oh, terrible. thanks for letting me know. this craps so old im not sure if i'd still have the files for it to try reupload it though so i guess ill just kill the link

not sure what that is. looks like some kinda online CNC service? i did get some steel parts laser cut a few years back to make a 3d printer but i went to a place nearby. was bit of a minor adventure since i first went to a plasma cutting place first and they reckoned the parts i wanted cut were a bit too precise for what they're capable of, so they referred me on. it was a pretty good experience and also surprisingly cheap. like less than it would've cost me to buy steel in small quantities still for plywood parts i still dont think there's much beating a bandsaw and jigsaw. laser burnt wood reeks and CNC routers cause alot of tear-out and struggle to form sharp inside corners. and both machines cost alot in space alone

It's a car windscreen wiper motor. You might be able to pick them up fairly cheap from an automotive scrapyard. The one I used to go to has unfortunately closed, so if I wanted another now i'd probably just pay a bit more on ebay.

@@dangrundel I found this on Amazon (Electric Drive Motor, Reversible High Torque Worm Geared Motor DC12v) Do you thinks it would suit to drive the feeder

@@GrahamSlater-Brown-b9d I don't see why not if you can find a way to mount it and couple it to the conveyor's roller.

@@dangrundel Many thanks for that greatly appreciated. Three more question if you don't mind. Do you have drawings for this sander? What diameter is the sand drum and what width is it?

@@GrahamSlater-Brown-b9d In the video description directly under the video (press the "...more" to expand it) there should be a link to the Sketchup file. Sketchup is a free CAD program... or... it was at least. I'm not sure what it's current status is since it's been sold and resold to various companies over the last 8 years. I never did make proper drawings for this thing outside of that 3d model, but you should be able to take measurements from it. Not sure if i'd recommend Sketchup as a program worth learning to use outside of just taking measurements from existing models, though.

Alot of it was going by stuff found online found through google searches. It feels like a lost age, the internet even just 7 years ago... "Back when the streets were paved with gold!" but it really was incredible how much useful and detailed Stuff you could find via a search engine prompt. It's of course now all SEO garbage and algorithm served Content. This website is still up on the Internet Archive thankfully, and it seems they've even saved the images which is relief. There's alot of useful info there regarding neck angles and such. web.archive.org/web/20160201212642/www.bluestemstrings.com/pageBanjoDesign.html Beyond that it was mostly just mock-ups in Sketchup for each tricky part. There's no real plans since Sketchup sucks for trying to model more "organically" shaped parts like a banjo's neck. Speaking of the neck, I found Fletcher Handcrafted Guitar's videos on youtube real helpful. I think he's where I saw the method for carving facets in to get the shape started. This is all 7 years ago stuff though. There might be better resources out there now but they'd probably be harder to find... I think the internets gotta return to webrings or something.

Nah, you put them teeth facing forwards so you can lean your whole body into the cut. When cutting metal you generally want Generous Pressure and a Somewhat Tensioned blade. If they're snagging its probably because the blade is too coarse or worn out and missing teeth - which happens fast if you're using too coarse a blade for the material (thin walled tube is particularly hard on hacksaws since it goes back and forth between thick and thin cuts). If it's kinking too easily then the blade tension is probably too low and the frame might not be capable of reaching a good tension. With decent quality blades I feel you’ll almost always bend the frame before you risk breaking the blade. Those Japanese saws are best suited for flush cutting things like dowels or joint overlaps. At least the commonly available and affordable ones I’ve seen are. Their whole design is optimized for that task with features such as minimal tooth set, a broad blade, and a wedge/ slightly hook shaped head to try gain some cutting pressure as you pull. But those features tend to make them unideal for other tasks such as cutting tenons, where having a parallel blade helps for keeping the cut level, or rip cuts where the lack of a set can get the blade stuck in cringe type wood. But I think that’s one of real the problem with saws, or hand tools in general. Is that since you’re providing all the Power, you tend to notice the sub-optimal parts of each design as it’s employed for the wrong kind of cut… and it’s easy to get lost spending too much money trying to overcome that. Then you turn into a dreaded Tool Collector.

@@dangrundel With the Teeth facing forward, the Blade is never Tensioned. The harder you push on it, the less tension will be in the Blade. Think about it (as you obviously haven't tried it), the Teeth are gripping the metal on the forwards stroke, you're pushing on the Handle, so the Blade is under Compression, not Tension. That's why the Blades buckle and kink so easily, no matter how much you tighten the Frame. It's also obvious that you've never used the Wood Pull-Saws, they perform beautifully for ALL types of cuts on all Woods.

@@Docv400 If you can't tension your blade enough to prevent it buckling then the problem may be in your frame. Setting a hacksaw up to cut on the pull stroke will make it difficult to put the required pressure down into the cut when cutting through thicker or harder materials, or with a blade that isn't brand new and completely sharp.

@@dangrundel There is nothing wrong with any of my Hacksaw Frames, from the cheapest, to the most expensive. All Frames flex to some extent, but the beauty of having the Blade backwards is that the amount of flex in the Frame doesn't affect it. You can even use a Blade without a Frame if it's cutting on the Backstroke, try that with the Blade the 'right' way round and see how far you get! Have you never heard the term; "Let the Tool do the work"? You don't have to put lots of pressure on a Blade, no matter the Hardness of the Material, it can only cut a certain amount of Material on each Stroke, loading it up more than necessary will only dull the Blade quicker. My Blades stay sharp for much longer than they did for the 20 yrs or so I used them the 'right' way round. As for the Thickness of the Material, how on Earth does that affect things? The Blade doesn't know how thick it is, does it? If it take 100 strokes to cut through 2mm of a given cross-section (for example) then it'll take 200 strokes to cut through a piece that's twice that thickness. You just keep on using your Blades the way they have been since they were invented. Don't bother trying it yourself. I'll keep using them the way I have since trying it, around three Decades ago, and found it to be better in every possible way. The manufacturers obviously know best, and there's never any way to improve Tools. Why on Earth would they want people buying Blades more often than they have to . . .

Man, 6 years ago is long enough to forget the finer details of the process... I'd recommend doing some research instead of trusting what I'm half remembering... But, if I remember right, the alignment was mostly just decorative. That, at the top of the neck where it meets the nut, it’s just more “Visually Pleasant” for the centre-line of the laminations to run down the centre of the back of the neck - between where he 2nd and 3rd strings are. And so the neck is constructed and carved where those laminations meet. Laminated wood, of course, being more dimensionally stable than solid wood. But for where the neck meets the rim… the banjo is a 5 stringed instrument, even if the 5th string stops short at the 5th fret before it reaches the nut. So for where the neck meets the rim it’s ideally cut/ sanded with the “centre line” running down where the 3rd string is - right in the middle of the actual 5 strings. Otherwise tension from the strings would slowly pull the bride sideways to align between the 2nd and 3rd strings as you play it. In reality though, the banjo neck is really long and a tiny misalignment on where it meets the rim could cause the thing to be whole millimetres out of alignment… and then on top of that the thing is made from wood. So there’s a good chance it’ll change shape with age, seasons, relative humidity, and misaligned chakras. But one of the big advantages of the banjo is that since the neck is held in by threaded rods, you can just slip paper under the sides of the neck to adjust it’s angle to correct for any misalignment. Misalignment being identified by the bridge tending to gradually walk sideways during use. Also I remember this crap confusing me so let me know if I didn’t explain it well.

I still think about that incident. I'm lucky it was just dust and not hot embers or something. Or even a dust explosion...

@@dangrundel oh dear but be careful. anyway good make on ur banjo.

I couldn't quite remember and had to do some Detective Work using old photos I took (video files are long gone to clear disk space), and it looks like about 5 months. Which is more than I would've guessed from memory, but there's large gaps between finishing each "chunk" of the process... and thinking about it, the idea at the time was to make more than just one banjo so I was trying to come up with the best ways to do each step while not having any money for real tools. A second banjo probably would've went fairly fast but I realised at some point that i'm not the right kinda guy to make and sell musical instruments. I'd struggle to make them cheap, and then anyone willing to spend more than like.. £200 on a banjo is probably looking for something like "years of refinement and experience!" and not "can you believe they were gonna just burn this wood?!"