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New 3D printing developments in the UK, a plastic english concertina prototype was created.
Only the reeds and the bellows are made by hand, but the maker says he is close to also 3D printing the bellows.
A short interview, and a demo video:
http://edwardjay.net/paragraphsView.aspx?siteid=38
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I was curious about how people on the concertina.net might react, so I looked there. They seem genuinely interested in it.
https://www.concertina.net/forums/index....ent-200087
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19-11-2019, 01:39 AM
(This post was last modified: 19-11-2019, 01:41 AM by Dingo40.)
Stephen, thanks for an interesting link!
It all looks very promising.
I wonder what the longevity of the plastic is. Many traditional concertinas are in excess of a hundred years old.
It would be just too bad if, by accident, a biodegradable batch were to be used!
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it should be sturdy:
"No, this is not a toy at all. Every part of it is engineered properly; the stresses and strains, the tension forces...and so on, everything has been accounted for. So it won’t break. This concertina is very solid."
very nice!
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(19-11-2019, 01:39 AM)Dingo40 Wrote: Stephen, thanks for an interesting link!
It all looks very promising.
I wonder what the longevity of the plastic is. Many traditional concertinas are in excess of a hundred years old.
It would be just too bad if, by accident, a biodegradable batch were to be used!
I do quite a bit of 3D printing, for all kinds of things. Initially (that's about 10 years ago) I printed everything in ABS plastic. It lasts forever (they say) but it suffers from shrinking when it cools down, causing larger objects with a flat bottom to curl up as the print cools. It's a pain to get a flat bottom to stay really flat, but it can be done. I read or heard somewhere that Lego is made out of ABS plastic. It sure lasts forever.
Nowadays I print almost exclusively in PLA which is biodegradable. But... at normal temperatures where accordions are used it does not degrade as far as I know. Things for accordions that I make the most are feet and the knobs of chin switches. It's just faster to print new feet than to order them from Carini. It's not that it's a big money saver (except for shipping cost).
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The concertina is far more impressive and better looking than I expected.
It's a bit of a pity that he says "But to get a traditional rivet that is neither too loose or too tight is a dark art. So I’ve invented a method that does not require a rivet at all - where the plastic lever is held in place simply using the spring."
Sorry, not invented, that's the method that was used in thousands of concertinas made by Lachenal - far more than the Wheatstones etc with their riveted action.
But that's just a quibble - fair play to him.
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Hi Stephen,
Fascinating !!!!! If I can manage to put aside my traditionalist's fear of new technology, I could perhaps accept that a new production method can produce an acceptable instrument.
Mind you, I still love steam locomotives.
Kind Regards,
Stephen.
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Looks like a neat project. Add stainless reeds, and maybe it would be a good option for use in less hospitable climate conditions.
Like Stephen, I still like my traditional materials. Or perhaps it's partially just that I like wood, being a woodworker myself. In any case, aside from the poor environmental condition advantage I'd probably have a harder time resisting an all wood instrument than one like this.
