Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

You want some swage advice?

Well, unless you have a spin-swaging tool (which can be made from a piece of tool steel, oil-hardened, and then used in a drill press), which works best on new die-cast pins, the tip is to stake the pins over with a sharp center punch on a hard surface like a steel plate, vise top, or anvil. Assemble the tuner case and place the punch point on an area of the pin about 1/32 in from the juncture of pin and hole. Hit the punch smartly (not dumbly) with a hammer. It spreads the pin slightly in that area to lock it into the hole. I do two or three of these stakes per pin. This, incidentally, is also how the pins on a Kauffman Vib-Ro-La are staked to immobilize them.

Oh, was this a bass forum? Sorry...

If there is not enough "meat" to make this work, you can grind or file the pins flush with the case and carefully center-punch them, then drill with a #50 bit and tap them to take a 2-56 flat head machine screw. Loctite the screw into place, mount the tuner and nobody's the wiser. This is stronger than staking or sawging, too.

I did Marc Lazare's Grovers this way and he's using them right now. As we speak. Honestly. I hope...

jingle_jangle wrote:You want some swage advice?

More like advice from and old swage...

Sorry, Paul...couldn't resist...

jingle_jangle wrote:
.....the tip is to stake the pins over with a sharp center punch on a hard surface like a steel plate, vise top, or anvil. Assemble the tuner case and place the punch point on an area of the pin about 1/32 in from the juncture of pin and hole. Hit the punch smartly (not dumbly) with a hammer......I do two or three of these stakes per pin.

Paul, a couple of clarifying questions, if I may.

I've got a 1971 4001, and one of the grovers has come apart. The housing has come off the mounted part.

The 4 pins are clearly visible, as are the holes that they go into.

My questions.

1) should I use crazy glue (loctite, etc) to help affix the housing to the mounted part?

2) I figure now is the time to clean it out, and put fresh grease in it. Any recommendations for grease? Good idea?

3) as to how exactly to re-mount them, are you saying to put the housing back on the mounted part, and "tap" it into place? I think that's what you are saying. But I don't quite see how you would do this without denting the housing. When I fit the housing on the mounted part, the housing pins are visible from the back side of the mounted part. But the pins don't go all the way through to the top of the housing, so if I were to tap them from the top of the housing, I'd have to essentially just tap on each corner of the housing. And it would seem I'd dent the housing. So I'm not visualizing this correctly.

4) could it be just as effective to use crazy glue, and then clamp the unit together?

Can you advise?

thanks much -

Richard

I can answer 3 and 4.

3). The tapping Paul is talking about is once you have reassembled the tuner and have the cover firmly on the plate with the posts you see through the holes. You are using the punch to fatten the post again to hold the cover on.

4). Others have tried gluing without very much success. A search will probably turn up those experiences.

I've redone more than a couple of sets of these that had been crazy-glued. Success with crazy glue is unlikely and even if it works initially, it's short-lived.

You are visualizing OK, but the most important part--the center punch--you are leaving out. If the principle of staking is foreign to you, I'd suggest a Google search of the technique, which is commonly used for this application.

However, if the pins on your housings do not extend far enough through their holes, then staking is likely to be unsuccessful, too--not enough meat. So, the one remaining option is to drill and tap (thread) the pins for some 2-56 X 1/4" flathead screws that are countersunk and filed so they are flush with the backplates. This can be done with a hand drill, but is best done on a pillar drill/drill press for accuracy. It'd be a shame to ruin a $200.00 set of tuners...refer to a tap drill size chart, use fresh drill bit and tap with lots of lube.