Official Luthiers Forum!

Apparently every year or two someone has to check and see if Gurian is still using his own personal mathematics when describing bridge pin taper. I guess it was my turn. He is. Ten years has done nothing to convince him that bringing his numbers in line with the rest of the industry would be helpful.
Trouble is, I only searched the olf archive and discovered others aggravations after I received my $200 custom pin order.
After exchanging e-mails, including pictures of calipers on pins and pins resting in sample holes of various tapers, I was assured that the pins were in fact 5* because that's all they make. They are not. They measure the ever popular 2.88*

I needed some of these pins now, so rather than send them back and look for another source, I rolled the dice.

Residing in every 3* bridge pin is a 5* pin waiting to get out. Despite the scary number, (144!) in a couple of hours I made a small shaver and turned half the pins into perfect 5* tapers w/ exactly .220" under the collar. To boot they are smoother than they were originally.
I would rather have received what I ordered but now have years of 3 and 5 degree Rosewood unfluted bridge pins.

My condolences in advance to the next guy who has to be the checker.

Nicely done!

Oh man, now I want to go check all my pins!

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Pat

"Residing in every 3* bridge pin is a 5* pin waiting to get out." You gotta warn me when you are going to say something that funny!

Very nice save and very clever too! Sorry this happened David.

Tip: You can chuck those suckers in a cordless drill and with micro mesh pads make em shine like nobodies business.

This is the sort of thing that makes me flirt with the idea of buying a mini-lathe and making them my darn self. I know it is not cost effective, but neither is having to re-cut the taper on pins I already paid for. Sheesh.

You could always just buy a 3 degree reamer

Seriously though, nice work Gurian pins are cheap and functional, but not consistent, so you have to fit them individually and mark which pin goes to which slot. So shaving them all to match really is a good thing to do. But despite their inconsistent sizes, 3 degrees is the right taper. Whoever told you they were 5 is misinformed.


I would love to get set up to make them too, so I can use more different woods, including domestics. But cost-wise, Gurian pins are so much cheaper than any other maker, needing one little shaving step to bring them up to top quality really isn't that bad.

I used to have my pins made for me by an OLFer who's name is escaping me at the moment, anyone remember who used to offer this to us?

Anyway he did fantastic work and he made hundreds of 3 degree, unslotted BRW and African Blackwood pins for me and the consistency was superb! No need to write the pin positions on each one either because they all were exactly the same.

We have a micro lathe and they are great to have available. Our's gets a lot of use too turning plugs for stripped strap buttons and plugging bridge pin holes when they need to be plugged and redone or moved. I've also turned down sockets for tightening the input jacks on Fender style instruments where access to the nut was not well thought out.... It's a fun thing to do and I enjoy dawning the safety glasses and going at it. There is something about running machines that just makes me happy too!

David, that is an awesome little quick jig to fix the taper!

Hesh, I think it was someone named Louis that used to make the pins?

I make them for other builders and it certainly is nice to be able to make whatever you need, in material and size/taper. Plus, as Hesh noted, running a lathe is such a pleasurable thing to do

I took a quick video (actually my wife did) of the last job I was running. It shows the head being formed and then the pin being drilled and bored for a 4mm paua dot. There is quite a pile of bone dust on the cross slide!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EkCRJMnH4w

And some pictures (pins shown pre-polishing)-

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Thanks Burton it was Louis and his last name IIRC started with Fre but I can't remember the rest of it.

Your offerings look fantastic and if we need anything special expect to hear from us in the future!

This drives me nuts about Gurian. I've used them my whole career, and really like them. I purchased a 3° reamer and all is well. But I once coordinated a group buy of pins from them. I think we ordered something like 6 gross of pins. Someone here mentioned that he thought they were 5° taper. So I called them. Talked to two people and got two different answers. So the official answer is that Gurian pins are 3° or 5° depending on who you talk to.
Though, if they are indeed 5°, they sure fit into a 3° quite nicely.

Louis Freilicher. I just came across his name in the archived tutorials.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

I have a Taig micro lathe. It's a small metal working lathe but has available wood working attachments. I just got these from Lee valley. I had the idea of making pens from the assortment of small but nice scrap woods I got. But I'd like to make some pins and friction tuners too for some old banjos and violins I have. Maybe not cost effective but it's fun doing things like this yourself.

Sent from my HTC Desire 626s using Tapatalk

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Another day, another dollar.

I have a decent mini lathe and it's fantastic for making knobs and such but I still have not cracked the code to consistently make quality bridge pins and end pins yet. Getting the shaft taper and size just right is a cinch with these machines, but the head and skirt are a different story... some woods work great with a sharp form tool but most do not. I find I lose almost half the material I put into it. If anyone has some pointers I'd be all ears...

Thanks for the video Burton. Neat to watch. Your pins look great.

I have an old Conover wood lathe I push to do things, but I would love to have a sweet little metal lathe. What is it about lathes? they're just inherently fun for some reason. I think if I had one I might not get many instruments fixed. I'd just spend all my time making cool round things.

Anybody who wants to pick up the mantle of making quality wood pins can have my business. Not many takers producing the lowly wood pin. I like them. Nice and light.

I wouldn't have considered changing the angle on the pins I got but I have a drawer full of peg shavers I've made for Violin tuning pegs. I Thought I could whip out a mini version and get it to work without much trouble.
Here's a photo of a typical one. They work better than commercial ones and you can make any size you need.

Also a couple shots of my new modified pins doing their job like good little soldiers.

That's it!!! Thanks Alex! Anyway the highest quality pins that I ever purchased came from Louis but that was some years back. Hope he is doing well, very nice guy!

Maybe it's innovation, CVT = continuously variable taper.....

Nice clean work on that guitar Mr. Farmer.

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

I've got a number of projects coming up for which I could use some sets of 5 degree bone pins.
I'd like to try aging/dying some, inlaying some. I have a little Sherline at home, so drilling for dots would be easy.

Is there a reasonable source for ordering more than a few sets of unslotted, 5 degree bone pins?

Or is it best to stick to the standard suppliers if I'm not in need of a full gross?