Double Deck Go-bar Deck

[Localele]

Been working on a few tools and jigs to make the change over to Big Ukes with six strings and one of these was this Go Bar deck.The double idea came with the thought of using simple push rods for clamping pressure.These are made with 10mm aluminium tube with a 1mm wall thickness and some 8mm threaded rod with wing nuts to suit.Chair tips are used on the ends with a small washer inside the one on the tube to stop it cutting straight through.The same rod will dimension will hold braces or shorten up to hold a body to a back.








This was an extension of some push bars to hold the body sides in the mould while working on them. It is a lot easier to move the mould around without 5kgs of clamps hanging off it.

[Kim]

Very clever Michael, I really like the spreaders that is a great idea.

Cheers

Kim

[jeffhigh]

Michael,
I dig the double decker deck, but I used something similar for bars on my first few instruments with tube and threaded bar and then went to wooden go-bars
I found that the lack of spring in the tube bars meant I ended up having to retension bars after placing others.
I now use 5x15 hardwood, cheap, quicker and no more retensioning

[Localele]

Jeff, The re-tensioning would be caused by the deck distorting as you apply more bars.I will reinforce the top deck for this reason but it seems to work fine .The chair tips have a fair amount of give and may be better replaced with something not so springy like cork.

[Localele]

Kim A thought on the spreaders would be to include a section of tube in the centre so they would come apart into sections and then be removed through the sound hole after glueing on the top.

[DarwinStrings]

Those sticks might come in handy for me Michael as I use epoxy glue often in the go deck, the flexy sticks can be a bit difficult as they can add a bit of sidewards pressure and move things around on me, the epoxy has no tack and is very slippery.

Jim

[Allen]

That's some very nice bends you've got happening on that cutaway Michael. I like it a lot. The spreaders are a vast improvement on what I'm using, so I'm going to have to steal that idea.

Thanks mate.

[Taffy Evans]

Thanks for showing Micheal, those bends caught my eye also, real neat.

I use a similar idea with my rods: 3/8 dowel into a spring loaded aluminium tube. I can adjust the tension of the spring for lower or higher braces. The double decks a good space saver.

[Localele]

Just an aside on those bends,I didn't thin the sides where they go around the cut-away before bending it. Should have reduced them down to 2mm or less before bending and then reinforced the inside with a veneer after.Bloody hard to bend that 2.5mm around there.Character building stuff on the hot pipe.