Designing the cabinet’s metal frame

Posted on January 21, 2018

This week I spent time with Brian, the metal shop technician, to design the metal frame that will hold the motors and the strings. The first idea was to use a metal rectangular tube at the bottom. This way, I would have been able to attach the motor brackets at the bottom, and pass bushings through the body.

However, having the bushings inside a closed body would make it impossible for me to pass a pin through the gear pegs. Also, it would add weight, and while I know the body will be heavy, I still would like to reduce the weight as much as possible.

So I designed a new version with L-brackets. This way, I can also use the same type of bracket at the top of the body to act as a bridge for the strings.

Working with this type of bracket allows the body to be made of three separate parts: bottom, frame and top. At this point, I only have to figure out how to ensure the top part is attached to the frame in a stable manner.

Acier Lachine & Chrome et Zinc

I will contact Acier Lachine this week and organize with them to get L-brackets.

I spoke with Chrome et Zinc this week and they told me it would take some three weeks for them to chrome the parts I will bring them.