Building a go bar deck.

Sawdust

Sawdust

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I'm building a go bar deck, I bought some solid 1/4" fiberglass driveway markers that were 4' long and cut them in half, I think they will work good, they seem to have about the right amount of flex. I got a good buy on them at Amazon.


I'll keep you updated on the progres.

Here are some pics.

20191206_111459.jpg20191206_111443.jpg
 
Last edited:
the next ones I make are gonna be spring loaded.
 
I'm a big fan of spring loaded go bars. I used sticks for years, and still do use them here and there to fill in. About a year ago I tried fiberglas rods. Hated them. Found a buyer and moved on to spring loaded bars. I have a tutorial on my site on how I made them. There are no doubt better ways to make them, but these work for me http://www.pegasusguitars.com/making-go-bars.html Enjoy your building!--Bob
 
I believe I saw the spring loaded bars in something Chuck Moore put up once. I just don't remember how he did his. I'm going to use some kind of hollow tube with the dowel as the moving part but I want to machine slots in the tubing and run roll pins into the dowel so that the slots hold everything in place limiting travel in both directions. Something like that. I can see it in my mind but it's hard to splain
 
I made spring-loaded bars and like them a lot. The idea that I saw some place that works very well for me (with a small shop) is to not have a go-bar deck at all, but rather make the spring-laoded bars long enough to reach between the ceiling and your workbench. (CPVC is cheap) With these bars there is no need to have, or store a separate go-bar deck, and you can make any place on your workbench the go-bar station. I also use these bars to hold small pieces of pearl when I am assembling a complex inlay, again right on the bench. You can see this setup at http://jupiteruke.com/blog/page/3/
 
Scan 1.jpg
This is from the former Hanna Lima website on how to build your own spring loaded go bars. My concern about using a flex rod is that the flex may put a sideways force on the glued piece which would slide it away from where you want it placed. The spring loaded bar will apply perpendicular force on the glued item.
The materials shown are 1/4' wood dowels, 1/2" wood dowels, 1" long spring with a diameter of less than 5/16", and a piece of fishing line to hold the 2 rods together after assembly. I found the springs on Amazon.
 
I had borrowed the idea from Hana Lima some years ago. The PEX tubing I use vs. the wood dowel saves you from having to drill out the dowel. Also if you insert the stopper rod at least one inch from the top, you can use short lengths of dowel to fine tune the overall length of the go bar. That is useful when switching back and forth between using the radius dish with the deck. One big advantage is the space saving, I can stack two decks in the space a conventional deck requires. I also recommend using two springs to double the amount of travel, this saves a lot of time trying to find the exact length of rod needed.
Brad
 
Kelali Kev said:
View attachment 123511
This is from the former Hanna Lima website on how to build your own spring loaded go bars. My concern about using a flex rod is that the flex may put a sideways force on the glued piece which would slide it away from where you want it placed. The spring loaded bar will apply perpendicular force on the glued item.
The materials shown are 1/4' wood dowels, 1/2" wood dowels, 1" long spring with a diameter of less than 5/16", and a piece of fishing line to hold the 2 rods together after assembly. I found the springs on Amazon.
Click to expand...

How long did you make the 1/4" dowels, also did you use oak or pine dowels?
 
I bought some fibreglass rods that were too stiff to bend easily. Converted them into springed/sprung rods.
Ripped some cedar into 12mm (1/2") square rods. Cut into 75mm (3") pieces. Drilled 50mm ( 2") deep hole to insert rod in one end then recessed 10mm (3/8") deep pocket for spring in other end and hot glued spring in place.
Brilliant
Miguel
 
I just used the pine that I got from the local hardware store, they don't have to be real strong. The plans call for 18" dowels for the rods. That gives you enough overhead space to get into the go bar deck and manipulate them. I assume you are making your own go bar deck as well, and it should be adjustable on the height with a few inches play to fine tune the deck height to match your spring action and brace bar height. A 1/16" hole is cut into the two rods for the fishing line.
 
Kelali Kev said:
View attachment 123511
This is from the former Hanna Lima website on how to build your own spring loaded go bars. My concern about using a flex rod is that the flex may put a sideways force on the glued piece which would slide it away from where you want it placed. The spring loaded bar will apply perpendicular force on the glued item.
The materials shown are 1/4' wood dowels, 1/2" wood dowels, 1" long spring with a diameter of less than 5/16", and a piece of fishing line to hold the 2 rods together after assembly. I found the springs on Amazon.
Click to expand...

Well, it will apply perpendicular force if it's perpendicular to the work. If it's not, there will be some horizontal force applied. Vectors are vectors.
 
I've found bamboo canes work well with a go bar deck.
 
Kelali Kev said:
View attachment 123511
This is from the former Hanna Lima website on how to build your own spring loaded go bars. My concern about using a flex rod is that the flex may put a sideways force on the glued piece which would slide it away from where you want it placed. The spring loaded bar will apply perpendicular force on the glued item.
The materials shown are 1/4' wood dowels, 1/2" wood dowels, 1" long spring with a diameter of less than 5/16", and a piece of fishing line to hold the 2 rods together after assembly. I found the springs on Amazon.
Click to expand...

I'm looking at springs on Amazon, would you happen to know the part number of the springs you ordered? They have several different sizes in the 1" long, the wire size runs from .020 to .035 dia. The one I was looking at is 1/4" x 1" x 0.35 with maximum load of 8.9 lbs, is that to much poundage?

Thanks!
Sawdust
 
Prime-Line Products SP 9718 Compression Spring with .025" Diameter, 1/4" x 1-3/8"
by Handyman
copied from my order a year ago
 
Dusepo said:
I've found bamboo canes work well with a go bar deck.
Click to expand...

+1.

The staff at the garden centre were, no doubt, highly bemused seeing me patiently sorting through hundreds of canes to find ones of uniform calibre. They likely thought that they were witnessing the world's fussiest (or craziest) gardener.
I capped them with small white rubber anti-skid end caps that survived ~ 25 years of Australian summers before yellowing, perishing and falling to pieces.
I have now permanently dissembled (axed) my go bar deck, as since abandoning guitar for ukulele, I have not needed it. I find that there is nothing that can't be done reasonably efficiently with a good number and variety of clamp styles and a little improvisation. The go bar deck took up a lot of precious space and was always in the way…. I don't miss it at all, but concede that it was indispensable for guitar.
 
Kelali Kev said:
Prime-Line Products SP 9718 Compression Spring with .025" Diameter, 1/4" x 1-3/8"
by Handyman
copied from my order a year ago
Click to expand...

Thanks, I placed a order for them, I'm thinking I will take the fiberglass rods that I made and turn them in spring loaded ones. Again thanks.
 
I followed Bob's Pegasus guitars short pictorial on the subject and made up six of them with stuff from home depot last night. Total cost, $23, and I have enough springs left over for two more, just ran out of pvc, really. The Cork tips are a good tip, for sure.
My go bar deck is the shelf under my work bench.
 
Matt- Nice to see that something I said was useful to someone. I always wonder about that when I post. I have a couple of dozen of those bars and they perform flawlessly. Once in awhile I do get an offsize piece to glue that the bars won't quite reach, but a little wood shim fixes that.-Bob
 
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