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Author Topic: Serafini Box Project  (Read 5295 times)

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Winston Smith

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Re: Serafini Box Project
« Reply #20 on: October 02, 2017, 04:14:53 PM »

Righty-ho! So, does the reedblock have a biggish hole in the base, then feed a reed on either side as well as the low reed on the top?
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Lester

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Re: Serafini Box Project
« Reply #21 on: October 02, 2017, 04:17:25 PM »

Righty-ho! So, does the reedblock have a biggish hole in the base, then feed a reed on either side as well as the low reed on the top?
There are only two bass reeds the higher pitched on the out side and the lower pitched on the top. The fact there is no inside reed gives the chord block reeds more room on the side that abuts the bass block.

Winston Smith

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Re: Serafini Box Project
« Reply #22 on: October 02, 2017, 04:19:27 PM »

That's not a reed nail I can (just) see in the first picture then?
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Lester

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Re: Serafini Box Project
« Reply #23 on: October 02, 2017, 04:40:10 PM »

That's not a reed nail I can (just) see in the first picture then?
Emmanuel's melodeons have 6 chord buttons each playing two reeds (1st and 5th) and 8 bass buttons each with a L and a M reed.

In the photo https://photos.app.goo.gl/kxrCUNlKswOpFjDq2 the lower block with the 6 visible reed plates is the chord block which does indeed have reed plates on both sides. The bass block has 8 reed plates on the top and eight more on the far side from the photo as the melodeon.

Winston Smith

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Re: Serafini Box Project
« Reply #24 on: October 02, 2017, 06:07:50 PM »

Message received and understood! Thank you.
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ChrisLDD

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Re: Serafini Box Project
« Reply #25 on: October 03, 2017, 12:02:04 PM »

Just one comment on the internally facing reeds. At one point one of my bass reeds kept hitting another. Theo planed (actually I think it was a bench sander) a very slight angle onto the reedblock bases to tilt them away from eachother - he naturally knew how much to do without the outside reeds fouling the bellows. That was all it needed - though obviously even that would be difficult by hand (at least by my hand).

That approach hadn't occurred to me - a useful tip to tweak things if necessary - thanks.
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ChrisLDD

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Re: Serafini Box Project
« Reply #26 on: October 09, 2017, 12:32:50 AM »

Got the keyboard sorted today - 23 buttons.
Couldn't re-use the original levers, but I did have a mechanism I bought a while back from vsezaharmoniko.com - unfortunately this did not come with springs.
I modified the some of the original 0.65mm original springs, and used these for the short levers, but wound new springs with 0.7mm piano wire for the long levers - this roughly kept the force required to press the buttons the same (measured with a force meter at 1.2N).

It took me a little while to get the knack of winding springs. I made a little jig which was simply a twist drill (slightly smaller than the required coil diameter) drilled into a piece of wood and left there + a self tapping screw to anchor one end of the wire while I wound the other around the drill bit. After a bit of practice, I became reasonable consistent in making each spring, but there has to be a better way - any advice for the making of springs would be much appreciated.

All in all, I'm happy with how the box has progressed so far, especially with the fact that it is now more airtight than when I started (was probably a badly seated pallet).

Now on to sort out the treble reed-blocks.

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playandteach

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Re: Serafini Box Project
« Reply #27 on: October 09, 2017, 07:15:18 AM »

Fantastic work. Thanks for sharing. That spring making process pretty much sounds like the same method others use. I am surprised that you can get consistent results that way though. You must have the patience of.a saint.
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Theo

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Re: Serafini Box Project
« Reply #28 on: October 09, 2017, 08:40:37 AM »

You can improve your spring winder by adding a second part.  A small piece of hard wood that is a sliding fit on your drill bit and with a very small nail head that acts as a hook to push the wire round the drill bit. I’ll post a photo later.  Another idea that I learned from Emmanuel Pariselle.
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ChrisLDD

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Re: Serafini Box Project
« Reply #29 on: October 19, 2017, 12:00:33 PM »

You can improve your spring winder by adding a second part.  A small piece of hard wood that is a sliding fit on your drill bit and with a very small nail head that acts as a hook to push the wire round the drill bit. I’ll post a photo later.  Another idea that I learned from Emmanuel Pariselle.

I think I can imagine how tis might work - looking forward to seeing the photo ... and thanks!
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Re: Serafini Box Project
« Reply #30 on: October 27, 2017, 01:19:02 AM »

A quick final update on this project:

The treble end of the box was basically an accordion with high quality Binci LM reeds.
Unfortunately, a large number of the reeds had had significant filing done to only one side, leading me to suspect that they started life as bi-sonoric and then were converted - yuk!

Rather than mess with them anymore, I opted to use a clean set of A/D dural quality reeds.
The reed-blocks were designed using Fusion360 and then milled out of American Cherry.

The end result is that, I learnt some interesting things along the way, and I now have a quality A/D box with a fully chromatic bass end that I can still 'oom-pah-pah' on, if I need to:)
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Grape Ape

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Re: Serafini Box Project
« Reply #31 on: October 27, 2017, 09:57:18 PM »

I, and many others have been watching this thread with great interest.  So many questions, the first being why this box was made this way in the first place as it really begs the question why not just get a piano accordion, and the second of course being why you chose to save it from it's strange even freakish previous state. You have done this melodeon a great service.

Now- and I am sure the others watching this thread will agree- let's hear it!

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playandteach

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Re: Serafini Box Project
« Reply #32 on: October 27, 2017, 10:25:05 PM »

Are the original reeds worth using? I have a Hohner student PA I am getting back together. I just wondered if your Binci reeds would be a step up from the Hohner reeds.
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ChrisLDD

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Re: Serafini Box Project
« Reply #33 on: October 29, 2017, 03:57:34 PM »

I, and many others have been watching this thread with great interest.  So many questions, the first being why this box was made this way in the first place as it really begs the question why not just get a piano accordion, and the second of course being why you chose to save it from it's strange even freakish previous state. You have done this melodeon a great service.

Now- and I am sure the others watching this thread will agree- let's hear it!

I've been intrigued by the Serafini Darwin layout for quite some time, and when the chance came up to get this box for not too much money, I couldn't resist.
I'm working towards designing and building my own box, and the Darwin layout appeared very tempting on paper.
Alas, even though my brain understands some of the advantages, my fingers do not want to know - a demo will not happen any time soon ... sorry.
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ChrisLDD

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Re: Serafini Box Project
« Reply #34 on: October 29, 2017, 04:03:27 PM »

Are the original reeds worth using? I have a Hohner student PA I am getting back together. I just wondered if your Binci reeds would be a step up from the Hohner reeds.

Keeping the original reeds and reed-blocks, and have configured them to easily swap the box back into a two row accordion!
Actually, in my limited experience, I have found Hohner reeds to be better than I expected.
 
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