Patent ID: 6613970
Filing Date: 2003-09-02
Classification: G10D

Abstract:
A method for producing a predetermined pitch acoustic musical instrument device within prescribed tolerances and having predetermined frequency and sustain characteristics, and within prescibed tolerances to avoid said need for hand-finishing, and comprising a metal plate having a first location and a configuration expanding outwardly from said first location in a direction on opposite sides of a first axis extending through said first location, said configuration providing two diverging rectilinear edges of substantially equal length, each said length being a first dimension, and two substantially parallel rectilinear edges of substantially equal length remote from said first location, said substantially parallel edges being spaced from one another at a distance, being a second dimension, along a second axis at right angles to said first axis and crossing said first axis at a second location spaced a distance, being a third dimension, from said first location wherein said first and third dimensions are within a ratio of 0.75:1 and 1.25:1 and said first and second dimensions are within a ratio of 0.75:1 and 2.5:1 such that, when said plate is supported at least as far from said second location as said first location and is subjected to a stimulus, said plate resonates, said device including a clapper mechanism consisting of a pivot means, a clapper head and a rod rigidly connecting said head to said pivot means, and said method including a computer program controlled milling machine having a program including a scaling factor derived for each given thickness of metal sheet and derived for each composition of sheet material, and arranged to produce said desired shape of said hand plate from said metal sheet of known thickness and material composition according to dimensions derived from a spreadsheet of data to produce a range of parameters of musical instruments; comprising the steps of:forming said hand plate of said given shape from said metal sheet of known thickness and material composition by cutting said metal sheet to form said metal plate to said given shape with said forming machine, during the forming process, controlling said forming machine with a programmed computer, the data to control said forming machine being derived within a computerized spreadsheet such that subsequent further hand plates of the same note may be produced from similar sheets also of known thickness and material composition and said spreadsheet also allowing for variations in the thickness of the metal sheet to be accommodated.