Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by terry harris on May 16, 2013 at 5:42am

I play dobro so this question often comes up on dobro forums. There are a handful of people spinning them these days, Tim Scheeerhorn, Paul Beard, J.P. Quarterman and I think National spins their own. Some from offshore too. Almost all that I know of are made from a "Secret" aluminum alloy that the spinners don't discuss. It's pretty expensive to get started as the tooling gets pretty spendy but I imagine you could adapt any decent size lathe to do this but you'd have to have a form and the tool that presses it into the form. As far as size I have no idea. I bet if you did a youtube search you could find something on this and here is a thread that was being discussed recently on the Resohangout

http://www.resohangout.com/topic/33207

Sorry I couldn't help more

Found this from National on youtube    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfT-DkLeb8o

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Permalink Reply by Robert Rowe on May 16, 2013 at 6:42am

The alloy is most likely going to be something widely available like T6 aircraft aluminum, or whatever the spinner has decided gives the best tone for their configuration. The cost from crucible to rolled sheet makes one-offs too expensive to use. There's no top secret voodoo alloy going into the cones. The spinners choice may be a closely guarded secret, but they still select from readily available stock.

Permalink Reply by Chris Thomas on May 16, 2013 at 8:00am

Hi Graham, as Terry explained if you don't have access to a lathe then the expense is quite high as you need to make formers and require special tools to do the job. Check out the various videos on youtube to get an idea of what is involved. As for materials various alloys and sheet steel are used, I have even seen some inexpensive ones made from biscuit (cooky) tins for sale on the net. If you decide to buy there are many kits or individual items ready made by numerous suppliers on the net or eBay. Hope this helps mate, Chris. :) 

Permalink Reply by Graham Alibone on May 16, 2013 at 9:50am

Thanks for your quick responce Terry, Robert and Chris. I've checked out the 'reso' site and maybe put things on the backburner for a while; lots of pennies needed.

Take care,  'fingers'

Permalink Reply by terry harris on May 17, 2013 at 3:26am

Hey Graham,

I wouldn't give up! There are lots of other ways to try this. Some of the old cones were stamped but they didn't have the best sound. Check what you can get from McMaster-Carr as far as material and give it some thought. I know most of the cones are pretty thin. I've never put a micrometer on one but I'm guessing 0.010-0.015, something like that. If you could make a positive and negative mold you could try pressing one out. If I was going to try I might try something like 6061-T6. We make a little product that looks like a tuning fork and when you tap them together they really ring.

That's about all I know,  terry

Permalink Reply by Graham Alibone on May 17, 2013 at 11:34am

Thanks  Terry,  will look at this avenue next.

'fingers'