making tuning keys

Hello friends

i saw mr.Frank Fords website posts and got made

is he a human or a robert doing this job. cant believe how can he make the difficult things so easy.

hats off to u mr. ford and keep up the good work.

sir since many days i have a desire to make classical tuning pegs for own purpose and if it goes well can go for production too. i tried many sources for its parts and getting it difficult.

but i have a gear making workshop in my nearby area . i will soon visit it.

i will be happy if u try making one and post on ur website its video or picture tutorial .

and it will be usefull for many people.

god bless u (Y)

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Permalink Reply by Robbie Collins on November 17, 2014 at 1:42pm

I did a technical drawing of old Klusons thinking I'd make some in my machine shop class. I got hung up (along with my instructor) in turning the worm gear and getting the lash correct. The metal knobs were another story. I gave up as not worth the trouble and not for the newbie mill/lathe user.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Verticchio on November 17, 2014 at 3:31pm

There are already enough high quality, affordable tuning machines on the market to ask Frank to undertake such a major project. There is also an overabundance of cheaply made machines available.

This site is geared toward repair & restoration, not full blown manufacturing. Also not in your favor is the world's view that India is not a "precision manufacturing stronghold". Like Japan in the '60's, Korea in the '70's and China in the '80's, it's got a long way to go before it's MI goods can be taken seriously.

The only encouragement and advice I can provide is to have that machine shop reverse engineer a quality set of tuners.... like a set of Rodgers. Unless you have an idea for a groundbreaking improvement to what's currently available, there's really no demand or need for 'another' set of keys.

Also, a set of HQ commercially available classical machines will cost about $200 USD. The same set, copied & made by a machine shop using the correct alloys and methods, will cost about $1500-$2000 USD.

You'll have to do your own work on this one, rahoul. But, good luck :) A triple college major in Metallurgy, Industrial Design and Marketing would be a good start.