Go Bar Rods

ozziebluesman · Post by **ozziebluesman** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 12:58 am

I'm about to begin bracing the weissenborn copy. Just waiting for the humidity levels to drop a little further here in Townsville.

I have built a Stew Mac Go Bar Deck kit but i have no go bars. The prices on ebay are reasonable but the freight from the US is outrageous.

What do you all use for go bars?

Is there a local outlet here in Oz where you can buy them?

Dose anyone make their own and out of what?

Appreciate any suggestions

Cheers

Alan

Dave White · Post by **Dave White** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 1:25 am

Alan,

I use dowel rods, some people use sccrap pieces of wood and if there are kite shops (websites) in Australia then the fibre-glass rods they sell as kite spars are used by others.

Bob Connor · Post by **Bob Connor** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 6:18 am

Alan

I got some fibreglass tent poles from the Ray's Tent City and added some rubber stoppers. I think the closest store to you is in Cairns.

They weren't cheap though.

Try your local outdoor/camping store and see what they have.

Previous to that we used wooden dowels which were a PITA. No give in them and they were always a too long or short for where you wanted to put them. Not good when using hide glue and you only have a short time to get everything clamped.

Bob

Allen · Post by **Allen** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:03 am

I bought mine from Permex Wasn't cheap, but the best option that I found at the time. Not long after though I was walking through the buy back shop at the local tip and found a heap of the exact same rods so I bought all they had for the princely sum of $2.

Permex will cut to length for you.

graham mcdonald · Post by **graham mcdonald** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:26 am

I have been using lengths of 10mm dowel for 25 years, but they are 40-42" long, and that gives them enough whippyness to work in a go-bar deck the same height. I suspect the common 24" ones would work fine in fiberglass, but be rather stiff in wood. Alan, if you have built a deck of a, now fixed height, experiement with different sized, shapes and types of wood for them to work out just what might work if you can't find the fiberglass. I have seen round woodedn ones and rectangular ones and some almost like slats, stiff one one, floppy the other.

cheers

graham

Kim Strode · Post by **Kim Strode** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:38 am

I purchased 6mm fiberglass rods from a kite supplies shop in Perth, WA. www.stanbridges.com.au

I purchased twenty 6mm X 900mm fiberglass rods, which they posted to me for around $4.00 each. I then purchased rubber stoppers locally at Clark Rubber. Stanbridge Hobbies had a variety of different thicknesses from 3mm to 6mm, from memory.

Regards, Kim

Dominic · Post by **Dominic** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:07 am

There is a little fibre glass shop here in Canberra. I bought a couple of 6m lenghts of 6mm and some 10mm for really heavy stuff. Rubber stops and tape on the ends. I also sprayed them with a coat of clear finish to help reduce fibre glass splinters.

I also filed a couple of angled flats on the top end so they stay put on the roof of the deck and don't spin around when in use.
One good thing with FG, you will have them for ever.
Dom

James Mc · Post by **James Mc** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:15 am

Split bamboo, glued two together at the top and bottom so when you push the ends towards each other the middle flexes out like a bow. This keeps the pressure directly down rather than wanting to flick to the side (got a split bamboo screen at Bunnies for $15).

Happy Beerster
James

kiwigeo · Post by **kiwigeo** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:33 am

9-10mm Hoop pine dowel rods here. They do break occasionally so make sure the rod is bent AWAY from you when youre putting the bend into it.

Dave White · Post by **Dave White** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:00 pm

This is a useful tutorial on the OLF for making your own spring-loaded go bars.

vandenboom · Post by **vandenboom** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 5:19 pm

I plan to get some fibre glass rods (sick of breaking the timber ones) and found this past post. I would appreciate your thoughts on 2 things - rod thickness and length.

I am surprised at the variation in rod thickness used by people. eg. 6mm in the above post, while the stewmac rods are 12 x 8mm, so quite a bit heavier. 6mm seems pretty thin to me - does it apply enough pressure. I figure it also depends on the length of rod being used.

My gap from radius dish to top of deck is 1m. How much over 1m should I cut the rod?
Given the 1m span, will I need to go for something heavier than 6mm?

The list of suppliers in this old post is also helpful. Thanks.
Thanks. Frank.

ozziebluesman · Post by **ozziebluesman** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:04 am

G'day Frank,

Welcome to the forum.

I ended up buying 5 mm thick fibre rods 650 mm long from Permex. So yes, length and thickness will vary the preasure a go bar will apply. You can use a set of bathroom scales and try some different lengths and thichnesses of rod in your go bar deck to calculate how much preasure is applied. From my research you don't want too much preaseure because that will squuze out too much of the glue. Don't quote me but I think you are looking at about 5 lbs (2.25kg) to 6 lbs (2.7 kg) preasre for good gluing preasure.

Cheers

Alan

Ron Wisdom · Post by **Ron Wisdom** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 5:38 am

Here in the states, I got my rods from

intothewind.com

They come 48" long. I just cut mine in half. They are 3/16" by 24" and put out 8 lbs pressure each. Ideal for me. I tried some 1/4" ones but they are waaaaay too stiff for most lutherie stuff.

Ron

Lillian · Post by **Lillian** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:02 am

If you are shopping in the US, go to Goodwinds Kite shop. http://www.goodwinds.com/merch/list.sht ... fiberglass

They are cheaper than Into The Wind. I think I ended up paying about $0.88 per rod for mine, including caps, shipping and tax. I bought enough for 48 rods and cut them myself. Cuts really easy with a hacksaw.

They were here in Seattle but have moved to Mount Vernon, so I could easily pick up a bulk order if there is an interest. I'm sure I could talk Fran into a wee bit of a road trip without a problem.

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