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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000043.txt from 2007/09
From: philfrei@-----.com
Subj: [DR-L] Re: looking for clear plaque / "INSTRUCTIONS" & speculation
Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2007 23:22:57 -0400
Thought I'd report back on my adventures at the local electronics shop.
I explained what I wanted to do, and the fellow there ("Al Lasher's
Electronics") sold me the following:
1 LED: White 3mm, 17 Candles $3.00 (brightest of the smallest size
they had)
1 9Volt battery connector $0.40 (one end snaps onto a 9volt battery,
the other end has a red and black wire)
1 resistor, 1/4 Watt $0.10
He indicated that the longer of the two wires sticking out of the LED
was the positive wire. I didn't even bother to solder, just twisted the
red wire from the 9volt connector to the positive wire, and the black
wire of the connector to the resistor, and twisted the other resistor
end to the negative LED wire.
Once the battery connector snaps onto the battery, there is light!
I had no idea what resistor to buy. The man at the counter figured it
out, in his head.
Soldering would be much better, of course, and there are only three
points where one needs to solder. (An inexpensive soldering kit for
beginners might be possible for under $20, at Radio Shack or Ace
Hardware.) Once done, it would be good to use some tape around the LED
wires to prevent them from touching each other or from touching the
wall of the staple, which would cause the circuit to "short." (No harm
done, though, the light just will just turn off and the battery will
eventually drain if left connected.)
Now, this little "3mm" LED is actually wider, for all intents and
purposes, because it has a small lip, making it closer to 4mm. To make
it up an oboe staple, one would need to be down to 2mm, I believe. I
haven't bothered to try filing the lip off, since even once it is down
to 3mm, it won't make it through the staple. As it was, it could go
about 1/3 of the way up the staple.
If one can find a smaller, brighter LED, that would be an improvement.
Now, I'm not so sure this was all that helpful. In a blackened room, I
could see pretty good detail on the back (windows) and the bottom of
the heart, but as one gets closer to the blend and tip, it became less
useful. Also, there was some sort of shadow where the blades meet on
the sides, especially at the tip. Also, if there were any lights on in
the room, or in daylight, the above setup was not helpful at all. But
in the dark, one could certainly see well enought to make the windows
match to a great degree, as well as most of the heart. And it looks
quite impressive, having a reed glowing in the dark from within.
The "diode on a keychain glued to a plaque" approach seems more
promising to me. The materials can be quite light in weight, and one
can use a mandrel. A frosted (slighly opaque) plaque is better than a
clear plaque, because it makes the light disperse. If the plaque is
clear, the light simply shoots "straight" through it! You need a light
weight battery, though, or else a wire connector to a "remote" 9volt
(asking for trouble).
I had a chance to try out the $89 model (posted earlier:
http://www.reedmaker.com/lightp.html) at a rehearsal two nights ago. I
had a new reed that was quite good a couple days prior, but was
starting to become a bit balky. With the lighted plaque (and my trusty
jeweler's visor) I was able to see immediately the exact points where
there was a slight thickening on the top of the heart, just before the
blend. I was able to quickly and precisely scrape this down to level
with the rest of the heart, and the reed sprang back to life. I could
easily see where if someone was paying for the value of being able to
do such precise adjustments, with ease, in a pit, the price indeed
could go quite high for the unit. The parts, though, I'd guesstimate as
under $5, less with mass production?
And for work at home (with a bit less pressure), there's probably a lot
of value in the ability to work with surgical precision: one can make
adjustments with a minimum of scraping, theoretically extending the
amount of adjusting that can be done over the life of the reed. Also,
the more symmetrical the reed to begin with, I bet the longer it would
last before swelling and wear move it out of "true."
At the time I tried the $89 model, I did not know about the ability to
control the light level intensity. It was far too bright to do any real
work on my tip which was pretty much finished anyway. A black plastic
guitar pick and water under a desk lamp is still the best for that
visually, as far as I have experienced, though I prefer working with a
contoured plaque. Also the "grit" or "pebble" of the surface of the $89
lighted plaque seems to be on a bit too large a scale, even though it
is quite small. (I don't think it is even as small or smooth as the
grit on a "600" piece of sand paper.) I could see where this surface
pebbling would possibly get confused with the grain of the cane
visually, or would be a dangerous uneveness if one works on tips down
to around or less than 0.01mm (as I do). But as I said before, I wasn't
able to get the unit to vary light volume, so I didn't attempt any tip
work. Maybe it IS an appropriate amount of grain, at least visually, at
the lower light levels.
Anyway, I think this whole approach is terrifically exciting. I look
forward to less expensive, improved models entering the market place.
Soon! Hopefully.
I haven't tried the penlight fiber optic attachment yet. That also
sounds very interesting. But I'm guessing a frosted or opaque source,
at the point where one wants to view, would give the most even and
reliable results. Maybe if one used it in combination with an opaque
plaque (or a clear plaque [glass perhaps? might be hell on a knife
blade] that was surface textured with 600 grit or finer sandpaper).
- Phil Freihofner
Albany, CA
This was written in reference to the following requests for
"instructions":
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 12:54:15 -0700 (PDT)
To: doublereed@-----.org
From: John Towle <gtowle839@-----.net>
Subject: Re: [DR-L] Re: doublereed Digest 2 Sep 2007 09:01:01 -0000
Issue 1756
Message-ID: <746420.46661.qm@-----.com>
Yes, professor, thank you. The very questions I had.
I was going to ask our mutual learned friend for DIY
idiot book instructions, but you beat me to the punch
& phrased them much better indeed than my humble
attempt ever could have.
Best,
john
--- "Richard C. Ramey" <rcramey@-----.edu> wrote:
>
> Hi, Lee,
>
> Can you give us specific instructions on how to
> construct this LED-light arrangment? You mentioned
> an LED (available at Radio Shack, probably?), a
> resistor and a 9-volt battery. How do you connect
> all of these items? Thanks...Richard
>
>
> Richard Ramey
> Professor of Bassoon
> University of Arkansas
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Lee Lowry <leel@-----.net>
> Date: Sunday, September 2, 2007 10:46 am
> Subject: [DR-L] Re: doublereed Digest 2 Sep 2007
> 09:01:01 -0000 Issue 1756
> To: doublereed@-----.org
>
> >
> > > From: "Harry Searing" <hsearing@-----.net>
> > > Subject: Re: BASSOON: looking for clear plaque
> > >
> > > I still maintain that only with a light plaque
> will you clearly see
> > > differences between the blades of a reed.
> > >
> > > Harry Searing
> > >
> > This is exactly what I noted with my LED put up
> inside the reeds.
> > You
> > CAN see the differences between the two sides. It
> worked best for
> > me
> > with an old English horn reed I no longer use. One
> side had
> > noticeably
> > more heart wood left in it than the other, and one
> side showed more
> > careful and complete finishing of the sides of the
> reed and the
> > tip,
> > even though both sides looked about the same
> viewed from the
> > outside. It
> > also showed that the tip was longer on one side
> than the other. As
> > I
> > remember the reed played all right after I made
> it, but it failed
> > sooner
> > than I thought it should have (became too
> resistant unexpectedly).
> >
> > I also tried it on some cheap oboe reeds I got on
> eBay that looked
> > reasonably good from the outside but when lit from
> the inside you
> > could
> > see why they played so horribly. The tip was too
> thick on both
> > sides and
> > there were almost no "windows" in the back. They
> looked like the
> > scraping had stopped about half way through making
> the reed.
> > Looking at
> > the deficient scrapes on both sides, I find it
> hard to believe
> > whoever
> > made them ever tried them on an actual oboe.
> > Lee
> >
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