Making the Resonator
(part 2)
By John Fisher
(Jon Tirone)
An enthusiast is one who believes about four times as much as he can prove, & can prove about eight times as much as anyone will ever believe.
The next challenge was, “how will I make the side of the resonator?” which is like a wooded ring about ˝" thick and 1 ˝ " tall that will be glued onto the wooden dish that you saw in part 2 of “Making the resonator”. Boy this took some thinking. The first thing that I tried in order to create this was to glue strips of veneer in a circle to make the side. This was somewhat successful but it was hard to get it real nice and accurate. So I gave up on that idea.
I got the idea to glue some scrap blocks of hardwood together that I would router out to make a wooden ring.
I got a piece of square steel bar that I used to make a guide or circle cutter for the router. I cut out the outside diameter of the resonator, which is about 13 3/4". I kept on increasing the depth of the cut using a 1/4" square headed router bit until I was almost through the other side of the wooden block assembly which is about 1 ˝" thick. I then used a coping saw to finish cutting out the circle.
Here is the cut out circle. I then sanded the cut edges smooth.
I then began to cut the inside of the ring by re-drilling another hole in the square flat metal bar to make the diameter of the cut smaller. Here I made a 1/4" lip in the ring and I went down 1/4" deep. I then readjusted the steel bar again to go inside the circle a bit more and the cut through to almost the other side, which the remainder was cut through with a coping saw.
After I cut the ring out completely with the coping saw I trimmed it up using my Swiss army knife and then smoothing it with a rasp and sand paper.
Here is a drawing of the shape of the wall or wooden ring of the resonator to hopefully give you an idea what I just made. This is the profile of the wooden ring glued onto the wooden dish or back.
OK! Here is the back of the resonator after the ring is glued on. It doesn’t look very elegant as I patched up any flaws with auto body putty. This doesn’t matter as after sanding it smooth, I covered the whole outside of the resonator with veneer.
See “Part 3” of “How to make the Resonator.”
Enthusiasm is
the all-essential human jet propellant. It is the driving force which elevates
men to miracle workers. It begets boldness, courage; kindles confidence;
overcomes doubts. It creates endless energy, the source of all accomplishment.