making wooden tangents

[vonh...@aol.com]

Hello all,

 

I am restoring an old Nigout that needed a lot of work. After making a full set of keys I am now at the point of making the tangents, of which I have previously made many (probably on the order of a few hundred). I usually do all the work by hand, sanding, cutting and filing the tangents to my needs. The part that makes this work a labor is not the "flag" part of the tangent, it is the post portion of the tangent that is so hard on my hands and fingers.

 I am a traditionalist so I make full wood tangents (no screws) and I tend to like to restore the instrument rather than update it, so no metal tangents either. I currently use a metal plate with a set of holes drilled large to small to size down the posts but I find this hard on my hands and very time consuming. It works great and I usually weed out the bad tangents pretty quickly but I also find that many of the sizing steps are unnecessary. I have heard of luthiers using lathes, bone sizers, metal sizers and pencil sharpener types of devices to make the posts.

 

I am interested in what you use to make the posts and what you have tried. If you have something that you prefer can you please help me along by posting a picture or emailing me directly?

 

Thank you,

 

Scott Gayman  

.

[Leonard Williams]

When I made my own hurdy-gurdy, I made the tangents in two parts:

First, I made a strip of wood with an appropriate (I hope) wedge cross-section.  I scraped a channel in the wide edge.  I cut this into my individual flags.  Next I glued the flags onto pieces of thin dowel.  That’s it.  I don’t know if it would hold up to vigorous playing, but most of the stress presses the flag against the shaft.  I guess a flat spot could be carved onto the shaft to receive the flag (without the channel).

This is my amateur solution.

Regards,
Leonard Williams

[David]

Hi Scott, Here's how I make the tangent posts round. I solder a
10-32 nut onto the end of a 2" piece of 1/4" diameter brass tubing.
The brass tube is then inserted into an electric drill. I then grab
the tangent flag with a pair of pliers that has tape wrapped around
the ends and push the rough cut tangent post into the spinning nut.
The sharp threads will then cut threads into the tangent post. Then
pull the post out of the nut and the sharp threads will rip the sides
off of the threaded post and produce a clean and very circular post. I
add a slight taper to the posts by lightly sanding with sandpaper.
This works well for key holes of 5/32". Here is a photo that better
explains the process.

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb5/dtsmithnet/Maker%20Faire%20Detroit%202011/100_1389.jpg

David Smith
Michigan, USA

[Augusto de Ornellas Abreu]

That's wicked ingenious!

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