Toneboard; glued in or friction fit?

[rjl54]

 I'm interested in personal preference concerning open reed predator calls.  With the mouth piece made from Delrin, do you prefer a friction fit with the use of O-rings over a glued in mouth piece?  Does a mouth piece that is neatly epoxied in detract from the call's value?  I'm talking wood bodied calls here.  I'm guessing that gluing a mouth piece into an acrylic body would be ugly.

[AWSparrows]

Mine are a molded 3-piece type, Tone board, reed, and wedge.
I fit and glue a sleeve in the throat of my calls and then fit my guts to the sleeve.
I don't see anything wrong with having it glued in place.

[nailbender]

      I prefer a fricton fit myself. one peice is better.

[AWSparrows]

one peice is better

How so??

I think its a matter of personal preferance.
I personally do not like the "slit & band" type.

[nailbender]

 Sorry to confuse you. A little prefernce for materials slipped in.
    To the original question,, I believe an o-ring fitment to be of higher quality and longevity. Thus it would be my personal preference.

[Brad H]

 I use glue. I sure think the O ring setup is a slick operation though. A lot of people like removable mouthpieces. I've never tried one. Maybe someday I'll give it a shot.

I don't think the glue takes away from anything if done right. But damn, that stuff can give a guy fits. It gets real ugly on anything if too much of the expanding type is used. I put acrylic into wood or horn, but I would think a metal band of some kind would cover a lot when putting something into an acrylic body.

Brad

[Todd Rahm]

If the tone board is glued can the reed still be changed out? Sorry for the silly question, but if the reed could still be changed I wouldn't see why glued wouldn't work. 

[rjl54]

If the tone board is glued can the reed still be changed out?

Not a silly question.  I hadn't thought about it but it might be a problem for two piece tone boards.  Mine are one piece with a cork notch and a casration band holding the reed down.  It's no problem to roll off the ring and pop out the cork.

I also agree the o-ring set up is slick.  I just don't know if it's necessary.

[THO Game Calls]

Think about this for a minute.

Wood absorbs moisture.   Plastic, does not (ok, it really does, but not nearly as much as wood). 

With that in mind, as wood absorbs moisture, it expands and contracts. 

What do you think that does to a glue in fit?  Over time, the glue bond will break, the tone board will fall out.

A press fit.

Worst idea you can use for two reasons. 

One, sooner or later, the fit is going to become so loose that the tone baord is going to fall out.  Don't believe me?  Look at duck calls.  See that they have TWO lanyard loops on them?  That is because in the past, duck calls were made with a press fit.   Call makers got tired of losing their inserts when they worked loose.

Second reason, the looser it gets the more the end user is going to push it in to make it fit better.   Sooner or later, something is going to give.  Usually the barrel of the call.  Don't believe me?  Again, take a look at duck calls.  Why do they all have brass bands on them?  Not so they look pretty, but becaause in the past, duck calls were made with a press fit.  And the barrels cracked.  To keep from having to buy a new call, ingeniious hunters put barss rings on them to hold them together.  Then call makers started putting them on right up front to help with the breakage problem.

Now, if you want to use a glue in fit, there iis a trick you can use to help keep your insert in the call.

First, cut a ring on the inside of the barrel of the call about 1/16" deep where the tone board is going to fit.  THen cut a ring around the insert also about  1/16" deep.  When you glue in the insert, the glue will fill those rings you cut in the tone board and the call barrel.   When the glue finally fials, those rings with glue in them will act as a lock to hold the insert in place.  It may turn a bit, but it will NOT fall out. 

To make an O ring fit for your tone boards, use a 1/16" dill bit in the end of a black of wood you turned to a handle shape.  Glue the bit in so that the non fluted non cuttng end is sticking out.  Shape that end on your sander or grinder into a round nosed scraper.  Now you have an O ring tool. 

O rings should be 1/16" smaller than the outside diameter of your tone board.  So if you use a 5/8" tone board (which is 10/16) , you would use a 9/16" O ring.  The O ring should be 1/16 inch wide also.  Again, the standard rule of thumb is 1/16 smaller than the outside diameter of your tone board.

As for O rings.  The ones you get from Home Depot or Lowes are Buna O Rings.  They are cheap (though they charge you an arm and a leg for them) and they will break very easily.    You want to use Neoprene  O rings.  You can get them at McMaster Car for about 3 bucks for a 100. 

When you insert a tone board with O rings on it into a call, do not push the insert in.  Instead, wet the O rings a bit and TWIST them in.  This will give you a good seal. 

There is a tutorial on my site on makeing tone boards.  At the end I show how to make the O ring grooves.

For those who don't mind spending a few bucks, go to Sears.com and search on lather tools.  They have a craftsman set of 3 tools for mini lathes.  One of those tools is a 1/16" diamond parting tool.  It works great to make your O ring Groves.

You can also buy sanding cord in 1/16 inch size that works very well for making minor adjustments in the depth of your O ring grooves.  Mc Master car has that also.

Al
THO Game Calls
www.thogamecalls.com

[rjl54]

 Wow!     Al, so much good info all at once     Here's another one I'm putting in my "notes from Al file".  I use the parting tool Al's talking about and it works well.  My only problem is I'm impatient and sometimes cut too deep.  That's when I start thinking; time for a glue in.

Thanks Al.  Durability is an important factor to me.
                                                   
                                                                             Randy

[THO Game Calls]

Get some sanding cord from McMaster Car.  It runs you about 11 or 12 bucks a roll and they wont gouge you on shipping.  Either the .055 or .070 ( 1/16 is .0625)  then cut just deep enough to get the ring to seat.  Use the sanding cord to get to the final size.  It is trial and error.  Cut some, test, cut, test. 

One thing to keep in mind.  When you turn your barrels, let them sit a few days before you try putting a tone board in them.  Chances are, they are going to shrink just a tad, and that could make a difference. 

CAUTION  - CAUTION  - CAUTION  - CAUTION  - CAUTION  - CAUTION  - CAUTION  - CAUTION  -

Do not hold the roll of sanding cord in one hand and the end in another and try to cut the groove deeper.  If the cord catches, and it WILL, it is going to wrap the entire roll around what ever in in the chuck, and if you finger happens to be in the way, it will go with it. 

Cut a piece 3 or 4 inches long and hold it gently between your fingers.  If you feel it catch, just let go.  Sanding cord is cheap.  Co pay at the emergancy room is expensive.

One other good thing about a tone board seated with O rings.  You can pop it out and use the tone board as a very short range close in call.  Especially if it is a high pitched board, this can really be effective.

Al
THO Game Calls
www.thogamecalls.com

[Todd Rahm]

Al you keep posting like that I might have to take up call spinning. 

[AWSparrows]

Yep, good stuff! 

[FinsnFur]

When you insert a tone board with O rings on it into a call, do not push the insert in.  Instead, wet the O rings a bit and TWIST them in.  This will give you a good seal. 

I lick it....hoping like hell that Al aint licking it before he sends it to me.   

[rjl54]

 :roflmao: