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Topic: Building material prices continue to rise |
Kevin Hatton
From:
Buffalo, N.Y.
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Posted 17 Jun 2013 10:54 pm |
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| I was shocked when I got my invoice for plywood this week. There was a 25% increase in prices due to an anti-dumping tarriff instituted against China last month. It seems that their government has been paying their plywood industries to sell their plywood in America at below American prices. Big surprise, ha? While I firmly agree with the Tarriffs the cost of materials is taking a dramatic increase. Both domestic and import. Anyone who believes that inflation is 2% is living in a fairy tale. That includes official government statistics. Watch for continued price increases on steel guitar products. |
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Martin Weenick
From:
Lecanto, FL, USA
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Posted 19 Jun 2013 11:59 am Prices
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Kevin, wood is not the only thing. I just bought two feet of 2 X 4, 6061 aluminum to machine a set of end plates , it was $109.00 plus $29.00 shipping. Martin.
_________________
Several custom steels. NV-112 Boss DD-7 |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 19 Jun 2013 1:21 pm
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| couldn't you make a half dozen out of that. i've seen people selling endplates for over $100 apiece so that sounds fairly reasonable for $138. |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 19 Jun 2013 2:40 pm
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| chris ivey wrote: |
| couldn't you make a half dozen out of that. |
Well, you could...if end-plates were less than 4" long.  |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 19 Jun 2013 2:52 pm
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so evidently there is a ton of aluminum milled out and wasted from a solid block?
couldn't the block be cut into shapes that would otherwise overlap in the block, to save this waste? |
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Martin Weenick
From:
Lecanto, FL, USA
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Posted 19 Jun 2013 4:02 pm Aluminum
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Chris, yes, I could buy 1/4 inch plate, then cut it and weld the corners on and the strip that the deck sits on and the blocks that the legs go in, then grind down the corner welds till they are invisible, and hope nothing warps out of shape from the heat. I don't have a CNC mill so it takes me a full eight hours to mill the end plates. I could not piece them together with plate anywhere near that fast. I also believe, and I may be wrong here, that an end plate machined from solid block may have better sonic qualities. But, that is only my opinion. Martin.
_________________
Several custom steels. NV-112 Boss DD-7 |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 19 Jun 2013 4:07 pm
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| Yes, most of the metal is milled away. (This is why they used to use castings, which offered no real advantage, other than less waste and machining work.) Slicing out complex shapes might save material, but would lead to more setup and run time, and that's the real cost issue. |
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Michael Yahl
From:
Troy, Texas!
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Posted 19 Jun 2013 4:16 pm
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There have been a few iterations of 3 piece end plates but they often lack the rigidity of solid castings or billets.
Doing a 'hog out' of a block gives the best structural integrity and sound transmission qualities. They will actually 'ring' when struck unlike a 3 piece unit that goes 'thud'.
Hog outs such as end plates are a staple of aircraft components. The majority of the time, the material that is removed is easily 5-10 times the weight of the finished component.
I once ran a R&D job for an outer combustion liner for a new turbine engine the company was developing. It started as a cone shaped forging in 718 Stainless Steel. If memory serves, it was about 24" in diameter at the large end and about 11-12" long and the web was about 1.5" thick. I believe that it weighed about 300 lbs going into the machine raw. We used an overhead crane to get it into the lathe chuck.
When we got done machining it, the wall thickness was around .078" thick and we took it out of the chuck with one hand, about 10 lbs.
Sometimes you just can't build out of pieces, it just hast to be cut from solid.
_________________
"Don't fergit to kiss yer horse!"
'72 Sho-Bud Professional D10, (in pieces .....), '78 MSA Classic XL D10, '69 Emmons PP, Fender 2000
Peavey Session 500 BW, Crate Digital Modeling Amp
PSG PARTS
http://www.psgparts.com/ |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 19 Jun 2013 6:11 pm
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thanx for the info. interesting!
stuff i never thought about before. |
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Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
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Posted 20 Jun 2013 2:35 am
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| I was at Paul Franklin Sr's house (Franklin Guitar Co) about two years ago. The necks (and end plates and foot pedals) on my Franklin are cast aluminum (from the same foundry that made Sho-Bud cast aluminum parts in Nashville). However, he had a new neck that he was excited about that had been CNC milled. He said it had "bell quality" and demonstrated the ring in the neck. |
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Joe Naylor
From:
Avondale, Arizona, USA
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Posted 20 Jun 2013 7:18 am All materials continue to go up
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All materials have gone up - and "WE" being most of the people building things for the steel guitar family try to keep the prices down as much as possible.
The Aluminum end plates is just one good example of when I see someone say - I am going to build a pedal steel guitar and for that matter a seat. I get calls often that start off by saying something like ---- I am building a seat and I want to buy .......... usually just have not figured out that some of these things are very special.
I was at a steel guitar builders shop not long ago with a friend that had not really looked at a pedal steel guitar real close and the end plate was only one of his surprises about building a fine instrument.
MOST homemade steels or seats for that matter look like they are homemade and could not be sold in the market.
Most if not all of us have our little experments setting aroung that will never leave our shop - I do and I know most all steel builders do too.
Back to the topic - Materials continue to increase in price - I use rivets and this past year they only increased about 30% (last year it was a 100%) increase - yes wood, fabric, hardware, etc have all gone up in the past few years.
My 2 cents worth on the subject.  maybe with inflation I should say my dimes worth 
Joe Naylor
www.steelseat.com
_________________
Joe Naylor, Avondale, AZ (Phoenix) Announcer/Emcee owner www.steelseat.com *** OFFERING SEATS AND Effects cases with or without legs and other stuff ****** -Desert Rose Guitar S-10, Life Member of the Arizona Carport Pickers Assoc., Southwest Steel Guitar Assoc., Texas Steel Guitar Assoc., GA Steel Guitar Assoc., KS Steel Guitar Assoc. (Asleep at the Steel) tag line willed to me by a close late friend RIP |
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