then I'll get it out tomorrow.
You going to build a metal body Joe?

At some point I'd like to try making a steel body biscuit cone Chris. I've got a 14 fret Johnson biscuit, a Johnson tricone and a wood body national estralita, so yeah I like resonators.

Joe

I'll be looking forward to seeing it when you get around to to it.

Joe make sure and check out Chris' epic how-to pictorial in the MIMF library. It had been so long since I'd built one I had to go back and refresh my memory on how to do these things.

Chris, you da man!

I do the same thing.

Got my louvers done!


I had an extra steel back done too since his min. was $60. Think I may make me up a 'trash can' version and leave it galvanized.

Back on track after a couple busy weeks. Fitted up the wood bits inside and closed up the box.


The 'messy' solder job might now start to make some sense. I glob it on and then use the belt sander, files and some 80 and 120 grit to level out the edges and give them a slight bevel. In the pics here the edges are about 80% done. Just a few small pits to fill with a tiny butane torch and solder.

If you're going to paint it you could always cheat a little with glazing. Looking good. Did you use the Iron?

I had the same thought and in fact my very first steel body, with paint a'la Krylon, has the pits filled with JB Weld.
This one turned out pretty good so I think I'll go ahead and finish it with solder.
I did use the iron but only to 'butter up' the seams after the fact. I don't know if it was my impatience or not having enough hands to run the clamps, iron and solder all at once but I reverted to the torch for joining it up. The iron does work well though.

With a cover and TP mocked up.