Official Luthiers Forum!

A while back I contacted a fellow OLFer and asked him if he would make me some BRW bridge pins.  Not only was/is this OLFer one heck of a nice guy he was very happy to help me out.Now I am not revealing our pals name (yet) because he never answered my question to him as to if he wants it known that he made these.  My concern is that he may not want to be flooded with requests and I am protecting his privacy - I am sure you would understand.  But if this very fine guy would like to step forward, or let me know that I can use his name, by all means do.With that out of the way.....  What you are looking at ladies and germs are 3 degree, unslotted BRW bridge pins that were each individually made by one of our very talented OLF pals.  My pictures do not do these pins justice by any means.  They are the nicest pins that I have ever seen or had.Interestingly when I was opening the package you could hear them "pinging" against each other - a very good sign.....Now, to head off any misconceptions that I believe that these pins will make a guitar sound better I will offer this.  BRW bridge pins, custom made, are merely yet one of the many details that some of us may go to in order to impart value to our guitars.  Perhaps they will sound better, I don't know and I am not making the claim that they will.But clearly I was convinced by recent threads that unslotted pins are superior and 3 degree pins are probably also superior.  The fact that these ring very well may be a bonus.One thing is for sure, my dog and I plan on spreading them out on the floor and rolling in them as the maker suggested that I do.Take a look.







Thanks for looking and MANY, MANY thanks to our OLF pal who made these beautiful pins!!!!!

I would be onboard for a nice quantity of unslotted BRW pins!

_________________
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008907949110

Hesh,
   Nice pins my friend!

   I always turn my own pns for any guitar that I build. I like to make them
from woods and materials that not only contribute to tone, but look great
with the guitar that they'll end up in.

Brazilian Rosewood pins do make a difference tonally for anyone who's
wondering.

I'm just getting ready to turn a bunch of fossilized walrus ivory,
mammoth ivory, Snakewood, camel bone, and various woods to have on
hand.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars

Nice! Those are beautiful. I'd love to turn some myself.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Nice stuff Hesh. Heck, I didn't even know we had on OLFer who made bridge pins...learn something new every day.

I'd probably be in for some, too.

_________________
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

[QUOTE=Kevin Gallagher] ...... I always turn my own pins for any guitar that I build. I like to make them
from woods and materials that not only contribute to tone, but look great....... [/QUOTE]
Kevin,
I think I can speak for most here that we would love a tutorial on how to make our own pins.
Can you give us a pictorial tutorial?   

_________________
"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

OK I have authorization to let you all know who made these beautiful pins.

Louis4052 is his OLF screen name and this is Louis Freilicher.  Louis let me know that he would be interested in making more so feel free to contact him directly.

Kevin my friend I am very glad to here that your believe that quaility tonewood pins and other quality materials will make a difference.  I thought that too but was to much of a wimp to say so here.....

Thanks Tony - it's the details to me that may, to some, show how much we care about what we do.  It's great to see that you agree.

SteveS,
   I'll see if I can put together a tutorial for pin turning soon.

   My pins are pretty standard, but I've done lots of different tops like
spherical and low profile and anything in between and wit dots of different
materials inlaid in them.

   I'm getting ready to turn some so I'll make sure the camera is nearby when
I do.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars

That would be so cool Kevin, thanks

Hesh those look awesome!

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Ditto on the inservice turning pins Kevin!!!!

_________________
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Hesh and all,

I'm glad you like the little pins!! This was a great job for me and while I've made a few pins as needed in the past, this was my first production run.
I took the time a made up a few fixtures and gauges that made this run a little more manageable, i.e. less measuring and more indexing!

I turned them on a 9" Hardinge metal lathe that I geared up for turning wood. I ground a cutter from HHS to cut the heads in one pass, then cut the taper sections with the compound rest and a skinny straight cutter.

I can post pics of my set up if anyone wants to see the details.

There is a pin turning tutorial that I did a while back in the archives that has some early pics of the cutters and basic setup for turning pins on a metal lathe.

Louis

_________________
- Louis Freilicher

Oh No! Not another learning experience!

Louis, I'd love to see it if you have the time to post shots of how you do this. Between you and Kevin G., some of us might get inspired.

Thanks.

_________________
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

I think Louis nailed... I mean pinned it!  Cool!

I look forward to the tutorials.  Thanks, Kevin.  Louis, can you show us your set-up?  Thanks in advance.

_________________
Steve Walden
Aspiring Builder,
Bartlesville, OK

Those are GORGEOUS!!!!!
Id love to have some made of Yew Ive got kickin around - and some holly - hmmmmm
Cheers
Charlie

Hesh, I *really* like the look of those pins!

I remember seeing the previous tutorial on how these are made and loved it. One of the ideas that was tossed around on the earlier discussion on making pins was to make something similar to a pencil sharpener to cut the tapered end. I just wondered if anyone actually made one of these to try out?

_________________
Reguards,

Ken H

The pins are gorgeous!  Louis, I'd be interested insome of these myself. 

_________________
Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

Louis,
   I do the same thing. I cut he head and collar in a single pass with a HSS
cutter. I have several different cutters for different head profiles and
sizes.

I just set up my compound feed to provide the desired taper and touch
off using the cross feed to give me the diameter at the collar and ten spin
the compound to drive the taper to finish them up.

   Each pin takes about 4 minutes from blank to parting off using woods
and a little longer with cow or camel bone and fossilized walrus ivory.
Mammoth ivory runs about the same as wood since it's very soft.

   For dot inlays on the tops of pins, I have a small drill chuck that slips
into my center taper and I leave the pin chucked up an part off the end by
the head. I then just feed the center in wit the appropriate drill size for
the dot being inlaid.

   I'll try to put a tutorial together tomorrow when I cut a set of Bubinga
pins for my son's newly completed first acoustic guitar.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars

Kevin,

   It's good to know that we're thinking the same about making these little pins.

   I took some pics of my set up, cutters and shop made stops.   I'll try and post tonight or tomorrow when I get a chance.

   Louis

_________________
- Louis Freilicher

Oh No! Not another learning experience!

If possible, I'd like to see how you ground the cutter for the heads. Thanks.

_________________
Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

This is really neat. How do you maintain the 3 degree taper?

Howard,

   Here are some pics of one of my cutters.





I roughed most of the cutter in with a dremel tool using a thick cutoff wheel and finished it off using various diamond burrs.

You need to grind relief into the front of the cutter so the cuter doesn’t bind in the work piece below the cutting edge. From the side it looks like a chisel being used bevel down.

It took about a day to refine the cutter. I would cut a pin head, break it and see where the cutter was binding up below the cut, then grind the scorched rosewood dust away and try again.

I honed the face of the cutter by running it through a piece of spruce by hand to carve out a positive form to wrap some 600 grit paper around.

Louis

_________________
- Louis Freilicher

Oh No! Not another learning experience!