Getting the metal back plates made has turned out to be more complicated than expected. Martin\u2019s been great though, doing a lot of running around and liaising with the suppliers.<\/p>\n
It seems the main issue was the need to create an L-shape piece with the base side flat but the rear trem cavity plate curved with the same radius as the body so as to fit flush with the wood surface. This meant that simply folding a single sheet of metal wasn\u2019t going to work \u2013 the fold itself would have to be curved, which I imagine is impossible or at least very difficult. The plate will instead have to be formed from two pieces welded together, with the weld then ground smooth. Hopefully this will look fine, but we won\u2019t really know until they\u2019re made.<\/p>\n
Another issue is the size of the production run \u2013 the suppliers were reluctant to produce only a small number of plates, as it\u2019s really only cost-effective when talking about hundreds of units. Martin managed to persuade them to go for a run of ten, which is more than we need and makes the unit cost higher than ideal, but seems like a fair compromise. At least we\u2019ll have enough to see us through the first full SB-1 production run (I\u2019m envisaging a limited-edition batch of five to start with).<\/p>\n
Anyway, they\u2019re cracking on now, so hopefully they\u2019ll be ready soon so we can finish assembling the production prototype.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Getting the metal back plates made has turned out to be more complicated than expected. Martin\u2019s been great though, doing a lot of running around and liaising with the suppliers. It seems the main issue was the need to create … Continue reading