Tracker bar serial number graphic

One more addition. Name, rank and serial number.

Tracker bar notes

Never wanting to leave well enough alone, I got to thinking of ways I could "fancy up" the tracker bar before I stained and finished it.

I thought it would be nice to have little note letters next to their corresponding holes, both as a useful index and as a way to see if I could accomplish "printing" something onto a wood surface.

I worked up the note scale in Photoshop and tried using a bunch of different fonts to see which one would be best. Since my organ is destined to have a "vintage" look, I found fonts that would be both easy to read and yet somewhat old-fashioned.

After getting everything the right size during several test printings on plain paper, I got a sheet of 3M Multipurpose Transparency Film (CG6000) and ran the lettering through my inkjet printer, making sure to specify settings in the print dialog window such as "Flip Horizontal" (to get a reversed image), 600dpi resolution, best print quality, grayscale, etc.

This particular kind of transparency film is made for both laser and inkjet printers. Even though I was using an inkjet, I printed on the smoother/glossier laser printer side, NOT the rougher inkjet side. My testing indicated that I needed to print on the smoothest surface.

Here's how it looked after it came out of the printer.

At this stage, I found it very important to let the film dry for a least an hour or two, even overnight was OK. Trying to apply the lettering too soon will result in smudging. (Fortunately any accidents can be quickly fixed with a bit of sandpaper.)

Being impatient to see the results, I cut out a strip of letters for the smallest 17 notes. The larger 3 notes had a bigger font size, and it would take longer for the ink to dry enough to keep from smudging.

I carefully aligned the strip with the trackerbar surface, and with the ink-side down against the wood, I wrapped it all up in Scotch tape, being careful not to let the strip slide and smudge.

I then used a spoon to rub/burnish the lettering, making sure to move it repeatedly around each area from all different directions. I used the side of a screwdriver shaft to rub the little "flat" symbols, just to be overly safe.

 Here's how it looked when I pulled the film off. You can see that there's very little ink left on the film.

The font I finally decided on was "Maximilian Antiqua", which has a slight hairline shadow on the leading edge of some of the letters. I was happy that this was still defined. Perhaps all that sanding with 1500 grit sandpaper helped.

These are the test pieces I used in my preliminary test. I also tried a couple of different stain colors to see which I liked best, and to see if the stain would cause the inkjet ink to smear - which it did not. I finally got some use out of my failed tracker bar attempts after all.

Here's the final, yet unstained result. I think I'll let the ink dry for a few days before I stain and finish it.

Tracker Bar Plan "B"

 As my first attempt at this ended in failure (I widened out the holes too much), I decided to have another go at it today.

I used the same setup as before, using my digital caliper jig to get the holes drilled accurately.

I originally planned to do the base of the tracker bar using John Smith's honeycomb method, but advice from Melvyn Wright ( http://www.melright.com/busker/ ) pointed me at using an all-wood method, described in a post by Walt Lysack on Melvyn's website. After studying Lysack's post I decided that I'd do a slight variation on his method.

 I cut a length of hardwood about 7/8" x 1" to use as the top and center, and a piece 1/4" x 1 3/4" to use for the tubing connection base.

I drilled the center holes about 1/2" deep into the block, then sliced off the tracker bar top.

I then took the middle section (with its half-deep centerline holes) and glued it to the undrilled base piece.

I then drilled all of the offset holes through the middle piece/base assembly, again using my caliper jig.

This is what I wound up with:

And here's how the pieces looked once I finished with the Dremel tool spiral blade and some sandpaper:

Trackerbar pt. 1

 I started work on the trackerbar today. I first used my steel rule and marked off the position of the holes on a piece of paper. Just to be safe, I double checked it against the Melvyn Wright test roll holes to make sure everything lined up. I then made a photocopy of the template (just in case) and I cut it out and glued it to the top of a 1" x 3/8" length of the mystery hardwood that I've got so much of.

I made a jig for drilling on the drill press and figured out a way to attach my digital calipers. I first drilled all of the holes with a 1/16" bit to serve as a pilot hole, and carefully double checked my measurements with the caliper jig as I moved the piece along. Rather than "zeroing out" the calipers after each hole, I went with cumulative multiples of 6mm as I went down the row (9mm for the last 3 holes).
(On a test piece of wood that I had tried earlier, I zeroed out the calipers after every hole, and the minor variances added up along the way and threw the measurements way off.)

After I had all of the holes drilled to their proper size (5/32"/3.96mm for the first 17 and a "C"/6.14mm drill bit for the big three), I stood the piece on its side and cut it in half.

This left me with two identical trackerbar pieces, which I figured I might need if I really screwed the first one up somehow. As it turns out, the half that was originally on the bottom during my drilling, was pretty fouled up on the bottom side due to splintering from the drill bit. I could still use it in an emergency, but it would require a lot of sanding to make it sound.

Next, I set to work with my needle files and squared of the leading edge of the holes (after double and triple checking John Smith's instructional video to make sure I had them pointing the right way.)

Then I double and triple checked the video again and marked off the back of the piece so I wouldn't lose track of which holes widened in which direction.

To gouge out the back of the holes, I used a rotary cutting bit on a dremel tool and worked my way along very slowly and carefully.

 Here's what it looked like after all of the machining and filing.

I found that a rolled up scrap of 220 sandpaper made a good file for getting the little fuzzy bits out of the holes.