[Tatu Salmela]

New to the board, brief introduction: I have some education (i studied accordion making) and experience in designing, building and repairing free reed instruments, and my specialty are the mouth-blown ones. I have built an accordina with my classmate Harri Arvila, and made a miniature prototype of my own design called button harmonica. I’m not currently taking any requests or orders for instruments or designs. But I can help you with some advice if you have any technical difficulties with your instruments or your projects. I am currently working on a instrument project, I will tell you more in july.

[Daren]

Hi Tatu

Welcome to Melodica World!

I think I’ve seen your accordina on youtube – is this it? It looks and sounds great.

[Tatu Salmela]

Yeah, that’s it. There’s also video of a bass I designed and a view of a “työmiehen hymy” of a chainsaw wielding sculpturer.

[Tatu Salmela]

This is actally the button harmonica. It’s 210 x 78 x 35 mm sized prototype of a new instrument. The reeds (hohner) are on a single CNC-milled reedplate. It makes it small as a melodica. The valves are still borel-type accordina valves, made of surgical silicone. The accordina we made is in good use with Harri on constant tour with Hurma, a finnish schlager-humppa-band. The accordina was also a prototype and my first attempt to make a keyed mouthblown instrument, when we made it I had experience mostly in customizing harmonicas. I had experience in designing reedplates, so we decided to try to make an accordina with harmonica reeds. If only I had known that they still make accordina reeds in Italy.

[Daren]

I love the small size! It has a very slick finish as well. Is it a metal plate body?

[Tatu Salmela]

The air reservoir, sides, and endplates are surgical grade stainless steel. The reedchambers are in a single piece of oxi-treated dural. The reeds are secured with bolt+nut to a single near spring-grade 1,5 mm brass plate. The sidepieces and top are walnut, moisture-proofed in vacuum-treatment with tung oil.

[Shannon M]

Hi, Tatu

Really like your button harmonica. I am working on a similar personal project to make a janko keyboard instrument, but am sadly working in a vacuum, since I have no access to accordinas to examine for construction details. I wonder if you would be willing to share photos of a disassembled instrument that might clarify some of the construction details. I have already seen the borel patent drawings, but would love to see a real Instrument disassembled.

Thanks

Shannon M

[Melodica-Me]

Hello Tatu, excellent version of the accordina, I like the overall size and love the sound. Did you do much of the milling yourself or did you outsource that portion. very interested to see how you put your accordina together.
Melodica-Me
Monsters of Melodica

[Tatu Salmela]

I don’t have cnc-equipment, even my proxxon micro mill is hand operated. The reedplate was cnc-milled by a precision mechanician, and since most of the metal parts are 2d, they were water-jet cut in Tampereen Vesileikkaus, a company in Finland which specialises in precision water jet cutting techniques. As laser cutting, it’s much cheaper than milling but only 2d.

[Tatu Salmela]

To make it clear, this is not the accordina. It’s an original instrument I designed called “button harmonica”. I have also made an accordina, but it is not in my possession. We didn’t have any information on the original instrument either (now there’s more on the net) but a video on youtube with Richard Galliano. So we made one from scratch (harmonica reeds on 2 plates), I just reasoned the structure. My desings weren’t far off, only difference in structure was the single reeds and the metal air reservoir in the Borel. Next year we met Richard Galliano and were arranged a meeting with him (with a translator) to talk about the accordina and examine his instrument. He has a vintage Borel accordina. I have also met Ludovic Beier discussing the subject, he has a Marcel Dreux accordina.

[Tatu Salmela]

For easy manufacture of 2d structures, I recommend water jet cutting. If you use ABS plastic, you can solvent-weld parts together with acetone to make airtight seals and more complex structures. Since I use mostly metal parts, I just make threaded screw holes for the pieces and screw them together. ABS can also be thermoformed (heated in oven and pulled around a mould by vacuum), which would be good for air chambers, covers and all sorts of thin, hollow shapes. Of course these can be also solvent welded to water-cut or 3d-printed parts in ABS.

[Shannon M]

Tatu,

It may seem like a trivial question, but What kind of return springs do you use for the buttons, and are they tension-adjustable?

Thanks

Shannon

[Tatu Salmela]

The springs are helical compression steel springs (stainless of course), similar to accordina. There is no tension adjustment.

[Daren]

I like how you build it up from lots of 2D parts, makes it possible to construct with minimal equipment. How do you shape the surgical steel, for example, the rounded sides? And the dural reedvchamber?

I’m also a fan of tung oil!

[Tatu Salmela]

The sides are hammered from 0,5 mm steel plate. I made a block of high density birch plywood resembling the curvature, bolted the plate on it by one side and hammered it into shape. The reedchamber is water jet cut (2d), so it’s basically just holes in a plate. The overall structure is very harmonica-like and simple.

[Author]

Posts